As A Servant Before His Master

By Moshe Feiglin

20 Iyar 5761
May 13, 2001

Translated from Moshe Feiglin's book, "The War of Dreams."

The Arab positioned on the Abu Sneinah hill overlooking the playground in the Jewish Quarter of Hebron watched the children playing in the sandbox. Every time he managed to set his sites on a child's head, the "target" would jump to another slide or rocking horse. The children were so busy playing that they didn't notice the sand being kicked up every time a bullet would miss its mark.

But then a young mother with a baby in a stroller neared the sandbox. A baby in a stroller doesn't jump around so much. The Arab, already impatient, had found his target.

In the same country and in those same days, a nice, young man started a new and promising job. The man had just finished his term as the official leader of the settlers -- chairman of the Yesha Council. Now he was to take up his new position -- Bureau Chief of the man who had given the Abu Sneinah hills to the Arabs and in whose merit the Arab sniper could now choose his target, unhindered.

A stranger wouldn't understand it. It seems totally mad. The former leader of the settlers hires himself out to the person who betrayed his constituency, abandoned them to murderers and even supplied the murderers with additional weapons. If the former settler leader was a corrupt person, we would at least have a convenient, personal-weakness explanation. But that is not the case. The man is honest, intelligent, cares deeply about the settlements in Yesha and has dedicated his life to the settlement movement.

The question is even more potent when we think about the settlers' approach to this former leader. How can they allow someone who has so shamefully betrayed them to take on his new position as Netanyahu's right-hand-man without so much as a protest? How could it be that we did not hear of demonstrations and sit-ins outside his house? How could it be that we did not hear of petitions and protest letters from Hebron's Jewish residents? Even the Right-wing Makor Rishon newspaper, in a featured interview with the new Bureau Chief, didn't confuse him with this basic question.

A large rally supporting the settlers of Yesha is now being publicized. And who is the guest speaker? It's not hard to guess: former Prime Minster, Binyamin Netanyahu. The rally organizers are well aware of Bibi's character. They know that if Netanyahu becomes Prime Minister again, G-d forbid, he will even be worse than Sharon. But the organizers think that Netanyahu is the only tool that we can use to pressure Sharon.

This type of thinking seems to be pragmatism at its best. But it is this pragmatism that has been clearing the way for destruction for over twenty

years. The Yesha leaders are not taking advantage of Netanyahu. Netanyahu, in his typical cynicism, is taking advantage of them. Neither Sharon nor Netanyahu have a dedicated group of "foot soldiers." The only people who consistently volunteer to help them when they need it are the naïve Religious Zionists. In a nutshell, the Religious Zionists have become political cannon fodder.

Slowly but surely, the Religious Zionist public has lost its sense of honor. And when there is no honor, there is no life. Literally. The settlers' blood is cheap because their honor is cheap. An individual can forgo his own honor, but it is forbidden for a leader to forgo the honor of his constituents. And when the leaders of the Yesha settlements go to work for the man who gave weapons to the murderers and betrayed the Land of Israel, the message is loud and clear. The public who sent them has no honor or values and its blood is less red than anyone else's.

Why doesn't the belief based public stand up on its own two feet? Why doesn't it break the rhythm of the pendulum as it oscillates between two bad options?

The answer is that the Yesha leadership is well aware that Netanyahu surrendered Hebron to the Arabs. But Netanyahu, Sharon, Silvan Shalom, Limor Livnat and the other "Right wing" politicians are the only connection currently available between the Religious Zionist ideology and secular Zionism. If the Religious Zionists reject the current Likud leaders, Religious Zionism will then be disconnected from both the Left arm of Zionism and its Right arm. Religious Zionism draws its legitimacy from secular Zionism. It sees itself as nothing more than a spice for the main course. And if the main course is rejected, there is no reason for the spice.

Religious Zionism teaches that we are in the redemptive "process." A "process" is something that plays itself out on its own. It is not dependant on what we do or do not do and we are not supposed to tamper with historical developments to make them happen. One miraculous day, Religious Zionism teaches, the secular leadership will return to their religious roots and lead the Return to Zion as per Rabbi Kook's teachings. All that we, the Religious Zionist public, have to do is run slightly ahead of the secular leaders. But we must not lead them. So we ran ahead of them, and now, when we look behind us, we discover that we are alone.

For years, the Religious Zionists have deluded themselves into thinking that Zionism is beginning to flow in their direction. True, they admit, the Zionists do not fulfill the commandments, but their hearts are in the right place. In the end the Messiah will come and somehow everything will work out. In this way, Religious Zionism adopted an ultra-Orthodox approach and made no attempt to lead the State with its own ideology.

Religious Zionism is now stuck at the banks of the Israeli Rubicon. It does not want to retreat into ultra-Orthodoxy but it cannot progress into Israeli-ness.

The only real attempt to break out of the Reservation and enter Zionist history was during the first settlement efforts in Samaria. The settlement movement had the potential to create a true revolution that would lead to the establishment of a Jewish State. That is why they drove the Left and the entire world crazy. But instead, the settlement movement turned into the irritating sector of the State of the Jews. The settlers did not attempt to develop a microcosm of a just society in their settlements. They did not proudly display this new model for all the country and world to see. They continued to draw their legitimacy from secular Zionism -- first from the Zionist Left, and later from the Zionist Right.

That's how it goes. A servant that is constantly the victim of the whip and humiliation of his master will always be happy to be dependant on him. He

will even see it as a great honor. The leaders of the settlers have betrayed no one. They are simply servants of secular Zionism.

Six years have passed since this article was written, and the situation has deteriorated even further. Israel needs Jewish leadership for its very survival. Those who claim that all that is needed is more nationalistic, "Right wing" leadership, have missed the point. If G-d is left out of the equation, the State of Israel will continue to flounder -- no matter how right wing its elected leaders may be. Without G-d, they will be forced to be pragmatic, as their predecessors have proven time and again. Manhigut Yehudit is the only movement that has made genuine, Jewish leadership for Israel its goal. Now more than ever, Israel needs Manhigut Yehudit.

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