In the past few weeks, a number of pamphlets written by rabbis from the left-wing of the national-religious camp have been distributed to the public. The central claim of these pamphlets is that the majority of Israelis are left-wing and support surrendering part the Land of Israel to the Arabs.
In his pamphlet Lehosif Or, Rabbi Eli Sedan writes, "A small minority in the Jewish people is not allowed to use force against the majority." And Rabbi Tau, in his pamphlet Behochma Yivne Beyta, writes, "To our sorrow, today the majority of the people are against us." Both rabbis claim that if the religious oppose this "majority", then they will cause the break-up of the Jewish people.
The response to these claims was not long in coming. Rabbi Emmanuel Shilo, in the newspaper BeSheva, wrote a response titled, "Rabbi Sedan Is Wrong In His Belief About a Dedicated Minority". In his article, Rabbi Shilo wrote:
The ink was barely dry on all these writings when the far-left Haaretz newspaper released a poll of the Israeli public that found that a whopping 56% of Israelis oppose Olmert's unilateral surrender plan. Since this poll included the 20% of Israelis who are Arab, and most Arabs support surrender, the real number of Israelis Jews who oppose surrender is likely higher than 67%, or more than two-thirds of the Israeli Jewish public.
If that was not enough, a few days later, another poll conducted by Shvakim Panorama and published in the left-wing Yediot Achronot found that a whopping 70 percent of Israelis are opposed to Prime Minister Olmert's "realignment" plan.
And so, we are left with a very strange phenomena, unheard of anywhere else in the world - perhaps, a uniquely Jewish phenomena - wherein an entire community wishes, in direct opposition to the facts, to depict their position as being unpopular.
We must therefore ask the question: Why do the religious want so much to believe that they are the minority? What makes them want to depict themselves as unpopular?
If we really are the majority and we are being over run by a fanatical minority, then we would be forced to act to rectify the situation. It is much easier to believe that we are a minority, stay at home and do nothing. By believing we are a minority, we relieve ourselves of the responsibility of leading the nation.
Or perhaps, the problem is deeper, as explained by the famous Jewish saying: "It is harder to take the exile out of the Jew than the Jew out of the exile." After two thousand years of being downtrodden by the Gentiles, we find it hard to stand up proudly when we are finally given the chance.
Whatever the reason, one day, I believe, the national-religious will overcome their low self-esteem and stand up for what they believe in without apologizing. On that same day will come the redemption.
In his pamphlet Lehosif Or, Rabbi Eli Sedan writes, "A small minority in the Jewish people is not allowed to use force against the majority." And Rabbi Tau, in his pamphlet Behochma Yivne Beyta, writes, "To our sorrow, today the majority of the people are against us." Both rabbis claim that if the religious oppose this "majority", then they will cause the break-up of the Jewish people.
The response to these claims was not long in coming. Rabbi Emmanuel Shilo, in the newspaper BeSheva, wrote a response titled, "Rabbi Sedan Is Wrong In His Belief About a Dedicated Minority". In his article, Rabbi Shilo wrote:
Rabbi Sedan claims that a minority can never overcome a majority, but there are no lack of examples which dispute this. Here is one. The majority of Israelis bite their teeth in response to the mass exemption of Haredim from army services, but understand that it is impossible to force them to enlist in the IDF. The same thing applies to forcing the Arabs to do National Service.While both sides disagree on the proper way to respond to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's surrender plan, both agree on one thing: the national-religious are the minority, or even a "small minority".
The ink was barely dry on all these writings when the far-left Haaretz newspaper released a poll of the Israeli public that found that a whopping 56% of Israelis oppose Olmert's unilateral surrender plan. Since this poll included the 20% of Israelis who are Arab, and most Arabs support surrender, the real number of Israelis Jews who oppose surrender is likely higher than 67%, or more than two-thirds of the Israeli Jewish public.
If that was not enough, a few days later, another poll conducted by Shvakim Panorama and published in the left-wing Yediot Achronot found that a whopping 70 percent of Israelis are opposed to Prime Minister Olmert's "realignment" plan.
And so, we are left with a very strange phenomena, unheard of anywhere else in the world - perhaps, a uniquely Jewish phenomena - wherein an entire community wishes, in direct opposition to the facts, to depict their position as being unpopular.
We must therefore ask the question: Why do the religious want so much to believe that they are the minority? What makes them want to depict themselves as unpopular?
If we really are the majority and we are being over run by a fanatical minority, then we would be forced to act to rectify the situation. It is much easier to believe that we are a minority, stay at home and do nothing. By believing we are a minority, we relieve ourselves of the responsibility of leading the nation.
Or perhaps, the problem is deeper, as explained by the famous Jewish saying: "It is harder to take the exile out of the Jew than the Jew out of the exile." After two thousand years of being downtrodden by the Gentiles, we find it hard to stand up proudly when we are finally given the chance.
Whatever the reason, one day, I believe, the national-religious will overcome their low self-esteem and stand up for what they believe in without apologizing. On that same day will come the redemption.