We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song
I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
(Pete Townsend, 1971)
When Pete Townsend of The Who wrote those lyrics some 35 years ago, I doubt he was focused on the current Israeli matzav and yet, here we are in a prescient case of what Woody Allen (or maybe Yogi Berra) would call deja-vu all over again.
Let's apply those lyrics by summing up the past week. Our erstwhile peace partner Abu Mazen, while talking up peace with Condi in English, takes a page from his old mentor's book and tells the "Palestinians" to turn their rifles on Israelis in Arabic. Just kill those Jews as a release of the frustration and humiliation caused by all those checkpoints that they have set up to catch potential murderers, you understand. Those same checkpoints that Condi now wants Olmert to take down. And of course Condi "guarantees" that the rifles that the PA no longer has to collect will not be aimed at Jews. And that it is so important to bolster a moderate man of peace like Abu. And says Condi, we must have a "three-way" with Abu, as well. Why Condi, I never would have guessed despite what Barbara Boxer said about you (see below). Won't get fooled again? Not in present-day Israel.
Condi proposes a three-way with Abu Mazen while a stunned Olmert tries to figure out who pays for the hotel room.Meanwhile on the Olmert government deathwatch front, the new secular messiah wannabes are lining up their ducks or making sure they survive in power no matter who or what they have to sell out. Our strategic threat minister is on record as being in favor of giving guns to Abbas. Peretz gives us Israel's first Arab cabinet minister, and Olmert shuts his wife and daughter up (for now) by disavowing the unilateral land for peace approach (for now) after he realizes that the media will not protect him from scandal the way they did Sharon. So he tries a new tack; he yells at the media for exaggerating the Iranian nuke threat and tells everyone in earshot, "dude, things are great!!" especially for the 75% (c'mon!!!) of Gush Katif expellees that now are employed. The newest secular messiah, Ami Ayalon, a solid military man and the Labor party's newest hope for non-irrelevance believes with all his heart that peace will come as soon as Israel retreats to the indefensible '67 borders. His challenger, Ehud Barak, a secular messiah re-tread ala Bibi, claims he has done his teshuva and is now ready to lead again right to the edge of the cliff.
Are you all getting the idea? Are you beginning to understand that without faith-based leadership, all we have is a cast of empty suits, of caricatures whose posteriors do not belong in those comfy leather Knesset seats? And this malignant train of thought has reached our "leaders" of the religious right. When a man who once told an interviewer that he viewed his job as saving the Jewish people now wants to be "an influencer" to Bibi or some other secular messiah wannabe, we have a serious problem here. The last influencer had such a profound effect on Limor Livnat that their crowning (crowing?) achievement in the education ministry was coming up with the term "Feiglinim" for the Manhigut Yehudit followers in Likud while proclaiming them a danger to motherhood and chumus. As I once said it is pathetic that the religious right thinks of themselves as losers or chronic second-place people and so are content to work with or make deals with or accommodate the Bibis, the Baraks, the Livnis, the Livnats, etc. rather than get a message out to all Israelis, secular and religious. Yes, the latter approach is hard work and requires a completely different mindset that deviates from the accepted ab-norms since the founding of the state. But it is the only way. It requires lifting the fog of years of brainwashing by the media and by corrupt leadership and putting decent honest people in power who can lead ALL of Israel and not just certain segments. It requires the restoration of Jewish pride and Jewish Torah values into that leadership. It requires Manhigut Yehudit. And if you laugh and give back all the excuses I have heard before ("no chance" "why waste my time and money?" "need to vote for someone who has a chance") while lamely clinging to the belief that any of these secular messiah wannabes are going to do anything except dig Israel's hole that much deeper, remember you have been warned. You want change? Then change the culture. Nothing less will work.
A Response to Bar_kochba 132
When our friend Yossi Karp wrote a piece for us on Moshe Feiglin being a real contender, we received an interesting response from a blogger. I post his comment and the response from Shmuel Sackett below.
Shmuel Sackett's Response:
I agree with this guy 100%. If anybody thinks that when we take over things will just happen... they are totally wrong. That's when our job just BEGINS!!!
Yes, we must educate the masses and after 60 years of negative brainwashing this will be difficult.
Yes, we will have MAJOR obstacles. People will work night and day to make sure we fail. You will see "mesirut nefesh" against us like you have never seen before.
So maybe we should never start?
Maybe we should just sit and complain all day long?
Or maybe we should not bother with the whole country and continue to fight our own little battles in our little shtetl and the heck with everybody else???
That is NOT the Manhigut Yehudit way.
We are not naive.
We are not saying this will be easy.
We are prepared for this fight and will play hardball against the Erev Rav when they come against us.
What we ARE saying is that NOTHING can be accomplished from the OUTSIDE. Our plan is to take over and then change as much of the system as we can. I believe that if we stay honest to our ideology and - more importantly - honest to our Father in Heaven, we will succeed and be victorious in - what will be - Israel's greatest war EVER!!!
Shmuel Sackett
Co-founder and International Director
Manhigut Yehudit
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Although what you say is very true, I am afraid I have to pour some cold water on your ideas. It is not enough to elect Feiglin as head of the Likud and have several of Manhigut Yehudit (MY) people on the Knesset list. What you are advocating is a "top-down" revolution, meaning "put the right people in office and they will change everything". Unfortunately, it is not so simple. It must be remembered that ALL the power bases of the country are in the hands of the post-Zionist oligarchy, and this oligarchy STRONGLY opposes what MY stands for. The coercive arms of the state, including the police, the army high command, the state prosecutor's office, the SHABAK, the Supreme Court, are in the hands of these post-Zionists. The media, both electronic and print, are, with a few exceptions, controlled by the same types.
A high percentage of the education system's managers are MERETZ people. Then, there is the financial powers of the country who have the power to buy off every politician in the Knesset, who also largely have the same post-Zionist, anti-MY philosophy. When Begin and the Likud were elected in 1977, the Left feared there would be major changes. In the end, the Likud buckled under
and became part of the same establishment. They failed to make any real changes in the country's power structure, satisfying themselves with jobs and a cut of the pie.
When General Eisenhower was elected President in 1952, his predecessor, Truman stated, "Ike isn't going to like this job one bit....it isn't anything like the Army...he'll sit at his desk and say 'do this..do that' AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN." If MY and Feiglin and MY come to power the same will happen. For example, if a MY person is appointed Education Minister, he or she can talk all they want about adding "Jewish content" to the secular school system, but the educational bureaucracy will fight this tooth and nail. The MAFDAL controlled the Education Ministry for many years, but they had NO EFFECT on what the secular schools were teaching.
Without convincing the PEOPLE of the country to change their thinking, to turn off the TV, to stop reading Yediot, Ma'ariv and Ha'aretz, to stop believing false charges against people spread by the police and State Prosecutor's Office, to demand a say in what their children are being taught in their schools, and, in general, TO START THINKING FOR THEMSELVES, Feiglin and MY will be neutralized.
It is not simply a matter of electing the right people, but they must have the power, based on an aroused public opinion that demands change to really make a difference. This is a long-term struggle that will take DECADES. We had better get to work now!