 | By Avraham Reiss
October 12, 2010 | Share |
I came to Israel for a year in the 'sixties, stayed on for a year or two, and then happened to be in Jerusalem during the 6 Day War; seeing tanks driving on the road (not on tank-carriers) on their way to release the Old City from Jordanian rule, and then, just 2 days later, seeing lorry loads of Arabs sitting with their hand on their heads, driving in the opposite direction. They were being taken to the Hebrew University's ampi-theater at Givat Ram, which was the most convenient place to hold them. Thus I heard the following conversation between two Israelis.
"Where are they taking them?"
"To the university".
"Why the university?"
"To educate them, of course".
This conversation was held in the old site of the Shaarei Zedek hospital, which was hit by a Jordanian shell while I was inside, serving as a volunteer.
The Six Day War was the decisive factor in my deciding to spend the rest of my life here in Israel. It would be 22 years after my arrival here, before I went back to England for a week's visit.
A book published at that at that time seriously influenced my political direction was "Perfidy" by Ben Hecht. It documented the trial of Malkiel Greenwald, who was accused of slandering Israel Kastner, the man who made a deal with Eichman to release 1,200 Jews in return for Kastner's keeping 20,000 other Jews quiet and "restrained". The presiding judge at the trial said that "Kastner had sold his soul to the devil".
Kastner was a leading Mapai figure. And although Kastner's wartime activities were obviously carried out during the early forties, and the slander trial took place in the fifties, the appearance in the early 'sixties of Ben Hecht's book (he was responsible for financing the arming of the Lechi ship 'Altalena') still greatly bothered the Mapai leadership. They couldn't ban the book - there was no legal justification - so they bought up every available copy. I know this for a fact, since at that time a very close relative worked in Steimatzky's (famous Israeli chain of booksellers) and saw the entire pile in a Steimatzky basement, and asked what they were
doing there. And that is what he was told.
Anyway, I managed to buy a copy before all the rest were hidden. I wouldn't have believed what I read if the author hadn't provided extensive chapter-and-verse sources for each statement he made, mostly from the trial protocols themselves. (BTW, Kastner was assassinated in the street some time after the trial.)
From then on, I was right-wing - and still am.
But fortunately, my political "development" didn't stop there.
I was fortunate during my year on kibbutz to become acquainted with one of the Religious Kibbutz Movement's first rabbis - Rabbi Moshe Levinger, the man who would later be responsible for the building of Kiriat Arba - now a large settlement. Having read "Perfidy", and wondering about who was right in the Haganah-Etzel-Lechi disputes, I asked him. His reply opened my eyes to a wider frame of thinking. "We needed them all", he said. "Those to show the world that we were ready to build a State from the political and statesmanship point of view, and the others to show that we were already militarily capable of defending ourselves".
It was my new exposure to this kind of top-down thinking that led me to the decision to spend a number of years in the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva, the flagship of the religious Zionist Yeshivot, which emphasizes the teachings of the late Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook.
Rabbi Kook, had he written in English, would long ago have been accorded a double Nobel Prize - both for Literature and for Philosophy. He discusses in his various books the subject of Israel's redemption and its return to the Land of Israel. He relates to the various stages of which the final redemption will be comprised. He forecasted a religious rebellion, a general leaving of Jewish practices, and explains that this is in order to throw off the old Diaspora form of very limited Judaism, in preparation for acceptance of a far more encompassing form of religion. (The Chafetz Chaim lists the number of mitzvot that can be performed in exile: a mere 192 out of 613 mitzvot!).
Rabbi Kook's son, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook z"l, my Rosh Yeshiva, often emphasized that the beginning of the return of the Jewish People to its land, would be marked by agricultural - and specifically not religious - development. See Ezekiel chapter 36.
And after that long preamble, now to the point.
Having left England many decades ago, I don't have much interest in what goes on there. What pulled me in to JC Blogs discussions were matters that affect myself, family and friends, directly: verbal attacks on my State.
And the subject can be summed up in one word: Arabs. Because I don't see the JC Blogs discussing at great length relationships between irreligious, Zionist religious and Ultra-Orthodox Jews - and that is always a hot subject here - or any other Israeli issues.
So lets talk about our Arab cousins.
Given what I have written above, namely that religious Zionists see the current period of Jewish history - starting some 100 years ago - as a pre-ordained period of Jewish redemption and return to reclaim its Land, a very fair question is: and what of the Arabs currently living in Israel? What is to become of them?"
I won't expand on the Zionist position which says that there is enough room for all of us - the position is well known.
I openly admit that I am here only for religious reasons (which include the historical aspects, and certainly Zionism is a practical expression of my religious beliefs.)
The supreme book of Jewish mysticism, the Zohar, written 2,000 years ago, relates to - and prophecies regarding - today's problem.
It says as follows:
The Sons of Ishmael (the Arabs) were given permission to dwell in the Land of Israel because they observe the practice of circumcision. But because they observe it in an 'empty' way, i.e. not in accordance with all the regulations accompanying the mitzva, they were given the Land of Israel in an 'empty' way, i.e. when it was empty of people. [The Land was barren for 2,000 years - no nation managed to live in and develop it.]
At some point (continues the Zohar), the time will come when the Sons of Ishmael will have 'exhausted' their 'reward'. At this point the Jews will start returning to the Land of Israel. The sons of Ishmael will then begin wars of "disturbances" (mehumot) and will involve the Sons of Edom (currently, the Western, Christian world). There will be x wars [I'm holding this back A.R.], the final two will be one on the sea and one in/near Jerusalem. [This would be the famous war of Gog and Magog, in which 70 nations will invade Israel - and be vanquished! By tradition, this will be on Hoshanah Rabah; I wish we knew in which year ...]
A second quote elsewhere from the Zohar, says that even after the Meshiach has arrived, there will be 'yehudaim prutzim' - 'Jews devoid of Jewish content' who will oppose Him!” The foundations of that prophecy we can see here in the JC blogs, in the intense hatred expressed by a few, which we hope will now be forcefully curtailed. They will continue to exist, but we hope elsewhere.
As an Israeli I spent some twenty years serving in a military reserves combat unit; I served 4 spells of duty during the 1st Intifadah, during which I spent much time in Arab villages and Arab houses. My impression is that most of the Arab population living in Israel just want to get on with their lives. Only incitement by extremists forces them to take militant actions. There is no such thing as an Arab democracy, so brute force prevails - supported by the telegramsams, ibrows's, clevesons and other anti-democrats.
The so-called "2-state solution" hasn't got a chance in hell, and will perforce if realised - only lead to more - and intensive - military activity.
The only chance I see for a near-future peace is an agreement that there is no immediate solution for peace, so let's declare a moratorium on all acts of violence (perhaps Stephen P. could advise here?) and live in a temporary peace for a while, so that our children - Israeli and Arab - can grow up and get educated in normal lives.
But I am a realist: it isn't going to happen.
(although certainly not in gaza 
)
Yvetta
12 October, 2010 - 17:29
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Wonderful to see you back, Avraham - will read that long and interesting post later!