The recent court decision to shut down Arutz-7 shows that there are two classes of people in Israel: those who are obliged to obey the laws, and those who are not. Those who supported the shutdown justified it by saying that Israel is a nation of laws, and that the laws must be obeyed. This claim is utter nonsense. Left-wing activists routinely violate the law in pursuit of their anti-Jewish agenda, and are never made to pay any legal price for it. In Israel today, it seems that who goes to jail and who stays free is determined not by legal judgments, but by political preferences.
Israel prides itself on being a democracy. One of the cornerstones of a democracy is freedom of speech and of the press. When many different voices compete in the marketplace of ideas, the people can compare them and make their own decision. Arutz-7 represents the voice of a substantial number of people, and it's an authentically Jewish voice. If the station is in technical violation of some law, the government should work with the station to bring it into legal compliance, and not shut down the voice itself.
It's clear that the current leaders want Arutz-7's voice to be shut down, because they see it as a threat to themselves, for much the same reason that the Hellenists saw the Maccabees as a threat over 2,000 years ago. Then, as now, the rulers saw themselves as men of enlightenment, people of reason and science. They had no time for primitive superstitions such as belief in God or in the revelation on Mt. Sinai. Nor had they any need for the values of the Torah. They had new values, better values. They believed in the supreme power of the human intellect, and the ability of Man to solve all of his problems without any help from Above.
The reason they feared the worldview represented by the Maccabees was that it undercut their own long-term plans. Since they had no belief in any form of divine assistance, and since they knew that the Jews were few in number, they thought that Israel could not possibly prevail against its enemies by force. Since they couldn't beat the Gentiles, they decided to join them, by embracing Gentile values and abandoning Jewish ones.
They did everything possible to convince the Gentiles that the Jews were just like them. But the Maccabees showed the world that Jews are not like everyone else. They demonstrated that the Jewish people can never be totally assimilated into another culture, because the events on Mt. Sinai created a permanent difference between Jews and others. Jewish life is, always has been, and always
will be ruled by the Covenant, and no matter how much we stray from it, we always return to it in the end. The Maccabees also demonstrated that when Jews have the right spirit, they can defeat enemies who are larger and stronger than themselves.
So what can the God-fearing people do, now that the Israeli government is controlled by nonbelievers who are stepping up their persecution of the religious? First, we should speak forcefully in every forum. If the established media are not interested in what we have to say, we should create our own media. The internet is a good way to do this. We should avoid making compromises on matters of basic principle for the sake of convenience or expediency. The road to perdition is paved with a long series of small compromises. And we should become more active in promoting our vision of a society in which all authority ultimately flows from God. We may be in the minority, but if we can create the proper spirit within ourselves, then we may be able to gain something that the disbelievers can never have: help from Above.
Israel prides itself on being a democracy. One of the cornerstones of a democracy is freedom of speech and of the press. When many different voices compete in the marketplace of ideas, the people can compare them and make their own decision. Arutz-7 represents the voice of a substantial number of people, and it's an authentically Jewish voice. If the station is in technical violation of some law, the government should work with the station to bring it into legal compliance, and not shut down the voice itself.
It's clear that the current leaders want Arutz-7's voice to be shut down, because they see it as a threat to themselves, for much the same reason that the Hellenists saw the Maccabees as a threat over 2,000 years ago. Then, as now, the rulers saw themselves as men of enlightenment, people of reason and science. They had no time for primitive superstitions such as belief in God or in the revelation on Mt. Sinai. Nor had they any need for the values of the Torah. They had new values, better values. They believed in the supreme power of the human intellect, and the ability of Man to solve all of his problems without any help from Above.
The reason they feared the worldview represented by the Maccabees was that it undercut their own long-term plans. Since they had no belief in any form of divine assistance, and since they knew that the Jews were few in number, they thought that Israel could not possibly prevail against its enemies by force. Since they couldn't beat the Gentiles, they decided to join them, by embracing Gentile values and abandoning Jewish ones.
They did everything possible to convince the Gentiles that the Jews were just like them. But the Maccabees showed the world that Jews are not like everyone else. They demonstrated that the Jewish people can never be totally assimilated into another culture, because the events on Mt. Sinai created a permanent difference between Jews and others. Jewish life is, always has been, and always
will be ruled by the Covenant, and no matter how much we stray from it, we always return to it in the end. The Maccabees also demonstrated that when Jews have the right spirit, they can defeat enemies who are larger and stronger than themselves.
So what can the God-fearing people do, now that the Israeli government is controlled by nonbelievers who are stepping up their persecution of the religious? First, we should speak forcefully in every forum. If the established media are not interested in what we have to say, we should create our own media. The internet is a good way to do this. We should avoid making compromises on matters of basic principle for the sake of convenience or expediency. The road to perdition is paved with a long series of small compromises. And we should become more active in promoting our vision of a society in which all authority ultimately flows from God. We may be in the minority, but if we can create the proper spirit within ourselves, then we may be able to gain something that the disbelievers can never have: help from Above.