War diary: What is the role of the Jewish religion as settlers attack Arabs?

Many people ask what is the role of the Jewish religion in the present contretemps? Certainly we all hear the claims of the Messianists, of whom there are a few present, even in the war cabinet. They have it on good authority. They can quote from texts written 2,000 years or more ago. The current war has, according to them, a strong eschatological dimension. They quote Isaiah, Proverbs, Psalms, the Book of Daniel, and much else, to “prove” their claims. God is obviously on their side, that goes without saying. The people who make these claims are not generally rabbis but have studied in Israeli yeshivot, where they no doubt imbibed much of this forward-thinking ideology which prepared them for the ultimate war against the forces of evil. God and Magog.

But where were, or are, the rabbis? The vast majority of them seem to have disappeared. Few have spoken out publicly against the so-called hilltop youth who are daily committing devastating deeds against our Arab neighbors, especially but not exclusively in the West Bank.

This includes grabbing private land, uprooting trees, burning cars, and generally making life miserable for these people, most of whom have written proof of ownership of their lands, and none of whom had asked to be invaded in 1967. I have spent some time with these people, shepherds who simply want to graze their flocks and not be frightened by these teenage zealots who attack them unprovoked in the name of our religion.

Where are the rabbis who can speak out against these daily incidents, which must surely fall under the category of hillul Hashem, the desecration of God’s name? Where are the raging prophets of old who could push this despicable behavior into the daily news? Where are the media that report on these crimes? There are groups such as Rabbis for Human Rights, but they are mainly non-Orthodox and have little power against these young thugs who are often supported by the army and the police, not to mention the politicians who admire their bravado.

The Orthodox rabbinate has, by and large, failed miserably to speak out against these little villains, who are supported in their nefarious activities by the likes of ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, both ardent disciples of the late American-born prophet of doom, Rabbi Meir Kahane. Have the rest of them been cowed under the fear of physical retribution or is it – perish the thought – that they agree with their sentiments, even if not always with their methods? When, and if, this war ends, they will have to account for their spineless lack of response, not only before the upper court of heaven but also to the citizens down here below. 

On the cheap 

One of the characteristics of Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime is his desire to achieve his goals on the cheap. After he saw that the PA was weak and corrupt and failed to win the democratic election in Gaza in 2005, he implemented ways to further weaken them by limiting or denying them monies already promised, by refusing to meet with them to iron out any problems, and by supporting the new Hamas government, presumably on the assumption that they were the real power in the Palestinian community and it was them that he – Mr. Power – should support. 

This he did very effectively for all the long years of his reign, giving them money, even when they refused to honor their commitment and hold free elections in the Gaza Strip. They exploited Bibi’s generosity by building a huge and sophisticated underground city of tunnels whose magnitude has shocked the Israelis who are now trying desperately and belatedly to undo this monster, no small part of their own making. 

This process of sucking up to the enemy’s enemy proved that you cannot buy off the opposition with bribes. Although Netanyahu has shown himself adept when it comes to receiving so-called gifts from generous benefactors, it has now become apparent that it’s all of a piece for him, whether giving or taking unearned monies. In this case, these gifts have boomeranged terribly, since Hamas took them and built its shadow empire under his majesty’s nose without the latter suspecting anything. What started out as a cheap solution turned out to be a very expensive foible.

Welcoming the Messiah

Every Messianic movement had failed, sometimes spectacularly. The present one, as evinced by Messrs. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, is faring no better. The number of Messianic claimants throughout Jewish history is over 200. Another one will just add to the list of foregone failures. 

On the one hand, Messianic yearnings are in our lifeblood. Given some of the dark periods of our history, it is not surprising. The Messiah, if he or she arrives, will do so only at the bequest of God. Until now, all Messiahs have been failed ones. The late Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz wrote that every Jewish boy is a potential Messiah, but potential is not the same as an actual being who would redeem humanity with his presence. Perhaps Franz Kafka had it right when he wrote: “The Messiah will come only when he is no longer necessary; he will come only on the day after his arrival...” It would seem that the work that Kafka’s Messiah has to do is that which has been done already by ourselves. His coming is merely to approve that which has been achieved by our own efforts. 

Is this Bibi’s Messiah when he finally discusses “the day after”?

There is a difference 

A close friend of mine, a retired American professor of political communications, was here for a few months when he made the following observation about the difference between Israelis and Arabs. The Israelis, he observed, have a deep sense of guilt but none of shame. The Arabs, on the other hand, have a deep sense of shame but much less of guilt. No wonder they find it difficult to communicate with each other!

I think of this when I’m in the changing room of my local sports club at Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem. Many of the Israeli men walk about stark naked, as though to express their freedom, their total emancipation from any restriction to their behavior. The Arab men, and they are probably the majority by the time I turn up, never expose themselves like this. Is this just a cultural thing or is there something that reflects a deeper dichotomy that resists reconciliation? 

Was this immense sense of shame that triggered the extraordinary outburst of violence on October 7? A shame that had been building up for years. The fact that many of these Hamas people rejoiced openly at their triumphant “victory” by parading in front of their cellphones underlined their total lack of guilt. 

Their depraved behavior – rape, murder, decapitation, and torture – only seemed to have increased their lust for bloody revenge against their sworn enemy. The Israeli master race for once was on the receiving end of all their suppressed anger at the perceived suppression that had been their daily fare for countless years. October 7 was a field day for vengeance, with Allah’s help. Hamas terrorists went mad as they fulfilled their deepest desires against their hapless victims. The Israeli locals and their guests had no defense. Their worst fears, the nightmare of what would happen if their neighbors ever achieved the upper hand, were being realized. It became de rigueur to recall the Holocaust, not only by them but also by the many commentators who tried to define the depth of their horrific experience. It was as though there was still some hatred left over from the Nazi period that had to be played out in the state that had been set up to ensure that the Nazi craziness was never repeated. 

Except, of course, that this was no longer the impoverished, defenseless community of Diaspora Jews. This was the strong Zionist state whose claim to fame was that they were to protect the Jews at all times, against even the most violent of enemies. Instead of Never Again, Israelis as Jews have experienced Yet Again. 

The Zionist dream state 

This war, if nothing else, raises very radical questions about the aims of Zionism and the role of the Jewish genius that suddenly seems to have been caught in the black hole of its worst imaginings. 

In his thought-provoking book Moses’ Final Oration, contemporary Israeli philosopher Micha Goodman observes that the major message of the Book of Deuteronomy is that the Children of Israel were transforming from a race of slaves to a master race in their God-given country and that they had to beware of the success that this transition was going to bring. 

Their mandate, according to the father of prophets, was to create a civil-religious society in which all were equal and that the weakest were to be treated with equal concern as the strongest. 

Is this the experience of Israel after 75 years of governance over a motley group of Palestinian Arabs, Circassians, Druze, Christians, Baha’i, and so forth? Has it really related positively to these non-Jewish minorities? These are questions that must be confronted if Israel’s claim to be a Jewish democracy is to be substantiated. 

In fact, its future stands or falls on the responses to these questions. 

By this measure, the responses of Messrs. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are the total opposite of what Goodman poses as the existential question facing Israel. Their response to Israel’s woes are superficial at best and deeply damaging at worst. By pushing their Messianic-fueled vision on pragmatic Israel, they are violating the very essence of what Israel was established to be. 

Instead of being a light unto the nations, we are becoming perilously close to being a blight upon the nations.  ■