Love of the Land: Israel, State and Nation

Israel, State and Nation

Daniel Greenfield
Sultan Knish
30 December 09

It is difficult to comprehend the extent to which the left has inserted appeasement into the culture and the educational system of the State of Israel. From the youngest ages children are taught to pursue appeasement dressed up as peace, with the same enthusiasm and verve that Palestinian Arab children are taught to pursue Jihad. The anniversary of the assassination of leftist Prime Minister Rabin is treated as an extended series of events that seems to stretch on forever, as leftist politicians call for peace with Arab terrorists "at any cost" and denounce the right for inciting the murder of Rabin by criticizing his creation of a terrorist state within Israel's borders. Not the anniversary of Israel's independence nor the commemoration of the Holocaust has the moral stature anymore that Israel's left has invested into "Chag Rabin".


And the results of the left's propaganda campaign can be seen in the falling recruitment numbers and the rise of draft dodging. As much as a quarter of Israeli men now dodge the draft, and a far larger number of women. This is all the more shocking in a country where a generation ago draft dodgers were held in contempt and found leading a normal civilian life nearly impossible. The credit for this transformation belongs to the left, whose politicians had preached to a new generation that the army was irrelevant, whose reporters smeared soldiers at every turn, whose activists stood guard at checkpoints to prevent IDF soldiers from doing their jobs, who treated draft dodgers as heroes for refusing to serve in the "Occupation Army".

The sharp rise in draft dodging by the sons and daughters of the left, from former Prime Minister Olmert's own son down, has moved the burden of service over to the Religious Zionist community, the patriotic sector of Israel that has not been infected by the left's agenda. While the left complained that their sons were forced to die for the settlements, the Settlers became the IDF, fighting and dying for Ashkelon and Haifa. The heroes of the last Lebanon war, such as Major Roi Klein, who threw himself on a grenade to protect his men, and the casualties, increasingly came from the settlements. While Olmert's sons were living abroad, it was the sons of the settlements, from the families of men and women living on Israel's frontier with Islamic terror, who went out and fought.

Unsurprisingly this also paralleled the left's war against the Religious Zionist community, from the ethnic cleansing of the Jewish communities of Gaza, to the criminalizing of political dissent for children as young as 13 and a constant demonization campaign by the domestic and international media. With the burden of military service increasingly coming down on Religious Zionist soldiers, even as the left was working feverishly to crush Religious Zionists for representing an obstacle to their plans for Israel, the resulting paradox in which the left needs Religious Zionist soldiers to crush Religious Zionist communities has touched off a feverish debate within Israel.

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Love of the Land: Israel, State and Nation

Love of the Land: I choose the rabbis

I choose the rabbis

Yael Mishali
Ynet/Opinion
17 December 09

Yael Mishali says there is no way she would choose democracy over Jewish law

(This is the 2nd time in recent weeks that Ms. Mishali has come up with something not necessarily expected.Good piece.)

It was a truly modern-day miracle to see the debate regarding democracy vis-à-vis Torah law picking up steam and reaching the verge of explosion precisely in Hanukkah. So what is really more important for us? Which of these two values will prevail at the last moment? At the end of the day, I don’t think that the Greek invention will be chosen.

I am not a devout follower of Jewish law, and I never followed a rabbi formally; however, in my view any group of Zionist rabbis is preferable to any group of politicians that includes Ehud Barak. Who do I appreciate more? Who do I believe in and believe to? Who do I trust? Which side asks itself less often what can it personally gain from its decisions?

Rabbis also ask themselves this question, of course. I have no doubt that Rabbi Melamed also asked himself, and provided an answer. However, they ask it less often, and their answers are much much better than any answer Barak came up with in the past, and apparently this time as well.

When it comes to all the parameters for selecting proper leadership, I prefer the Zionist rabbis, with all their diverse views and opinions, over the deceptive leaderships of modern-day politicians.

(Full article)

Related: We still have hope

Love of the Land: I choose the rabbis

Love of the Land: The War for Israel's Soul

The War for Israel's Soul

Moshe Feiglin
Manhigut
17 December 09

It is very symbolic that Defense Minister Barak has chosen Chanukah - the holiday that would never have been born if the Greeks had not attempted to eliminate Jewish faith - to threaten the freedom of thought of a Jewish scholar and educator. "Teach what I tell you to teach," says Barak," and in exchange we will allow the religious nationalist students to combine Torah study with army service - as long as they defer to the army and not to their rabbis."

The struggle between the Israeli regime and Rabbi Eliezer Melamed's hesder yeshiva in Har Bracha is another chapter in the all-out war that the auto-anti-Semitic Israeli elite wages against Religious Zionism. This is a war for Israel's soul. It is the war of the crumbling anti-Jewish old guard fighting for its hegemony against the Jewish alternative that is being born.

Whoever reads the leftist commentaries in Ha'aretz understands that the elites crave another expulsion; they yearn for burning synagogues and the sight of settler families being dragged from their homes. For them, the goal of expulsion is expulsion itself and the goal of the battle against the yeshiva of Har Bracha is the destruction of all the hesder yeshivas. Four and a half years ago, they broke the physical body of the settlements. Now they want to break its spirit.

When Barak expelled the Har Bracha yeshiva from the army, he turned all the remaining yeshivas into state-controlled institutions. From now on, the rabbis of the various hesder yeshivas must all toe the government line. If not, they, too, will be expelled from the hesder arrangement. The students must understand that if a rabbi cannot speak his mind because of fear of the government and its ego-inflated ministers, the Torah that he teaches cannot be one hundred per cent true.

The only logical reaction to the current phase of this war for Israel's soul is for all the hesder yeshivas to cancel their arrangement with the Defense Ministry. Instead, they should send the students who have not yet enlisted in the army to the Har Bracha yeshiva. But it is hard to believe that that is what will happen. So now the ball is in the yeshiva students' court.

For years, Religious Zionist youth have been brought up to serve in the army with self-sacrifice. In Israel, army service is a prerequisite for growing up. Enlistment is like a second bar-mitzvah - an essential part of a young man's maturity and self-image. But now, it is time for the Religious Zionist youth to overcome the army tradition. They must defer their enlistment and enroll in the Har Bracha yeshiva, instead.

Forget about the hesder arrangement. The fact that it is an "arrangement" means that something about it is not right. Study true Torah for two years in Har Bracha or in other yeshivas that are not state-controlled. Mold your values and beliefs well. At the age of 20 - enlistment age according to the Torah - enlist in the army like all other Israelis. Just make sure that you are willing to clearly delineate the limits of obedience.

Love of the Land: The War for Israel's Soul

Love of the Land: Letter from Graduates of Yeshivat Har Bracha to the Chief of General Staff: "If there is no Hesder – there is no reserve duty"

Letter from Graduates of Yeshivat Har Bracha to the Chief of General Staff: "If there is no Hesder – there is no reserve duty"

Eitan Fried
Etrog News
14 December 09

After Barak announced yesterday on the cancellation of the army arrangement with the Har Bracha Hesder yeshiva, in lieu of the failure of Rosh Yeshiva Eliezer Melamed to appear for a "hearing" scheduled by the Minister of Defence, a letter signed by 100 graduates of Har Bracha was sent to the IDF Chief of General Staff. The letter stated: "If the Hesder is cancelled, reserve duty will also be cancelled. The IDF is showing us the way out, so we will leave on our own accord."

After the dramatic occurrence yesterday, when Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced that the arrangement between the IDF and Yeshivat Har Bracha would be discontinued, all because the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, didn't show up for a "hearing" scheduled by Barak – the crisis has reached a new height this morning. A harsh letter, signed by 100 graduates and students of the Har Bracha yeshiva, as well as residents of "Har Bracha", was sent to the IDF Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi. The letter informs Ashkenazi in no uncertain terms that if the hesder arrangement is discontinues – then they will not report for reserve duty.

"We are greatly sorrowed by statements we have recently been hearing, made by the leaders of the IDF and the decision makers in the Defense ministry. Statements that endanger the status of the IDF, and are causing cracks in the fighting spirit and motivation among the soldiers. The statements are a direct threat to the army," wrote graduates of "Har Bracha" in their letter to the Chief of Staff.

"We enlisted in the army with a sense of devotion to our people and our land, and many of us battled in the second Lebonese war and in the Cast Lead operation. We were prepared to fulfill every mission to the best of our abilities, and even to give up our lives, if that became necessary. Our roshei yeshivos taught us to be the first, and the best, in our efforts to defend the State of Israel. We were educated at the feet of our roshei yeshivos, and thus saw our mandatory and reserve service in the army as a holy mission."

The letter continued, "In the last few days, the Hesder yeshivos have been pushed out of their respected place in the army. If in fact the IDF and the government follow through with their decision, we interpret that to mean that the IDF is rejecting us as fighters in its service, that the IDF doesn't want us, is throwing us out."

The graduates of the yeshiva conclude the letter with a concrete threat: "We only enlisted in the army and continued to report for reserve duty because of the education we received in the yeshiva. If the army is now choosing to show our yeshiva the door, then with heavy hearts we have no choice but to complete the process. Therefore, if the army fulfills its threat, then we will unfortunately no longer consider ourselves to be a part of the army that has rejected us."

(Continue reading)

Love of the Land: Letter from Graduates of Yeshivat Har Bracha to the Chief of General Staff: "If there is no Hesder – there is no reserve duty"

Love of the Land: A threat to democracy?

A threat to democracy?

Latest insubordination cases must be analyzed in context of Gaza pullout


Yoel Meltzer
Ynet/Israel Opinion
27 November 09

Following recent incidents of soldiers expressing their refusal to evacuate Jews from their homes and the subsequent punishment some of the soldiers received, calls have been heard to both punish the rabbis responsible for encouraging such behavior as well as to stop the funding of specific hesder yeshivot. Moreover, one of the reasons given for such a harsh response is that behavior of this sort by Israeli soldiers threatens the very fabric of Israeli democracy.

Whether or not this claim is true and regardless of how one wants to define "Israeli democracy," it is disingenuous to analyze such behavior in a way that is disconnected from the larger social and historical context. A proper analysis of the phenomenon cannot be divorced from the traumatic influence that the 2005 Gaza disengagement had on large segments of Israeli society.

The events leading up to the disengagement started with Ariel Sharon and his Likud Party’s landslide victory against Amram Mitzna and Labor. In addition to Sharon enjoying a high popularity rating prior to the elections, the runaway victory was all but sealed by the fact that many voters were simply terrified of Mitzna and his proposal for a one-sided withdrawal from Gaza. At the time such an idea was only taken seriously by the fringe Left, a group which in many ways was the antithesis of the traditional Likud voter base.

Nonetheless, Sharon proceeded to adopt the exact policy that had just been overwhelmingly rejected. Realizing that such change of direction was clearly against the platform of his own Likud party, Sharon eventually brought the plan to a vote by party members. Not surprisingly, Likud members overwhelmingly rejected it by more than a 20 point margin and thus handed Sharon a stinging defeat. However, rather than following the wishes of his voters, Sharon went forward with his plan.

(Read full article)

Love of the Land: A threat to democracy?