Feiglin, who started out founding the anti-Oslo Accords civil disobedience movement Zo Artzeinu (‘This is Our Land’), and went on to found a faction within the Likud party aimed at keeping the party loyal to its Land of Israel ideals, spoke with Israel National Radio's Eli Stutz and Yishai Fleisher about the difference between today’s civil disobedience and that of ten years ago.
Click to hear the complete interview with Moshe Feiglin
The ideological father of Israeli civil disobedience calls today’s young generation the “silver platter” by which the Jewish State will be saved. The term “silver platter” refers to a poem by the famous Israeli poet Nathan Alterman about the role of the young soldiers in fighting for Israel’s independence in 1948. “He was speaking about the 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds from the Palmach,” Feiglin said. “If you were 20 years old then, you were already an alte-cocker… But suddenly today, all the media attack the youth who were willing to sacrifice to save Israel.”
Feiglin said the large number of youth that came out to the streets during the mass road-blocking of two weeks ago was astounding. "Even though I felt it coming, I was still surprised,” he said. “When we blocked roads across the country with Zo Artzeinu ten years ago, we did it only with adults. The average age was 40. Today it is mostly the youngsters.”
The road-blocking campaign was coordinated by an organization called Bayit Leumi (National Home), headed by Young Manhigut Yehudit leaders Shai Malka and Ariel Vangrover. Malka and Vangrover were arrested the day before the road-blockings, and are facing charges of sedition for their role.
Feiglin was not arrested during the road-blockings of two weeks ago, but his 15-year-old son was.
IsraelNationalRadio show-host Yishai Fleisher asked Feiglin whether the youth who come out and block the streets to stop the disengagement, will later be able to turn around and once again love and respect the State, once the struggle against the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and the Shomron is won.
Feiglin's response:
“These youngsters took responsibility for their brothers and sisters in Gush Katif and for the very existence of the Jewish State... To see their brothers and sisters expelled and destroyed, to witness their brethren becoming enslaved to the negative aspects of society, and to respond with passivity – that is a much worse way for children to be raised.
“We must teach them that we are stopping the destruction in order to build something based on our most basic values. This is something very different than the youth of Israel who you hear about every week having knife-fights at night-clubs. You can be sure those youngsters were not the ones that went out to block the roads.
“What is going on today with the youngsters is much more important and wide-scale than the struggle for Gush Katif. We are talking here about the direction, the future, of the entire Jewish people. Let me explain.
“When I blocked the roads ten years ago, my son who was arrested this week was five years old. He grew up in the last ten years of Oslo, with no concept of victory – no Entebbe, no Six Day War. The State of Israel did not once give him the feeling that justice was being done. The State of Israel crumbled, gave away the feeling of justice, the will to fight for something and the desire to win. When his parents’ car was attacked by Arabs with rocks, he never felt that the State of Israel was willing to fight for his own basic rights, for his own justice. We are talking about a whole generation who grew up with this. They did not get it from outside like when I was his age. I had the Six Day War – we were right and we won, the State gave that to me. This generation had to develop a sense of justice and right and wrong from within.”
This is not to discount the parents of this new generation, Feiglin stresses. “The strength of the parents of these youngsters – to go to court and see their children being held and refrain from talking to them so as not to go against their refusal to identify themselves to the government – is amazing,” he said. “It is also they who provided the education that has strengthened this generation.”
So it is thanks to the elder generation – the generation that witnessed the Six Day War and the heroism of the IDF – that the younger generation is full of a steely idealism that is simply unstoppable, Feiglin says. “That is how these youngsters can go straight up to the police and say, ‘arrest me.’ How they go to prison with smiles and singing songs. The Sharon regime is tearing out their hair – they simply don’t know what to do.”
Click to hear the complete interview with Moshe Feiglin
The ideological father of Israeli civil disobedience calls today’s young generation the “silver platter” by which the Jewish State will be saved. The term “silver platter” refers to a poem by the famous Israeli poet Nathan Alterman about the role of the young soldiers in fighting for Israel’s independence in 1948. “He was speaking about the 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds from the Palmach,” Feiglin said. “If you were 20 years old then, you were already an alte-cocker… But suddenly today, all the media attack the youth who were willing to sacrifice to save Israel.”
Feiglin said the large number of youth that came out to the streets during the mass road-blocking of two weeks ago was astounding. "Even though I felt it coming, I was still surprised,” he said. “When we blocked roads across the country with Zo Artzeinu ten years ago, we did it only with adults. The average age was 40. Today it is mostly the youngsters.”
The road-blocking campaign was coordinated by an organization called Bayit Leumi (National Home), headed by Young Manhigut Yehudit leaders Shai Malka and Ariel Vangrover. Malka and Vangrover were arrested the day before the road-blockings, and are facing charges of sedition for their role.
Feiglin was not arrested during the road-blockings of two weeks ago, but his 15-year-old son was.
IsraelNationalRadio show-host Yishai Fleisher asked Feiglin whether the youth who come out and block the streets to stop the disengagement, will later be able to turn around and once again love and respect the State, once the struggle against the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and the Shomron is won.
Feiglin's response:
“These youngsters took responsibility for their brothers and sisters in Gush Katif and for the very existence of the Jewish State... To see their brothers and sisters expelled and destroyed, to witness their brethren becoming enslaved to the negative aspects of society, and to respond with passivity – that is a much worse way for children to be raised.
“We must teach them that we are stopping the destruction in order to build something based on our most basic values. This is something very different than the youth of Israel who you hear about every week having knife-fights at night-clubs. You can be sure those youngsters were not the ones that went out to block the roads.
“What is going on today with the youngsters is much more important and wide-scale than the struggle for Gush Katif. We are talking here about the direction, the future, of the entire Jewish people. Let me explain.
“When I blocked the roads ten years ago, my son who was arrested this week was five years old. He grew up in the last ten years of Oslo, with no concept of victory – no Entebbe, no Six Day War. The State of Israel did not once give him the feeling that justice was being done. The State of Israel crumbled, gave away the feeling of justice, the will to fight for something and the desire to win. When his parents’ car was attacked by Arabs with rocks, he never felt that the State of Israel was willing to fight for his own basic rights, for his own justice. We are talking about a whole generation who grew up with this. They did not get it from outside like when I was his age. I had the Six Day War – we were right and we won, the State gave that to me. This generation had to develop a sense of justice and right and wrong from within.”
This is not to discount the parents of this new generation, Feiglin stresses. “The strength of the parents of these youngsters – to go to court and see their children being held and refrain from talking to them so as not to go against their refusal to identify themselves to the government – is amazing,” he said. “It is also they who provided the education that has strengthened this generation.”
So it is thanks to the elder generation – the generation that witnessed the Six Day War and the heroism of the IDF – that the younger generation is full of a steely idealism that is simply unstoppable, Feiglin says. “That is how these youngsters can go straight up to the police and say, ‘arrest me.’ How they go to prison with smiles and singing songs. The Sharon regime is tearing out their hair – they simply don’t know what to do.”