The Decree and America's Arm Chair Religious Zionists

In a recent interview, MK Yisrael Eichler (Agudat Yisrael) observed that there is no political logic behind the fact that Ariel Sharon is still the Prime Minister of Israel. He has broken his own word, abandoned his principles, ignored the will of his party and yet, he is still Prime Minister. He is still rushing pell mell to throw 7,500 Jews out of their homes, without getting anything in return, while rewarding the Palestinians for four (now five) years of war and murder. The only explanation, he offered, is that it's a gezerah, a Divine decree, an expression of God's inscrutible Will.

I'm beginning to agree with Eichler. How many times have we buried Oslo, only to see the Golem rise up to attack us? How many times did it look like the Temple Mount was in our hands, only to see it crumbling as we allow the Waqf to destroy it, and every trace of Jewish connection to it? Even when building the wall, we could have stood up to world pressure and given ourselves more of our own Homeland. We didn't. It all makes no human sense. It must be a gezerah.

So who's responsible? We can blame the Left, with every bit of justification. For over a decade they have waged an unceasing war against Jews, Judaism and Zionism. Their positions of power and influence in government, the courts, the media and academia have wreaked havoc on theIsraeli Jewish body politic. But they have lost the war against the Torah. The polls show that after four years of war this is a much more Jewish country than before. So what is it?

Well, certainly the rabid nature of religious and settler leaders is partly at fault. These guys are incapable od civilized discourse. They rant and rave and wave verses and citations, like someone cares. The average person is not impressed. The settler and rabbinic leadership of the settler community is essentiallty bankrupt. The pseudo-ruling on refusal to serve bears this out.

They, however, are here in Israel. I am disgusted by the armchair Zionists (especially the religious zionists) of Teaneck and Scarsdale, Manhattan and Brookline, Shaker Heights and Beverley Hills. They"ll fight to the last Israeli. They"ll celebrate Yom HaAtzma'ut with Falafel provide by Yordim. BUT THEY WON'T COME HERE! Not for me, they say. Too hard, too expensive, too God knows what. Oh. Too dangerous. Yes, as Phil Ochs once said, (in 'Love me, I'm a Liberal') we"ll send all the money you ask for, but don't ask me to come on along!

Well, they didn't come. If they had, if they would, there would have been a critical mass of Jews in Yesha that noone would have thought to expel. There would, moreover, be no (or much less) of a demographic problem. Self-satisfaction is a Jewish affliction. It's a dealy affliction. In this case, I sense that it contributes to, and justifies, the Gezerah.

I have no illusions. They won't come. They will learn though, that their existence depends upon us, and not vice versa.