Some see a nation as a large insurance company that makes all its clients feel good and provides good service.In this way of looking at the nation-state, its raison d'etre is serving the individual citizen, the focus of the state's activities. This is the West's approach, promoted by the UN and the USA, an approach that sees democracy as more than choosing an administrative system. It puts democracy on an almost religious plane where man is the center and everything revolves around him and is tailored to his needs.
Others see a nation as a way of life, having a specific spiritual and social character, an eternal soul from which the individual emerges. The individual is not the central point of the nation, but it encapsulates his identity on the deepest level.
From this point of view, the individual lives for the state and its ideals. The state is not a system for achieving an easy life, but an exalted spiritual value that gives man his identity. The Torah of Israel is a guide to this approach, and sometimes the modern State of Israel is as well. The Torah defined it this way: "And you shall be for Me a nation of priests and a holy people.' That is, the individual is a product of the group.
The struggle over the Land of Israel is really a struggle between these two points of view, that of the Shechinah (Divine Presence) versus the rest of the world. That is why the nations of the world cannot understand why Israel is not willing to give up a bit of geography for the other group of people that inhabits it. For them, the most important thing is to be comfortable. Not for us.
Jerusalem is more important than our very lives, it is our essential spiritual and national identity, it is in the heart of each one of us.
They cannot fathom how Israel is willing to spend so much money and lose international approval for every square kilometer in Jerusalem and Samaria. This goes against the interests of the Israelis themselves, because they could become wealthier and have better relations with the world if they would dismantle the settlements in Yesha. Why do the country's citizens stand for it, they wonder.
What they don't understand is that the Jewish People's ideal life is sovereignty and freedom as defined in the Torah in all of the Land of Israel. Our nation is not willing to give up its character for a few smiles and a list of payments. The Jews are the most stubborn of people.
The land of Israel is not a geographic entry in the atlas, it is a marriage made in heaven with the Jewish soul, the only place on earth where the people of Israel can reach self-actualization. It is a value, not a territory. Giving up Jerusalem is giving up our very own name. What is a Jew without Jerusalem?
Our soldiers sacrifice their lives for their land and people because of this concept, even though many of them cannot express it. The knowledge that each one of us derives his strength from G-d's spirit over the entire nation is what enables us to live a national life a a state and sacrifice our individual lives if we must.
The UN's battle to remove the Divine Presence from Jerusalem and the Jews from Judea and Samaria is not only immoral by definition, it is also the result of their different definition for a "nation." Non-Jews do not see any justification for a religious-national identity based on the collective, on the nation as a concept, because it bestows a different status on those who do not belong to that nation or its religion.
Other peoples have also attempted to create national entities where the general good comes first and individuals second, but that resulted in communism and fascism. That is not our way, we are not like them. The Jewish People's national credo is not the creation of mankind, but is G-d- given and its ethics are uplifted and uplifting.
The President of the United States and the Secretary General of the United Nations are well-meaning and serious people who have worked hard to reach their present positions. In that sense, they symbolize the ideal Western individual. One is even called "the first citizen."
On a national level, however, we must remember that our conflict with them is critical - it is an all or nothing dispute over the nature of our state, its name and for Jerusalem. They do not understand what makes us tick, see us as "occupiers' when we know that we are returning to our historic heartland in Judea and Samaria.
Mr. President and Mr. Secretary General, when you lift your hands over Jerusalem, you are threatening the very existence of our nation. Jerusalem is not Washington or Stockholm, it is not a ceremonial shrine with a few hundred years of national memories.
Jerusalem is more important than our very lives, it is our essential spiritual and national identity, it is in the heart of each one of us. That is the way the Torah teaches politics – from the nation to the individual, not the opposite.
Do not lift your hands over the foundation of the world, Israel's possession of Jerusalem and Judea. The entire world stands to lose from this unjust and iniquitous struggle. Jerusalem will fight for its life and will not fall into the hands of the Romans once again. Jerusalem has defenders who come from eternity, whose own lives are less important to them than the Holy City and the good of the Jewish People. Judea and Samaria's defenders stem from the days of David and Joshua, Hezekiah and Bar Kochva. You will not overcome us, not with love and not with hate.
Leave our roots in peace, Honored President and Secretary General. We will prevail.