By Moshe Feiglin
The exact details do not interest me. The past foibles of Plaintiff A don't interest me either. The court will decide if it was done with coercion or not. These stories are great for the media, because they present a golden opportunity to sell pornography in the guise of public report and debate. But amidst the din of reporters and the flashes of the cameras, the real question has completely disappeared:
Was President Katzav unfaithful to his wife, or not?
To find the answer to that question, I do not have to know A's occupation. And the exact measure of her cooperation is also irrelevant. Only one thing interests me: Was he unfaithful to his wife? Yes? Or no?
The media, the police, the State Prosecution and the courts are concerned with a completely different question. What interests them is if President Katzav broke the law. That is very important. But the question of faithfulness goes even deeper.
We live in a culture of disloyalty. It begins with the sphere closest to us; our spouse and children. It ends with the national sphere. Disloyalty to our homeland, the Land of Israel, has become a national sport. Nobody has any problem with lauding terror collaborator, Tali Fachimah, at a posh conference at which Yossi Beilin also spoke. Simply because Fachimah's treachery is the tip of the iceberg of the disloyal culture that has encompassed our entire society. Traitor Udi Adiv, who served seventeen years in prison for spying for Syria, was accepted as a political science instructor at Haifa University. Today he teaches at the Open University. Nobody has any problem with that. I wonder what would happen if Yigal Amir would get out of jail and teach political science at Bar Ilan University?
Israeli society futilely attempts to exchange its lost culture of loyalty for a culture of disloyalty supported by the law. Clearly, it will never work. Law is supposed to express culture; it cannot replace it. If unfaithfulness to one's spouse is culturally acceptable, a thousand laws and ordinances to formalize the disloyalty will not make it morally legitimate.
The newscasters all gravely explain that State Attorney Mazuz scrutinized the evidence thoroughly. They explain that all the investigative mechanisms did their work in an exemplary manner, and that we must have faith in them. But when the entire culture is disloyal, nobody has faith in anyone. What was the police interest in breaking the story now? Why were equally serious allegations against others not investigated? Who does the State Attorney represent? Me? You? Who appointed him and why? Who are the Supreme Court justices? Who chose them? What is their cultural orientation? Do any of them have skeletons in their closets similar to those of which the President is accused? (I can testify that at least one of them has a much more serious skeleton in his closet).
No concept scares me more than the 'Rule of Law.' A minor criminal breaks the law. An intermediate criminal evades the law. But a major criminal uses the law.
The Rule of Law is a concept taken straight from Sodom. Israel must aspire to the Rule of Justice. When Israel's public is convinced that the legal system serves justice, the law will be respected. But now that Israel has despaired of searching for justice; now that it has decided that there is no G-d, no truth, no justice and no morality; now that Israeli society agrees that truth is subjective; that everyone has his own story -- the law is nothing more than a stoplight to direct traffic between the various narratives. The problem is that the person activating the stoplight is a king. Even if he is a fair person, he cannot but force his narrative on mine.
What went on deep inside the President's office is mainly a matter of viewpoint. Some people are convinced by A's attorney. Others think that the same facts point to blatant blackmail. That is why I have no faith in the farce surrounding the Presidential scandal. None of the 'facts' in the charge sheet have any significance. Maybe they are true, maybe they are false. All I want to hear from the President is one clear statement. Was he unfaithful to his wife? Yes or no?
If he was unfaithful to his wife -- even if everything that happened was absolutely legal -- he is completely unworthy. And if he was not unfaithful, then even if the Rule of Law Gang (in the words of former Justice Minister Chaim Ramon's associates) convicts him, as far as I'm concerned, he can remain in his position.
National Security? When Israel reflects G-dliness
On the day that a suicide bomber kills three Israelis in Eilat and on the backdrop of the Iranian nuclear threat and the steady rain of rockets on the south, Israel's Defense Minister Peretz has nothing more urgent to do than to convene a special ministerial committee meeting to deal with settlers who insult Arabs. Leadership that is incapable of defending its citizens desperately needs an enemy that it can defeat. Israel's government is unwilling to fight the Arabs, but the settlers are a perfect target. Although government persecution of settlers has become the order of the day, Israel's security situation keeps deteriorating.
Even beginners know that the most important factor in security is deterrence. The Torah explicitly spells out how Israel can deter its enemies:
When the nations of the world see that we are united around our Jewish identity and faithful to the national ethical code that the Creator bestowed upon us, they understand that G-d is with us.
More than Israel's military blunders, it is its moral breakdown that has obliterated its deterrence. To restore the deterrence that Israel so sorely lacks, we need to return to our national culture, to respect ourselves and to reflect G-dliness in both our personal and national lives.
Of course we need an army. And it must be the most effective and professional army in the world. But without a strong, Jewish moral foundation, no re- organization will help. Manhigut Yehudit would first and foremost build a national ethical foundation that would ensure that its soldiers are motivated by a strong sense of the justice of their cause. The Western moral codes forced upon the army by the Supreme Court will be completely replaced by Jewish values. The army will be small, efficient and eager to fight. It will understand the intrinsic significance of the Land for which it fights and the People for whom it fights. The name of the Israel Defense Forces will be changed to the Israeli Army. Induction will be on a voluntary basis. Soldiers serving in combat units will receive national benefits that will reflect their self- sacrifice for the People of Israel.
Creating Deterrence
Any element hostile to Israel -- be it the heads of the regime in Iran or the terror heads in and around Israel -- must feel personally threatened. Israel's enemies must be afraid to provoke us:
Local Terror
Israel does not need to pursue either temporary or permanent peace agreements. They are nothing more than self-delusion at a costly price in blood. Any provocation or act of violence against Israel will exact a price that the Arab enemy understands: Loss of territory. Israel will conquer, declare sovereignty upon and settle any territory that serves as a launching point for terror.
Egypt
The suicide bombing in Eilat this week is a painful reminder that under the guise of 'peace,' Israel's shared border with Egypt has become its most dangerous frontier. Israel must remove the 'peace' mask behind which Egypt furthers policies directed at destroying us. The Egyptian border is a virtual super-highway for arms and explosives that stream unhindered from Sinai to the terrorists in Gaza. Israel's army is encumbered with a 'peace' dream. It is unprepared for any military attack by Egypt. Egypt, on the other hand, is well-trained and prepared to attack Israel. (Israel is the only enemy against which Egypt trains). The media silence that smoke-screens this huge fiasco is reminiscent of the pre-Yom Kippur War days.
Authentic Jewish leadership would first and foremost open its eyes and face the truth about our 'peaceful' neighbor to the south. Simple military preparedness on our border with Egypt would do a lot for Israel's deterrence on that foolishly open frontier.
Iran
The most dangerous enemy with whom we do not share a border is Iran. When Olmert and Netanyahu repeat that the world must unite against the Iranian threat, they are actually shirking responsibility. Israel must defend itself and not depend upon the nations of the world to do the job for it. Netanyahu's proposals for worldwide economic sanctions against Iran are likewise futile. Economic sanctions worked against South Africa because the liberal Left worldwide was united against the apartheid regime. But economic sanctions against Iran to protect Israel will not work. The world will not initiate them. It needs Iran to do its anti-Semitic dirty work.
Authentic Jewish leadership would clarify to Iran that its insane threats against Israel will be met with equally insane deterrence measures.
Where is The Opposition?
The polls show the Likud taking off while Kadimah is imploding. (Latest polls show support for Olmert down to a 'whopping' 3%). Israel's public is clearly disenchanted with Kadimah's corruption and Leftist policies. But the Likud's imminent election victory has nothing to do with Netanyahu's alternative plans, because he has none. It is simply a vote against the Left. Time and again, Netanyahu has proven that he is ensnared in the Left's judicial/media trap. He will not dare overstep the politically correct boundaries that the Left has delineated. From his infamous handshake with Arafat that practically destroyed the Right, to his vote in favor of the Disengagement and his support of Olmert's War of Deception, Netanyahu has been consistently incapable of resisting Leftist policies.
If Netanyahu is at the head of the Likud when it returns to power, he will proceed to fulfill the radical Left's dreams -- but with no Opposition. Only authentic Jewish leadership can provide Israel with true, Jewish alternatives and set it on its true course.
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