I guess I have to find my ripped flag, since the Knesset has again voted to give our land to our enemies, and uproot and destroy Jewish communities. Eleven years ago, during the Oslo Accords nightmare, I took a small Israeli flag, ripped it as in the kriya (the tear that a Jew is commanded to make in his clothes when mourning a close relative), and pinned it to my blouse.
I wore it everyday and everywhere - to work, to the grocer's and even to my son's Bar Mitzvah. Naively, I expected it to become a popular, mass-movement, non-violent protest. Someone even helped by finding a donor, so we could sell a "kit" that included a ripped flag, a trilingual information card explaining the symbolism and a safety pin to attach the flag to one's clothes. We must have sold a few hundred, and a couple of supporters may still have them hanging in their cars.
A few days, or weeks, after Binyamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister, with extremely mixed feelings, I took the flag off and put it away. In all honesty, I didn't really believe that he was any sort of "messiah", or that he would be much of an improvement over his predecessors. It's just that I felt that my protest was a failure. It was considered little more than an eccentricity by most and an embarrassment by my family.
As we all know, Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres' Oslo Accords were not the first Israeli withdrawal, transfer and destruction of Jewish communities. Menachem Begin gave away the Sinai and destroyed the Jewish communities there in exchange for international praise and illusions of "peace". I am totally convinced that his realization of how mistaken he was caused his eventual depression, decline and death. He was a fine, moral man and too sensitive for politics. The decades of constant snubs and accusations of his being a terrorist caused him damage. As prime minister, he mistakenly thought that he could permanently change his image if he "made peace". The only problem is that peace, true peace, can't be made or manufactured. It has to evolve. It's like putting a roof on a house before the foundations are poured and the supports are erected. The structure will collapse.
The serious, murderous terrorism we are suffering from today is the collapse caused by "making peace". Withdrawing from our homeland and destroying Jewish communities does not make peace. It causes death, terrorism.
The Jewish symbol of mourning is to rip one's clothes. Clothing - a symbol of man's first great sin, the eating of the "forbidden fruit". Clothing - the material, materialistic cover, the symbol of pride, vanity.
Eleven years ago, when I first wore that ripped flag, some people were horrified. To them, the flag had a holiness and they considered my ripping it sinful, immoral. To them, the flag was "too holy" to be used as a protest symbol. For me, only our Holy Land is too holy, too precious to be ripped.
The following is the English text we distributed with the ripped flags:
"Kriyah -- the tearing of one's garments -- has been a sign of Jewish grief since Biblical times: 'and Joshua? and Calev? rent their garments.' (Numbers 14:6) This torn Israeli flag symbolizes our pain over the Israeli government's failure to fulfill the Zionist dream of vibrant Jewish life in all parts of the Land of Israel."
"Ein chadash tachat hashemesh." - "There's nothing new under the sun." (Kohelet)
I wore it everyday and everywhere - to work, to the grocer's and even to my son's Bar Mitzvah. Naively, I expected it to become a popular, mass-movement, non-violent protest. Someone even helped by finding a donor, so we could sell a "kit" that included a ripped flag, a trilingual information card explaining the symbolism and a safety pin to attach the flag to one's clothes. We must have sold a few hundred, and a couple of supporters may still have them hanging in their cars.
A few days, or weeks, after Binyamin Netanyahu was elected prime minister, with extremely mixed feelings, I took the flag off and put it away. In all honesty, I didn't really believe that he was any sort of "messiah", or that he would be much of an improvement over his predecessors. It's just that I felt that my protest was a failure. It was considered little more than an eccentricity by most and an embarrassment by my family.
As we all know, Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres' Oslo Accords were not the first Israeli withdrawal, transfer and destruction of Jewish communities. Menachem Begin gave away the Sinai and destroyed the Jewish communities there in exchange for international praise and illusions of "peace". I am totally convinced that his realization of how mistaken he was caused his eventual depression, decline and death. He was a fine, moral man and too sensitive for politics. The decades of constant snubs and accusations of his being a terrorist caused him damage. As prime minister, he mistakenly thought that he could permanently change his image if he "made peace". The only problem is that peace, true peace, can't be made or manufactured. It has to evolve. It's like putting a roof on a house before the foundations are poured and the supports are erected. The structure will collapse.
The serious, murderous terrorism we are suffering from today is the collapse caused by "making peace". Withdrawing from our homeland and destroying Jewish communities does not make peace. It causes death, terrorism.
The Jewish symbol of mourning is to rip one's clothes. Clothing - a symbol of man's first great sin, the eating of the "forbidden fruit". Clothing - the material, materialistic cover, the symbol of pride, vanity.
Eleven years ago, when I first wore that ripped flag, some people were horrified. To them, the flag had a holiness and they considered my ripping it sinful, immoral. To them, the flag was "too holy" to be used as a protest symbol. For me, only our Holy Land is too holy, too precious to be ripped.
The following is the English text we distributed with the ripped flags:
"Kriyah -- the tearing of one's garments -- has been a sign of Jewish grief since Biblical times: 'and Joshua? and Calev? rent their garments.' (Numbers 14:6) This torn Israeli flag symbolizes our pain over the Israeli government's failure to fulfill the Zionist dream of vibrant Jewish life in all parts of the Land of Israel."
"Ein chadash tachat hashemesh." - "There's nothing new under the sun." (Kohelet)