Category: The Society

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Confining Meir Ettinger, Israel Tries to Derail a Revolution

When one strolls the streets of Jerusalem these days, Meir Ettinger’s picture is everywhere. The posters demand justice for the young activist.  After all no one has charged him with anything and yet he remains in administrative detention, now for another four months.  Ettinger tried to influence the latest decision by going on a hunger strike, which rallied many rightwing activists behind him, but the security apparatus appeared unshaken.

The question that remains is what is the State of Israel so threatened by, which causes them to hold Ettinger for so long?

To answer this one must look back into the annals of Zionist history.

Although the Zionist movement’s goals were to attain statehood in the Land of Israel, the movement grew in various ways and approaches in reaching this goal. For most the state was a solution to a greater issue. Three distinct types of Zionism had formed by the time the Jews of the Holy Land revolted against the British Empire.

Settling the Land Leads to Sovereignty

Practical Zionism sprung forth in the late 19th Century by way of land purchases in Israel. Led by the “Lovers of Zion” movement Practical Zionists believed that the most important action to take was to settle as much of the Land of Israel as possible.  In their eyes independence would be driven by control and could only be sought after once the land was settled.  Statecraft was not on their radar.  

Speeches Will Gain Us Standing

Political Zionism took to heart the failure of the European Jews’ emancipation and decided to win supporters for resettlement in the Land of Israel.  Those who ascribed hope for the Jewish Nation in the international community believed that a Jewish State could be attained by appealing to “friendly” nations of the need to avoid a Jewish catastrophe.

Herzl was a Political Zionist.  Although the World Zionist Congress and World Zionist Organization (under Jabotinsky) achieved global notoriety, sovereignty was not decided in the halls of law around the world.  Only one form of Zionism merged all the necessary components to be able to take on the British Empire.

Zionism is about National Jewish Liberation

When Menachem Begin became the head of the Irgun he adopted the Lehi’s outlook on Revolutionary Zionism.  This is of course not a surprise as the Israel Eldad became the philosophical head of Lehi after Avraham Stern was killed. Eldad and Begin were good friends and chess partners. Their brand of Zionism saw the direct need to push each and every occupying power out of the Land of Israel.

Zev Golan writes in his book Stern and his Gang, “For Lehi, sovereignty was not a solution but a goal, an expression of Jewish culture, as any nation-state is the expression of a people’s culture. The few hundred Lehi fighters of 1943 declared themselves determined to fight  war to liberate the homeland from the foreigner.  It mattered not to them whether this foreigner was Turk, as it had been, British as it was then, or someone else in the future.”

The Lehi fighters desired to “establish the Hebrew kingdom based on our historic rights, on our national desire as expressed in all the messianic longings and attempts [Lohamey Herut Israel, Collected Writings].”

The Revolution Continues

When we succeeded in chasing the British Empire out of the Land of Israel, the nation was not ready for its destiny.  It’s true the State of Israel is successful, but goals of the Zionist Revolution as envisioned by Begin and Eldad have never been accomplished.  

Building a true Jewish State, one that pushes its sovereignty to all corners of our biblical promise has not come about.  Large areas of our ancestral homeland lie under the feet of foreign occupation.  The Temple Mount, “liberated” by fearless Jewish warriors in 1967, stands defiled and trampled by the urinating masses of Muslims who care more about controlling the holiest site to Jews than treating it with respect.

Jews are still murdered for daring to return to their ancestral homeland and politicians care far more about Western values than being proud Jewish leaders.

Meir Ettinger was arrested six months ago, and is still confined because he dared to speak the truth.  There have been no charges filed against Meir, but he is the most “dangerous man in Israel.” Why? Simply, because he called for the revolution to continue.  And why not?  Afterall Jewish destiny at the end of the day is Messianic. Meir’s revolt was not physical.  If it was it would not last.  The government in Israel is scared of the most potent revolt of all, an awakening that we have incomplete work here.  For that the elites who run the State of Israel are truly scared.

They are scared because their destiny expresses the internal struggle held within.  That we may actually be who we say we are and our return is more than just a temporal liberation, but rather the ultimate liberation which if allowed to reach fruition can liberate the entire world.

Deep down inside we all know the system we live in is a system that defines state institutions as divine. However, a system that disconnects itself from its divine mission does not get to claim inherent divinity.  Divinity is attained by expressing that which is held within each one of us.  The Zionist Revolution will only be complete when the State returns to the mission it was intended for and that is the complete and total liberation of Zion with the goal of setting up a true and righteous kingdom.

 

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Why Have Israelis Dropped the Two State Solution?

A recent Democracy Institute poll shows support for annexation of Judea and Samaria equal to its opposition. Given the fact that Israelis have endured over 20 years of Oslo education, the poll seems to be indicative of changing attitudes towards Judea and Samaria.

If this poll is accurate, the question arises: What caused the Israeli public to change of course?

Gaza a Turning Point

The destruction and uprooting of Jewish communities in Gaza was hailed at the time as the best chance for peace.  Israelis trusted Ariel Sharon and even believed the security guarantees offered by the Bush administration. Over the following 10 years Israelis’ basic assumptions about the world have been proven false. Assumptions include the following:

  • Arabs are interested in stability
  • Secularism will win out
  • America can always be trusted
  • Giving up land will bring peace
  • Security experts know what they are talking about

Given the above list, Israelis see no reason to give up on Judea and Samaria.  More and more these territories are seen as an integral part of the Jewish nation. However, despite the positive change in attitude towards annexation, other results from the poll should caution those in the Land of Israel camp.

For example, 61% of the Israeli public disagrees with maintaining the status-quo.  This result can be seen as a positive affirmation that Israelis want to push some sort of solution forward.  The question for those in the National Camp, is whose solution?

Those on the Right should take the opportunity to push forward a clear plan of action in reference to annexation. The goal should be to win the support of the slight majority willing to undergo some sort of geopolitical change.  If not, amnesia of past events will eventually take over again and endanger Israel.

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The Right needs to educate the country on Israel’s historical rights to all of the Land of Israel and what has been given up over the years.  The current culture in Israel and the geopolitical instability throughout the Middle East affords the country an opportunity to reverse some of the territorial setbacks that have occurred in the past.

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New Stop-and-Frisk Law Gives Police More Power

A new bill was passed into law yesterday giving Israeli police authority to search any person on the basis of fear even without reasonable suspicion. While this law is temporary and valid for one year, some argue it will increase discrimination against minority groups including Arabs, Ethiopians and the Ultra-Orthodox. However, this may be an important step in preventing terror attacks in public places. Since October, Israel has been plagued with daily terror attacks, mostly stabbings, and the government has failed to implement a solution. This new stop-and-frisk law, while controversial, shows the government is finally trying to do something to provide security for its citizens.

Will the police abuse this new law? Probably. Israel has an ugly history of police brutality against its citizens, minorities and non-minorities alike. But will this new law help combat the current terror wave? We’ll have to wait and see.

What are your thoughts on this? (Please comment below via text or voice recording.)

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For Gush Katif, a Memorial is all that Stands

It has been over ten years since the destruction and erasure of Gush Katif. Many of the families have moved on after years of homelessness.  Families have broken apart.  Kids have grown up with a distaste for the state. This should not be a surprise, after all their childhood was ruined by the very state sworn to protect them.

Ten years later and the government has finally given the people of Gush Katif something in return for their misery. Today a memorial statue has been placed in the Eastern entrance to the Knesset.

“It is only fitting that the Knesset, which decided [to evacuate the Gush Katif communities], will remember, and remind those who visit it of the communities of Gush Katif and northern Samaria – the [building of settlements], the agriculture and the settlers themselves. I hope this work of art will generate interest among the visitors of the Knesset,” Yuli Edelstein, the Speaker of the Knesset said at an unveiling today for the memorial statue.

Gush Katif is but a memory.  The pioneers and young families will be a few sentences in the history books.  Kids will be taught that there was a time when the State’s leaders were really the warriors of old. However, as these leaders grew older they turned their backs on the very ideology and land that nurtured their development.

When the slogan Never Again was made about the Holocaust, the point is not about not letting another Holocaust take place.  This is obvious.  The means to prevent a repeat of history is to say Never Again to being an exile minded Jew. Israel is meant to be more than memorial statues.  It is meant to be an engine that builds our redemption.

No one lost their lives or sacrificed to settle barren dunes to be rewarded a memorial statue. That is what a nation who wants to sacrifice its future on the alter of world acceptance does. Israel is not about abandoning the past. It is about tying our covenant and the Land that was given to us by the Almighty together in order to give a full expression to our prophetic charge of being a light unto the nations.

One day the memorial statue will be taken down.  Not because we don’t want to remember, but because one day the people of Gush Katif will return and liberate their stolen land.  They will no longer be a mere memory for the youth, but once again Gush Katif will exist in the present.  The Land of Israel nurtures its children. We in turn must be strong enough in faith to see our part of the covenant through.

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Reclaiming Hebron

Ten days after being forcibly removed by authorities for entering two building legally bought, 20 Hebron residents are attempting to make their way back into them.  This is not the first time there has been a tumult over private land purchases in Hebron. One of the strategies used to strengthen the community is to increase the purchases in the Israeli controlled areas in order to ensure Jewish continuity from Kiryat Arba to the Jewish community of Hebron as well as between the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Avraham Avinu neighborhood.  After all, Kiryat Arba with its 8,000 plus residents is essentially an extension of Hebron.

One of the first attempts to do this was with the purchase of the Peace House in 2007. Noam Arnon, Hebron spokesman at the time of the original purchase of the Peace House said the following:

″The house of peace, on the main road between Hebron and Kiryat Arba is an additional link in the growth of the City of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. Bonding Hebron and Kiryat Arba, this building will provide homes for dozens, if not hundreds of Israelis, waiting to live in Hebron.″

The first Jewish residents were removed in 2008. Despite setbacks, the house was officially given over in a court ruling in 2012 to the Jewish owners who had bought it.  This ruling was held up by the Supreme Court in 2014.

 

Map of Hebron, courtesy http://www.Hebron.com
Map of Hebron, courtesy the Hebron Community

The two buildings in question now stand between the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Jewish Neighborhood of Avraham Avinu. The legal purchase of these properties is clear and so the only question really is why the Defense Minister is balking.  We have noted before that he is clearly nervous of a new trend and one that would be hard for him to stop once it gets rolling.  If Jews begin to buy properties in Hebron like they do in Jerusalem’s Old City and many of the formerly Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, it will spell the end once and for all of the two state solution in the minds of both Israelis and their Palestinian counterparts.

This may be one of the roots of his fear. Control has belonged to the sons and daughters of the secular Kibbutz movement since the beginning of the State.  Turning over the keys to Moshe Levinger’s children is not on Yaalon’s agenda. Yet, at the end he may have no choice.  The energy no longer belongs with his camp, but rather has returned to the caretakers that can lead the Jewish Nation to the next stage of their National Redemption.

Reclaiming Hebron represents the most authentic form of Zionism.  David’s Kingdom began there and it was there that Moshe Levinger showed the world that the Jews could return to their ancient lands, thus reversing the injustice of the wanton ethnic cleansing of Hebron’s Jewish population in 1929.

In the coming days, the Israeli government will be forced to choose its future.  It can either decide to embrace the struggle for true Hebrew Liberation by allowing Jews to freely buy homes in the city of their forefathers or delegitimize their claims to be a government dedicated to furthering the restoration of the Jewish people to the entire ancestral homeland.

 

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Is Israel Smashing Freedom of Speech?

The hypocrisy of the Left knows no bounds.  The current legislation written by MK Miri Regev  to make government funding for cultural endeavors conditional on loyalty to the state may seem a bit much to the casual observer, but the Left knows far well that it has grossly overreached in terms of tapping into government coffers to fund these artists in order to inculcate a post-Zionist outlook in the youth.  The Left coupled a cultural take over here in Israel by smashing artists with alternate political viewpoints as fringe or radical.

The Left cannot come to terms with the fact that Israel is a far more traditionally right leaning country than their European interlocutors would like them to believe.

“The beauty of Israeli artistic creation will always continue,” Isaac Herzog the head of the Zionist Union vowed on Facebook. “The Israeli McCarthyism and the zeros who are leading it will disappear just as they disappeared in the United States. The question is when and how much it will cost us?”

Once again the Left would like everyone to think the government is trying to shut down Israeli artists, but that is not the case. Regev and non-Profits like Im Tirtzu who are helping to promote the bill, just don’t want tax payer funds to prop up otherwise failing post-Zionist artists. All artists and performers in Israel have an unalienable right to freedom of speech and expression, but we the tax payer should not be required to fund the very people that seek to undermine our right to live here.

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Yes Orly, We Do Care About Dead Palestinians

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ommentator and Left wing activist Orly Noy of the far Left 972 Mag wrote an article entitled: When do Israelis care about dead Palestinians? She asserts that the current outrage against far Left Agitator Ezra Nawi over his bragging of getting Palestinians killed by the PA over their property sales is pure politics. She compares this to the lack of outrage over hunger striking Muhammad al-Qiq a Palestinian journalist arrested by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority because he criticized PA policies.

Orly says the following: “All of a sudden the entire country has come together, concerned about the possible wrongdoing to a Palestinian from the occupied territories. All of a sudden Abu Khalil’s life — and death — have become meaningful for Israelis. All of a sudden the Israeli public cares about a dead Palestinian.”

Israeli society is outraged about what occurred with Ezra Nawi, because it is at its core hypocritical. There is one thing to say you support Palestinian rights . I may disagree with that, but it is part of discourse. Yet, using your stature as a Palestinian rights activist to turn trusting Palestinians over to an abusive leadership simply because one disagrees with Jewish Land purchases is patently hypocritical and sick.

Orly is right though, the Israeli government should stop working to prop up the Ramallah regime.  The only difference between Orly and myself is what should replace it.  Land of Israel activists believe the best and most humane solution is to annex Judea and Samaria, which will end the occupation.  The result of this would actually give the Palestinian Arabs that are law abiding the chance to have a far better life as part of the Israeli civil society.

Something tells me Orly Noy would disagree.

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Jewish Hunger Striker in Danger

Administrative Detainee Meir Ettinger has reportedly lost consciousness due to his hunger strike.  Meir Ettinger was placed in administrative detention with no charges or evidence over 6 months ago in relation to the Duma fire, which killed a young Arab family. Ettinger was in Sefat at the time, but the Defense Minister used a controversial power to place him in prison indefinitely.

Meir Ettinger is the grandson of Rav Meir Kahane and is considered a young leader of the growing hilltop movement in Judea and Samaria.

Moriah Ettinger, Meir’s wife, told Hakol Hayehudi, “The only one with power is God. He put Meir in jail and he will release him, and we are certain He will release him.” She cited Psalms 32:10, “Many sorrows come to the wicked, but loving-kindness will surround the man who trusts in God.”

Two other detainees were arrested along with Ettinger without charge. One of them Mordechai Meir was released after five months after it was proven the evidence the Shabak (internal security services) presented was proven false. Administrative detention is often used to extra-judicially hold Palestinian prisoners during security sweeps if they are suspected of involvement in  broader terrorist activities in order to gain more information or protect Israel from attacks in real time.  The last time administrative detention was used against Jews was during the British Mandate period.

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Shlomit Kreigman: Another Day, Another Jew Murdered

On January 25, 2016, two terrorists went on a stabbing spree in Beit Horon, fatally stabbing Shlomit Kreigman, age 24, and seriously wounding another 58-year-old woman. The two terrorists were later shot and killed by a citizen and security guard. During the stabbing spree, the terrorists tried entering a grocery store but were stopped by the owner and a shopping cart.

After the two terrorists were neutralized, 3 pipe bombs they planted were found in the vicinity. This is just another example of why Israel cannot make peace with a people that are being taught by Palestinian Authority incitement and media to hate, terrorize and murder Jews. The Arab violence and terror wave that Jews are facing in Israel on a daily basis is akin to the epidemic of Islamic extremism that is growing worldwide. The incitement is the same, the hatred is the same and the outcome is the same.

When will the Israeli leaders wake up and really start curbing this violence? How many people have to die, heaven forbid, for the Israeli government to start taking care of its citizens? The truth is, we should not rely on any government or person to help us. As King David exclaimed so pointedly: “Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation…… Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God” – Psalms 146.