I feel compelled to write about a topic that is getting quite a bit of media attention these days here in Israel. It is the issue of ?refuseniks? - that is, soldiers who refuse to serve in what has become known as ?the territories? or ?West Bank?, but what can be more accurately referred to as Judea, Samaria, and Gaza. Indeed, these ?refuseniks? have been in the limelight lately more than ever due to a group of IAF pilots who took it upon themselves to sign a letter stating that they would refuse to carry out any more missions in the ?occupied territories? (translation Judea, Samaria and Gaza).
Basically, the ?refuseniks? consider any Jew living over the ?Green Line? - that is, in the area that Israel won fair and square and defensively in the 1967 Six Day War - an ?obstacle to peace?. The way these ?refuseniks? see it, if these Jews want to live over the Green Line, it is their problem and they will have to defend themselves and not rely on the Israeli army to protect them. Some even go as far as saying that Jews living over the Green Line need to be forcibly evicted from their homes and moved inside the Green Line. According to these ?refuseniks?, everything that is happening to the Jews living in Israel, be it suicide bombings, shootings, shellings, etc. is ultimately the fault of the Jews living over the Green Line. In fact, many of the ?refuseniks? are parroting our enemies? excuses for continuing to terrorize us in our homeland. Most of the countries in the European Union, who feel only animosity towards Israel just for daring to exist, are having a field day with what the ?refuseniks? are saying.
Thank G-d, the overwhelming majority of Israelis condemn what the ?refuseniks? are saying and doing (including the majority of those who consider themselves left-of-center politically). While the ?refuseniks? are garnishing a great deal of media attention, they are really only a tiny fragment of the population. Their harshest critics say they should be convicted of treason, while their softer critics say they should be demoted and/or spend time in military prison for disobeying orders.
What do I think the ?refuseniks? deserve? I can?t say I know for sure. Why not? Because I am also a ?refusenik? myself, but from the other side....
There is a second group of ?refuseniks?, but they are garnishing far less media attention and have not formally started a petition or designed an Internet site like the first group of ?refuseniks?. This second group of ?refuseniks?, which I consider myself a part of (even if not officially at this point), refuses to carry out any order that has to do with evicting Jews from their homes in Eretz Yisrael.
While I know of many others who feel the same way I do, including many who are in the middle of their compulsory three year military service and in elite combat units, we are not organized like the first group of ?refuseniks?. Hence, I do not know their reasons for refusing to take part in the eviction of Jews from their homes (wherever they are living). There are a number of reasons for refusing to take part in the above action, including, but not limited to, moral, ideological, religious, feelings of brotherhood towards other Jews, as well as security reasons. I can?t read others? minds and we haven?t gotten together and talked deeply about the issue, so I don?t know others? reasons, but I do know mine.
First of all, as harsh as this sounds, I refuse to continue carrying out the work of the Nazis, yamach shmam, of evicting Jews from their homes for no other reason but their being Jews. Unfortunately, we can expect this to happen in the galut at the hands of gentile governments, armies and police. But in our homeland, Eretz Yisrael, at the hands of a Jewish government, army and police? Not if I can help it!
Again, this might sound like a harsh comparison, but it needs to be used to wake up some sleeping people. Besides, many of the enlightened elite have no problem calling Jews living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza ?Nazis?. So, who says they have a monopoly on using the word ?Nazi??
Secondly, to evict someone from their home for no other reason than being part of a people, race, or nationality is racism, plain and simple. The first group of ?refuseniks? can call anyone who supports the transfer of Arabs, who are hostile to Israel, out of Eretz Yisrael into any one of their 22 countries a ?fascist? or a ?racist? or a ?demagogue?, but these more-righteous-than-thou, bleeding-heart liberals support, even insist on, uprooting Jews from their properties in their homeland, for no other reason than their being the wrong nationality or religion.
How is a young man, who has just given three years putting his life on the line for his country supposed to react when he is suddenly told that he and his family must leave the only home they have ever known - Beit El, Efrat, Shilo or Ofra, because they are an ?obstacle to peace?? No, I will not participate in this ultimate form of hypocrisy.
Thirdly, I believe every citizen of Israel, regardless of where he/she lives, is entitled to protection by the Israeli military. When I do reserve duty, I feel no less of an obligation to defend secular, left-wing Jews living in North Tel Aviv or Arabs living in Yafo (Jaffa) than I do to protect national-religious Jews living in Hebron or Haredim in Kiryat Sefer. To say that certain civilians are not entitled to be protected just because of where they live or what they believe is arrogant, divisive and wrong.
Fourth, ten years of Oslo prove that if we try and placate our enemies, they will only come back with more demands. If we go back to the 1967 borders, they will insist we go back to the borders of 1948. The Arabs have made it no secret that they have their eyes on Yafo, Ramle, Lod and Haifa, as well as other areas located within the Green Line.
Arab terror against Jews in Eretz Yisrael began long before the founding of the State of Israel. How short can our memory be? We have already tried letting Jerusalem be under international sovereignty and Eretz Yisrael under a foreign sovereignty (the British). Yossi Beilin and his clan want to go back to that, only this time substitute ?Palestinian Authority? for British. No, my ?enlightened ones?, the majority of us are not stupid and naive. I will certainly not participate in giving up one millimeter of Eretz Yisrael to a foreign entity (certainly not to a gang of terrorists).
The late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, z.tz.l., most probably the greatest influence on the Jews in the Twentieth Century, prophesied long before Oslo, ?The greater the withdrawal, the greater the terror?.? And how right he was (and is). Obviously, G-d knows something that man (with the exception of a tzaddik, like the Rebbe) cannot. These land-for-peace deals (more accurately scams) have not worked, do not work, and will never work. We might get international compliments for a few days and a hudna for a couple of months, but in the long run, these agreements are tragic. Do we really have ?peace? with Jordan or Egypt? They are among our harshest critics in the UN and applauding just as loudly as the other Arab countries when the Malaysian Prime Minister says that the ?Jews rule the world by proxy and get others to fight their battles for them.?
Do the members of the European Union remember Israel boldly pulling out of Sinai in 1979 and ?taking a chance for peace? by signing Oslo with the Palestinian Authority in 1993? No, they criticize us for defending ourselves, by going after the engineers of suicide bombings or by building a fence to keep out terrorists. They also continue to virtually mimic Yasser Arafat?s demands that Israel withdraw unilaterally to the 1967 borders and give the ?Palestinians? their own state, unconditionally.
Last, but not least, G-d gave Eretz Yisrael to the Jews. Ask any believing Christian. If that doesn?t suffice, then read the Koran. You will find it there, too. Halachically, we are forbidden from relinquishing control of any portion of Eretz Yisrael to a foreign entity (friendly or not).
Of course there are many individuals out there (including no small number of frum Jews) who think of me as a ?fruit cake? for quoting the Tanach (Bible) or referring to halacha to support my view that we are forbidden to give up any portion of Eretz Yisrael to a foreign entity. For them, I have two questions. My first question is, what should we call someone like David Ben Gurion, who was also against relinquishing any part of Eretz Yisrael? This is even written in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Ben Gurion was an avid atheist, to the point of even refusing to wear a kippa at Jewish funerals. Was he a ?fruit cake?? What about the late, secular Rehavam Zeevi (better known as ?Gandhi?), z.l., whom everyone on all sides of the political spectrum loved and respected? Was he a ?fruit cake?? Is a Jew who is against giving up any portion of Eretz Yisrael for ?security? or ?patriotic?, rather than ?religious?, reasons ?level headed?, while a Jew who has faith in G-d, the Creator of the universe, and is therefore opposed to giving up any portion of Eretz Yisrael a ?fruit cake?? Well, I don?t buy it. The latter reason is the main reason for being opposed to these land-for-peace scams. Every other reason, while relevant, is secondary.
My second question is, why are we here? Theodore Herzl, the founder of ?modern Zionism? proposed finding a Jewish State in Uganda. This proposal was a non-starter at the first International Zionist Conventions, at which the overwhelming majority of those attending were secular Marxists. Obviously, deep down inside every Jew, there is a spark that reminds him/her that the Land of Israel was given to the Jews by G-d for eternity, and nothing and nobody can change that - no agreement, no war, no United Nations or anything or anybody else. Otherwise, those who attended those first International Zionist Conventions would have jumped at Herzl?s idea. Ben Gurion must have had this spark in him when he came up with Israel?s Declaration of Independence. ?Gandhi? certainly had this spark in him, too. There wasn?t a single rock or creek in the Land of Israel that the retired army general didn?t know. Certainly, most Jews living in Israel today, where there are more yeshivot than there ever were anywhere else in the world at any given time, have this spark in them, too. No, the Jews who attended the first International Zionist Conventions were not ?fruit cakes?. Ben Gurion was not a ?fruit cake?. ?Gandhi? was not a ?fruit cake?. Nor am I a ?fruit cake?.
In conclusion, I want to ask another question. Am I a hypocrite? Do I have the right to be appalled at what the first group of ?refuseniks? are saying and doing, while belonging to another group of ?refuseniks? who are also disobeying or ready to disobey orders given to them to carry out as soldiers in the IDF, whom we all pledged allegiance to? Also, political convictions are supposed to be kept out of the picture when it comes to carrying out orders in the army, yet, in both groups, we are letting our political convictions get in the way of following orders being issued to us from the highest authorities in the army.
First of all, I want to point out something that we, in the second group of ?refuseniks?, have in common with those in the first group. The overwhelming majority of us in both groups are willing to face up to the consequences of our actions. Personally, if I have to sit in military prison a bit for refusing to evict fellow Jews from their homes, then so be it. My wife and daughter will just have to visit me in prison and that?s that. I would rather my daughter have to visit me in prison now as opposed to my having to look her in the face in another fifteen years and explain why I helped evict fellow Jews from their homes in Eretz Yisrael for no reason other than their being Jews. Very few, if any, of the ?refuseniks? in either group are not willing to face the consequences of their decisions. So, in that sense, I certainly don?t feel like I am being a hypocrite.
Secondly, there is a big difference between the first group of ?refuseniks? and the second group. Those of us in the second group are only refusing to carry out one particular command - evicting Jews from their homes in Eretz Yisrael. However, the first group is not just refusing to carry out a particular command, but alienating themselves from a large part of our nation - those Jews living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza - by refusing to serve over the Green Line. Those ?refuseniks? are in effect saying to those Jews, ?You are not a part of us; what happens to you is your problem, not ours.? They are not just refusing to carry out a particular command, but denying this group of close to 300,000 citizens the basic right of military protection. That is a fundamental difference between the two groups of ?refuseniks?.
Not only are the Jews living ?over the Green Line? being left out in the cold by the first group of ?refuseniks?, but so are the soldiers who might not agree with the Jews living ?over the Green Line?, but nevertheless see it as their duty to protect them. These soldiers are feeling alienated too, not to mention the decreased morale and the extra burden on their shoulders due to a decrease in manpower. True, by us in the second group refusing to carry out the order of evicting Jews from their homes, we are leaving other soldiers to do the dirty work and feel an extra load on their shoulders, but at least we are not delegitimizing a whole segment of the Israeli population. We are willing to serve anywhere, at any time, minus one command.
For the record, I am in a personal dilemma. In reserve duty, I function as a medic. If, G-d forbid, I am given a command to take part in evicting Jews from their homes, should I report there to be on call as a medic, in case there are violent confrontations between soldiers and civilians, without actively participating in the eviction itself? Or would my even being present as a medic on call give legitimacy to the operation? On the one hand, if I can help a Jew who is injured or even save his/her life (whether soldier or civilian) by being present, although I would be legitimizing the evicting of Jews from their homes, by not being there might I be committing a graver sin than by being there? On the other hand, the more of us who refuse to take part in such an operation, the harder it is for the army to carry out such operations in the first place, so maybe I shouldn?t be lending a hand in any way whatsoever to such heinous operations. This is a question I am still struggling with on a personal level, but for all practical purposes, I am a ?refusenik? and proud of it.
Basically, the ?refuseniks? consider any Jew living over the ?Green Line? - that is, in the area that Israel won fair and square and defensively in the 1967 Six Day War - an ?obstacle to peace?. The way these ?refuseniks? see it, if these Jews want to live over the Green Line, it is their problem and they will have to defend themselves and not rely on the Israeli army to protect them. Some even go as far as saying that Jews living over the Green Line need to be forcibly evicted from their homes and moved inside the Green Line. According to these ?refuseniks?, everything that is happening to the Jews living in Israel, be it suicide bombings, shootings, shellings, etc. is ultimately the fault of the Jews living over the Green Line. In fact, many of the ?refuseniks? are parroting our enemies? excuses for continuing to terrorize us in our homeland. Most of the countries in the European Union, who feel only animosity towards Israel just for daring to exist, are having a field day with what the ?refuseniks? are saying.
Thank G-d, the overwhelming majority of Israelis condemn what the ?refuseniks? are saying and doing (including the majority of those who consider themselves left-of-center politically). While the ?refuseniks? are garnishing a great deal of media attention, they are really only a tiny fragment of the population. Their harshest critics say they should be convicted of treason, while their softer critics say they should be demoted and/or spend time in military prison for disobeying orders.
What do I think the ?refuseniks? deserve? I can?t say I know for sure. Why not? Because I am also a ?refusenik? myself, but from the other side....
There is a second group of ?refuseniks?, but they are garnishing far less media attention and have not formally started a petition or designed an Internet site like the first group of ?refuseniks?. This second group of ?refuseniks?, which I consider myself a part of (even if not officially at this point), refuses to carry out any order that has to do with evicting Jews from their homes in Eretz Yisrael.
While I know of many others who feel the same way I do, including many who are in the middle of their compulsory three year military service and in elite combat units, we are not organized like the first group of ?refuseniks?. Hence, I do not know their reasons for refusing to take part in the eviction of Jews from their homes (wherever they are living). There are a number of reasons for refusing to take part in the above action, including, but not limited to, moral, ideological, religious, feelings of brotherhood towards other Jews, as well as security reasons. I can?t read others? minds and we haven?t gotten together and talked deeply about the issue, so I don?t know others? reasons, but I do know mine.
First of all, as harsh as this sounds, I refuse to continue carrying out the work of the Nazis, yamach shmam, of evicting Jews from their homes for no other reason but their being Jews. Unfortunately, we can expect this to happen in the galut at the hands of gentile governments, armies and police. But in our homeland, Eretz Yisrael, at the hands of a Jewish government, army and police? Not if I can help it!
Again, this might sound like a harsh comparison, but it needs to be used to wake up some sleeping people. Besides, many of the enlightened elite have no problem calling Jews living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza ?Nazis?. So, who says they have a monopoly on using the word ?Nazi??
Secondly, to evict someone from their home for no other reason than being part of a people, race, or nationality is racism, plain and simple. The first group of ?refuseniks? can call anyone who supports the transfer of Arabs, who are hostile to Israel, out of Eretz Yisrael into any one of their 22 countries a ?fascist? or a ?racist? or a ?demagogue?, but these more-righteous-than-thou, bleeding-heart liberals support, even insist on, uprooting Jews from their properties in their homeland, for no other reason than their being the wrong nationality or religion.
How is a young man, who has just given three years putting his life on the line for his country supposed to react when he is suddenly told that he and his family must leave the only home they have ever known - Beit El, Efrat, Shilo or Ofra, because they are an ?obstacle to peace?? No, I will not participate in this ultimate form of hypocrisy.
Thirdly, I believe every citizen of Israel, regardless of where he/she lives, is entitled to protection by the Israeli military. When I do reserve duty, I feel no less of an obligation to defend secular, left-wing Jews living in North Tel Aviv or Arabs living in Yafo (Jaffa) than I do to protect national-religious Jews living in Hebron or Haredim in Kiryat Sefer. To say that certain civilians are not entitled to be protected just because of where they live or what they believe is arrogant, divisive and wrong.
Fourth, ten years of Oslo prove that if we try and placate our enemies, they will only come back with more demands. If we go back to the 1967 borders, they will insist we go back to the borders of 1948. The Arabs have made it no secret that they have their eyes on Yafo, Ramle, Lod and Haifa, as well as other areas located within the Green Line.
Arab terror against Jews in Eretz Yisrael began long before the founding of the State of Israel. How short can our memory be? We have already tried letting Jerusalem be under international sovereignty and Eretz Yisrael under a foreign sovereignty (the British). Yossi Beilin and his clan want to go back to that, only this time substitute ?Palestinian Authority? for British. No, my ?enlightened ones?, the majority of us are not stupid and naive. I will certainly not participate in giving up one millimeter of Eretz Yisrael to a foreign entity (certainly not to a gang of terrorists).
The late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, z.tz.l., most probably the greatest influence on the Jews in the Twentieth Century, prophesied long before Oslo, ?The greater the withdrawal, the greater the terror?.? And how right he was (and is). Obviously, G-d knows something that man (with the exception of a tzaddik, like the Rebbe) cannot. These land-for-peace deals (more accurately scams) have not worked, do not work, and will never work. We might get international compliments for a few days and a hudna for a couple of months, but in the long run, these agreements are tragic. Do we really have ?peace? with Jordan or Egypt? They are among our harshest critics in the UN and applauding just as loudly as the other Arab countries when the Malaysian Prime Minister says that the ?Jews rule the world by proxy and get others to fight their battles for them.?
Do the members of the European Union remember Israel boldly pulling out of Sinai in 1979 and ?taking a chance for peace? by signing Oslo with the Palestinian Authority in 1993? No, they criticize us for defending ourselves, by going after the engineers of suicide bombings or by building a fence to keep out terrorists. They also continue to virtually mimic Yasser Arafat?s demands that Israel withdraw unilaterally to the 1967 borders and give the ?Palestinians? their own state, unconditionally.
Last, but not least, G-d gave Eretz Yisrael to the Jews. Ask any believing Christian. If that doesn?t suffice, then read the Koran. You will find it there, too. Halachically, we are forbidden from relinquishing control of any portion of Eretz Yisrael to a foreign entity (friendly or not).
Of course there are many individuals out there (including no small number of frum Jews) who think of me as a ?fruit cake? for quoting the Tanach (Bible) or referring to halacha to support my view that we are forbidden to give up any portion of Eretz Yisrael to a foreign entity. For them, I have two questions. My first question is, what should we call someone like David Ben Gurion, who was also against relinquishing any part of Eretz Yisrael? This is even written in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Ben Gurion was an avid atheist, to the point of even refusing to wear a kippa at Jewish funerals. Was he a ?fruit cake?? What about the late, secular Rehavam Zeevi (better known as ?Gandhi?), z.l., whom everyone on all sides of the political spectrum loved and respected? Was he a ?fruit cake?? Is a Jew who is against giving up any portion of Eretz Yisrael for ?security? or ?patriotic?, rather than ?religious?, reasons ?level headed?, while a Jew who has faith in G-d, the Creator of the universe, and is therefore opposed to giving up any portion of Eretz Yisrael a ?fruit cake?? Well, I don?t buy it. The latter reason is the main reason for being opposed to these land-for-peace scams. Every other reason, while relevant, is secondary.
My second question is, why are we here? Theodore Herzl, the founder of ?modern Zionism? proposed finding a Jewish State in Uganda. This proposal was a non-starter at the first International Zionist Conventions, at which the overwhelming majority of those attending were secular Marxists. Obviously, deep down inside every Jew, there is a spark that reminds him/her that the Land of Israel was given to the Jews by G-d for eternity, and nothing and nobody can change that - no agreement, no war, no United Nations or anything or anybody else. Otherwise, those who attended those first International Zionist Conventions would have jumped at Herzl?s idea. Ben Gurion must have had this spark in him when he came up with Israel?s Declaration of Independence. ?Gandhi? certainly had this spark in him, too. There wasn?t a single rock or creek in the Land of Israel that the retired army general didn?t know. Certainly, most Jews living in Israel today, where there are more yeshivot than there ever were anywhere else in the world at any given time, have this spark in them, too. No, the Jews who attended the first International Zionist Conventions were not ?fruit cakes?. Ben Gurion was not a ?fruit cake?. ?Gandhi? was not a ?fruit cake?. Nor am I a ?fruit cake?.
In conclusion, I want to ask another question. Am I a hypocrite? Do I have the right to be appalled at what the first group of ?refuseniks? are saying and doing, while belonging to another group of ?refuseniks? who are also disobeying or ready to disobey orders given to them to carry out as soldiers in the IDF, whom we all pledged allegiance to? Also, political convictions are supposed to be kept out of the picture when it comes to carrying out orders in the army, yet, in both groups, we are letting our political convictions get in the way of following orders being issued to us from the highest authorities in the army.
First of all, I want to point out something that we, in the second group of ?refuseniks?, have in common with those in the first group. The overwhelming majority of us in both groups are willing to face up to the consequences of our actions. Personally, if I have to sit in military prison a bit for refusing to evict fellow Jews from their homes, then so be it. My wife and daughter will just have to visit me in prison and that?s that. I would rather my daughter have to visit me in prison now as opposed to my having to look her in the face in another fifteen years and explain why I helped evict fellow Jews from their homes in Eretz Yisrael for no reason other than their being Jews. Very few, if any, of the ?refuseniks? in either group are not willing to face the consequences of their decisions. So, in that sense, I certainly don?t feel like I am being a hypocrite.
Secondly, there is a big difference between the first group of ?refuseniks? and the second group. Those of us in the second group are only refusing to carry out one particular command - evicting Jews from their homes in Eretz Yisrael. However, the first group is not just refusing to carry out a particular command, but alienating themselves from a large part of our nation - those Jews living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza - by refusing to serve over the Green Line. Those ?refuseniks? are in effect saying to those Jews, ?You are not a part of us; what happens to you is your problem, not ours.? They are not just refusing to carry out a particular command, but denying this group of close to 300,000 citizens the basic right of military protection. That is a fundamental difference between the two groups of ?refuseniks?.
Not only are the Jews living ?over the Green Line? being left out in the cold by the first group of ?refuseniks?, but so are the soldiers who might not agree with the Jews living ?over the Green Line?, but nevertheless see it as their duty to protect them. These soldiers are feeling alienated too, not to mention the decreased morale and the extra burden on their shoulders due to a decrease in manpower. True, by us in the second group refusing to carry out the order of evicting Jews from their homes, we are leaving other soldiers to do the dirty work and feel an extra load on their shoulders, but at least we are not delegitimizing a whole segment of the Israeli population. We are willing to serve anywhere, at any time, minus one command.
For the record, I am in a personal dilemma. In reserve duty, I function as a medic. If, G-d forbid, I am given a command to take part in evicting Jews from their homes, should I report there to be on call as a medic, in case there are violent confrontations between soldiers and civilians, without actively participating in the eviction itself? Or would my even being present as a medic on call give legitimacy to the operation? On the one hand, if I can help a Jew who is injured or even save his/her life (whether soldier or civilian) by being present, although I would be legitimizing the evicting of Jews from their homes, by not being there might I be committing a graver sin than by being there? On the other hand, the more of us who refuse to take part in such an operation, the harder it is for the army to carry out such operations in the first place, so maybe I shouldn?t be lending a hand in any way whatsoever to such heinous operations. This is a question I am still struggling with on a personal level, but for all practical purposes, I am a ?refusenik? and proud of it.