By Moshe Feiglin
Dear Friends,
It seems that G-d is reshuffling all the decks for the new year, 5769. It is happening in politics, in the world economy, in international relations and most likely - within each and every one of us.
We entered the year 5768 immediately following my highly publicized primary bid for the leadership of the Likud. The months that followed were void of great electoral campaigns. But they were chock-full of steady reach-out activity. My articles, television and radio interviews and no less important - countless meetings with the Likud membership throughout Israel - have significantly heightened public awareness and interest in the faith based leadership alternative. The complimentary polls and the enthusiasm with which our ideas are now greeted strengthen our confidence that we are definitely on the right track and progressing all the time.
Our support in the Likud is now very broad-based and is not at all limited to the people who registered for the Likud through Manhigut Yehudit. Our reach-out within the Likud has spilled over into the rest of Israeli society. As I have written countless times before, the Likud is a microcosm of Israeli society at large. The processes developing in the Likud are also taking place throughout Israel. Many more challenges still await us as we aim for leadership of the Likud. But it is clear that the path from leadership of the Likud to leadership of the entire nation will be considerably shorter.
We are at the threshold of a number of very important struggles. If no new government is formed soon in Israel, we will be going to general elections, which will be preceded by Likud primaries for the Knesset list. Even if a new government is formed, its future is hazy and we will nevertheless need to prepare for Likud primaries, which will take place in a year from now at the very most.
If general elections are not held soon, the Likud will hold elections for the Likud Central Committee. We must prepare ourselves for this important race. The Likud Central Committee is a highly influential body. For example, Bibi's proposal to parachute non-Likud, leftist celebrities into the top slots in the Likud evaporated when it became clear that it would never make it past the Likud Central Committee. Currently, Manhigut Yehudit has a significant amount of members on both the Central Committee and the various Likud committees. It is of utmost importance that we increase our strength in these committees even more.
Another challenge that awaits us in the new year is to restore those Manhigut Yehudit people who have let their Likud memberships lapse to active, paying status. The Likud secretariat has passed a decision to allow those people who stopped paying their dues to renew their membership status without the necessity of waiting 16 months to be allowed to vote again. As such, it is extremely important to make sure that your payments to the Likud are in order and to ensure that your family/friends/neighbors/ associates who used to be Likud members renew their memberships, as well. If you have any questions about your membership status, email us at manhigut@manhigut.org.
Our political activism is creating a Jewish revolution. Slowly but surely, we are bringing about a changing of the guard - ridding Israel of the tired, faithless and uninspired leadership that has led the State of Israel to date. Slowly but surely, we are transferring the leadership of Israel away from the elite that has controlled us since the birth of Zionism and restoring it to the Jewish majority. That is why the ruling elites are trying so hard to remove me from the Likud Knesset list. They want to preserve their control. Moshe Feiglin threatens it.
5769 will be a revolutionary year. We are doing all that we can to prepare for the greatest revolution of all - the faith based revolution.
I sincerely thank the thousands of Manhigut Yehudit supporters who constantly inject us with the strength to continue our struggle to provide Israel with authentic Jewish leadership. May G-d bless you all with a year of good health, happiness, and fulfillment and may all your aspirations become reality in the very best way.
I pray that we will have the merit to lead our nation in the coming year with genuine love of Israel and complete loyalty to G-d, the Land of Israel and the Nation of Israel.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Bibi's Palin
By Jason Gold
Give John McCain credit where credit is due. The so-called "maverick" and ideological Liberal/Independent in Republican clothing, his dance to the mythical center (left, in reality) was clearly not working and his campaign was floundering. In one bold stroke he did what he needed to do. In picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain re-energized the core conservative base of the Republican party and suddenly vaulted ahead of Obama in the polls. You can talk all you want about Palin's appeal to women and her folksy style but she is what McCain is not; a card-carrying conservative to the core who has the Republican DNA that McCain clearly lacks.
Bibi is Israel's John McCain. Bibi heads Likud the largest party in Israel, the nationalist right leaning party that is truly a "mini-Israel" but Bibi clearly lacks Likud DNA. Evidence? Let's go back to the general elections of 2005. Political experts weigh in and state that Bibi will win if he leans more rightward. So what does he do? He plunges ahead in an attempt to find Israel's mythical center, deviates the Likud to the left on all national/security issues in order to clone the Likud in Kadima's style. It's a master strategy and a winner...., for Kadima as Ehud Olmert a shy(ster) lawyer and empty suit wins the PM chair as head of the one-issue disengagement party (or as it has now come to be known "the expulsion-to-save Sharon's rear-end-from indictment" party) while his mentor cools his body and brain in vegetative hibernation.
Fast forward to 2008. As Tzipi Livni will now attempt to form a government that will give away everything and the kitchen sink (no matter what Shas says), Bibi clearly is intent on proving me right when I tell his supporters he will never change. He attempts to shove leftists such as Dan Meridor and Uzi Dayan as well as pseudo-settler and token dati Jew Yechiel Leiter (who by the way was Bibi's masterful campaign manager in 2005) onto the Likud eklection list as well as having about 3700 people that are registered for both Likud and Kadima in order to again move leftward towards that mythical Israeli center. Now why is Bibi doing this when again political experts are telling him to move right? Well, ironically enough, Bibi is trying to screw the Likud's Sarah Palin (in a political sense of course).
That's right folks, Bibi's and the Likud's version of Sarah Palin is none other than Moshe Feiglin of the Manhigut Yehudit faction in Likud. See Bibi watch Feiglin slowly climb the Likud ladder to become the second most powerful figure in Likud with an unswerving, incorruptible message of non-coercive faith-based leadership in order to form a true Jewish state. See Bibi watch Moshe's message take hold and begin to resonate with the Likudniks, both observant and secular. See Bibi try every dirty trick in the book to have Moshe thrown out of Likud or at least marginalized and shoved further down a list where no less a political expert than Ayala Chassan of Poplitika states that Moshe is within the top five of Likud. See Bibi know that Moshe will not be his poodle or cut any deals with him. See Bibi realize that it is Moshe and not he that truly possess the Likud DNA of leadership and despite political experts telling Bibi to stop the dirty tricks and embrace Feiglin rather than trying to hurt him as it will help both him and Likud, see Bibi not listen and repeat the mistakes of 2005 all over again.
You see Bibi, you have your own Sarah Palin right there in Likud in Moshe Feiglin. With him you could reach out to many people on the right and assure yourself and Likud victory in an upcoming election. But you also realize that Moshe will not toe the line for you in government and that you will not be able to silence him or buy him off. So you continue on your dysfunctional way and even talk of forming a unity government with the virtuoso pianist and part-time defense minister Ehud Barak, who except for the grace of Gd and Arafat's mind-numbing homicidal tendencies and Jew-hatred, almost succeeded in giving away most of Yesha and Jerusalem while acting as prime minister.
Unity governments never work Bibi but then again, why should I expect you to prove me wrong? You have not disappointed me yet. I cannot wait to see what happens if Livni does form a government and then if there is some relative peace and quiet. For then she will become media darling number one and you will sink into irrelevancy as the 80% of people who say they will vote for you but don't trust you, may just turn to someone else to lead the Likud. That someone? Your Sarah Palin, Bibi.
Give John McCain credit where credit is due. The so-called "maverick" and ideological Liberal/Independent in Republican clothing, his dance to the mythical center (left, in reality) was clearly not working and his campaign was floundering. In one bold stroke he did what he needed to do. In picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain re-energized the core conservative base of the Republican party and suddenly vaulted ahead of Obama in the polls. You can talk all you want about Palin's appeal to women and her folksy style but she is what McCain is not; a card-carrying conservative to the core who has the Republican DNA that McCain clearly lacks.
Bibi is Israel's John McCain. Bibi heads Likud the largest party in Israel, the nationalist right leaning party that is truly a "mini-Israel" but Bibi clearly lacks Likud DNA. Evidence? Let's go back to the general elections of 2005. Political experts weigh in and state that Bibi will win if he leans more rightward. So what does he do? He plunges ahead in an attempt to find Israel's mythical center, deviates the Likud to the left on all national/security issues in order to clone the Likud in Kadima's style. It's a master strategy and a winner...., for Kadima as Ehud Olmert a shy(ster) lawyer and empty suit wins the PM chair as head of the one-issue disengagement party (or as it has now come to be known "the expulsion-to-save Sharon's rear-end-from indictment" party) while his mentor cools his body and brain in vegetative hibernation.
Fast forward to 2008. As Tzipi Livni will now attempt to form a government that will give away everything and the kitchen sink (no matter what Shas says), Bibi clearly is intent on proving me right when I tell his supporters he will never change. He attempts to shove leftists such as Dan Meridor and Uzi Dayan as well as pseudo-settler and token dati Jew Yechiel Leiter (who by the way was Bibi's masterful campaign manager in 2005) onto the Likud eklection list as well as having about 3700 people that are registered for both Likud and Kadima in order to again move leftward towards that mythical Israeli center. Now why is Bibi doing this when again political experts are telling him to move right? Well, ironically enough, Bibi is trying to screw the Likud's Sarah Palin (in a political sense of course).
That's right folks, Bibi's and the Likud's version of Sarah Palin is none other than Moshe Feiglin of the Manhigut Yehudit faction in Likud. See Bibi watch Feiglin slowly climb the Likud ladder to become the second most powerful figure in Likud with an unswerving, incorruptible message of non-coercive faith-based leadership in order to form a true Jewish state. See Bibi watch Moshe's message take hold and begin to resonate with the Likudniks, both observant and secular. See Bibi try every dirty trick in the book to have Moshe thrown out of Likud or at least marginalized and shoved further down a list where no less a political expert than Ayala Chassan of Poplitika states that Moshe is within the top five of Likud. See Bibi know that Moshe will not be his poodle or cut any deals with him. See Bibi realize that it is Moshe and not he that truly possess the Likud DNA of leadership and despite political experts telling Bibi to stop the dirty tricks and embrace Feiglin rather than trying to hurt him as it will help both him and Likud, see Bibi not listen and repeat the mistakes of 2005 all over again.
You see Bibi, you have your own Sarah Palin right there in Likud in Moshe Feiglin. With him you could reach out to many people on the right and assure yourself and Likud victory in an upcoming election. But you also realize that Moshe will not toe the line for you in government and that you will not be able to silence him or buy him off. So you continue on your dysfunctional way and even talk of forming a unity government with the virtuoso pianist and part-time defense minister Ehud Barak, who except for the grace of Gd and Arafat's mind-numbing homicidal tendencies and Jew-hatred, almost succeeded in giving away most of Yesha and Jerusalem while acting as prime minister.
Unity governments never work Bibi but then again, why should I expect you to prove me wrong? You have not disappointed me yet. I cannot wait to see what happens if Livni does form a government and then if there is some relative peace and quiet. For then she will become media darling number one and you will sink into irrelevancy as the 80% of people who say they will vote for you but don't trust you, may just turn to someone else to lead the Likud. That someone? Your Sarah Palin, Bibi.
Driving the Likud Bus to a Jewish Destination
By Moshe Feiglin
Elul, 5768
Sept., '08
Translated from the NRG website.
The thirteenth of September passed uneventfully in Israel. It was supposed to have been a national holiday - the anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords.
The Left prefers to sweep the September 13th 'peace holiday' under the carpet. The date does not trigger many associations with peace, but it does conjure up painful images of exploding buses, guards at the entrance to every caf, separation barriers, Israel's lost power of deterrence and its low international standing. The bottom line is that the 13th of September is the date on which Israel surrendered the justice of its existence, gave up its struggle against the largest terror organization in the world and started the countdown to the loss of the fragile Jewish sovereignty that had been established in Israel after 2000 years of exile.
Today - 15 years after Oslo and three years after the destruction of Gush Katif, 99% of Israel's citizens understand that the Oslo path leads to destruction. There is no need to explain or convince. Even the great leftist pundits admit that the Expulsion was a mistake. No need to worry - they won't apologize. Not only that, but they will jump at the first opportunity to repeat the mistake. After all, self-destruction is an uncontrollable disease. But in the meantime, they admit that it was a mistake.
This presents us with an obvious question. Why is it that the political parties that warned against the danger of Oslo and the Expulsion - the National Union and other Orange parties - continue to sink in the polls? They were right and everybody knows it. Shouldn't that bring them more votes?
Of course they were right. But they have no plan to lead Israel. There are only three buses at the Israel National Bus Station; the Kadimah bus, the Labor bus and the Likud bus. The National Union has some billboards there, but it does not have a bus. There are also some private taxis at the station for sectoral passengers; the Shas taxi, the Arab taxi and even the Pensioners taxi. But there are only three buses open to everyone. The Israelis don't quite differentiate between the buses. They all drive on the Oslo highway and the only visible difference between them is in the names of their drivers.
After the major Zo Artzeinu demonstrations fifteen years ago, I understood that it is not enough to say, "I told you so." It is imperative to provide Israel with a different destination. The bus for the Jewish majority already exists. It is called the Likud. The Likud bus needs to offer its passengers a new, Jewish destination and a new driver to get it there.
The entire bus establishment has joined forces to throw me out of the bus. They are scared to death. Suddenly, the Jewish majority has created an alternative to Oslo. If I am elected, the pack of lies upon which the 'peace elite' has built its power for the last fifteen years is in danger of collapse. The inverted pyramid built by the 'enlightened' minority at the expense of the peace-drugged Jewish majority just may turn over and come to rest on its broad Jewish base. So the elites are doing their best to scare the public away from me. Even my name has turned into a type of epithet. My supporters are called "Feiglinites". If the elites turn me into a monster, they do not have to seriously debate my policies.
The good news is that the bus passengers have gotten the picture. "According to polls," Ayalah Chasson reported on the Politika television show last week, "Feiglin will be elected to one of the top five slots in the Likud, and he may even get a few more Feiglinites onto the list."
I firmly believe in the renewed Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. I firmly believe that in the end, we will triumph. The Nation of Israel has begun to wake up. It has no other choice.
Elul, 5768
Sept., '08
Translated from the NRG website.
The thirteenth of September passed uneventfully in Israel. It was supposed to have been a national holiday - the anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords.
The Left prefers to sweep the September 13th 'peace holiday' under the carpet. The date does not trigger many associations with peace, but it does conjure up painful images of exploding buses, guards at the entrance to every caf, separation barriers, Israel's lost power of deterrence and its low international standing. The bottom line is that the 13th of September is the date on which Israel surrendered the justice of its existence, gave up its struggle against the largest terror organization in the world and started the countdown to the loss of the fragile Jewish sovereignty that had been established in Israel after 2000 years of exile.
Today - 15 years after Oslo and three years after the destruction of Gush Katif, 99% of Israel's citizens understand that the Oslo path leads to destruction. There is no need to explain or convince. Even the great leftist pundits admit that the Expulsion was a mistake. No need to worry - they won't apologize. Not only that, but they will jump at the first opportunity to repeat the mistake. After all, self-destruction is an uncontrollable disease. But in the meantime, they admit that it was a mistake.
This presents us with an obvious question. Why is it that the political parties that warned against the danger of Oslo and the Expulsion - the National Union and other Orange parties - continue to sink in the polls? They were right and everybody knows it. Shouldn't that bring them more votes?
Of course they were right. But they have no plan to lead Israel. There are only three buses at the Israel National Bus Station; the Kadimah bus, the Labor bus and the Likud bus. The National Union has some billboards there, but it does not have a bus. There are also some private taxis at the station for sectoral passengers; the Shas taxi, the Arab taxi and even the Pensioners taxi. But there are only three buses open to everyone. The Israelis don't quite differentiate between the buses. They all drive on the Oslo highway and the only visible difference between them is in the names of their drivers.
After the major Zo Artzeinu demonstrations fifteen years ago, I understood that it is not enough to say, "I told you so." It is imperative to provide Israel with a different destination. The bus for the Jewish majority already exists. It is called the Likud. The Likud bus needs to offer its passengers a new, Jewish destination and a new driver to get it there.
The entire bus establishment has joined forces to throw me out of the bus. They are scared to death. Suddenly, the Jewish majority has created an alternative to Oslo. If I am elected, the pack of lies upon which the 'peace elite' has built its power for the last fifteen years is in danger of collapse. The inverted pyramid built by the 'enlightened' minority at the expense of the peace-drugged Jewish majority just may turn over and come to rest on its broad Jewish base. So the elites are doing their best to scare the public away from me. Even my name has turned into a type of epithet. My supporters are called "Feiglinites". If the elites turn me into a monster, they do not have to seriously debate my policies.
The good news is that the bus passengers have gotten the picture. "According to polls," Ayalah Chasson reported on the Politika television show last week, "Feiglin will be elected to one of the top five slots in the Likud, and he may even get a few more Feiglinites onto the list."
I firmly believe in the renewed Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. I firmly believe that in the end, we will triumph. The Nation of Israel has begun to wake up. It has no other choice.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Hyacinths and the Jewish Renaissance
By Moshe Feiglin
Elul, 5768
Sept., '08
Translated from the NRG website.
It's always hottest at the end of the summer. I am not a meteorologist and I have not checked the latest statistics. I just know that right now, the sun's rays are searing, the ground is dry as a bone and everything (and everyone) outside just seems limp and faded.
Everything except the hyacinths. Just when the summer heat seems to have baked our landscape and our senses into a dry, dull yellow, the hyacinths go into full bloom. There is something special about the hyacinths. How do they know - in the middle of this never-ending heat wave - that the seasons are about to change and that autumn is just around the corner? Obviously there is a botanical answer to that question. But for me, the hyacinths are a reminder of G-d's Invisible Hand behind the scenes, directing every last detail in our world and bringing these exquisite flowers to bloom just when we have been convinced that the heat and dryness of the summer will be here forever.
Currently, the hyacinth phenomenon is being played out in Israeli society. In the midst of the insufferable dryness and pessimism so prevalent in current Israeli culture, beneath the gloomy headlines and the permanent despair that have become part of our lives, Israeli society has begun to wake up. Behind all the politics and repulsive scandals, we are witnessing a Jewish renaissance.
Let's take the Jewish music scene as an example. It used to be that the only place that you could hear "Chassidic" music was on Arutz 7 or special "religious" radio spots. But then again, it used to be that the only Jewish music available was a verse from Psalms set to a few chords and oy oy oys. That is what was called Chassidic music. But in just a few short years, the Jewish music scene is in full creative bloom. Aharon Razael, Yonatan Razael, Ehud Banai and Shuli Rand (to name just a few) are regularly featured on mainstream Israeli radio by virtue of their talent and clean, rich compositions and lyrics - and not just to allow the radio stations to claim that they also cater to the religious public.
The authentic Jewish creative culture to which we are being treated is just the tip of the iceberg. Israelis are searching for their Jewish identity. The Israeli-ness that was supposed to have replaced Judaism instead of endowing it with the depth of statehood has turned out to be a false savior. So on whom can we rely? On Israeli politics? On its justice system? On the educational system? On our invincible army?
Israelis are returning to their roots. Not in the same way that they did in the seventies. Israelis are returning to their Jewish roots without making major changes in their lifestyles. They are remaining in their neighborhoods and in their social circles and workplaces. They are simply putting more emphasis on their Jewish identity. Like the hyacinths, something is blossoming here before the change of seasons. A research poll publicized a few months ago showed that young people in Israel are more traditional than their parents. The researchers expected just the opposite. Once again we see that the typical image of drugged teenagers partying throughout the night conceals what is occurring under the surface. These young people have lost their faith in the system - and are returning to their roots.
What is most surprising - and what you will not see in the media - is the fact that the average number of children per family in Israel is the highest in the Western world. And no - it is not just due to the high birth rates of the religious and Arabs. "I am working on my fifth" an obviously pregnant secular broadcaster recently told me. "Is that unusual in your circles?" I asked her. "Not at all," she answered. "In the afternoon, the back yard of our North Tel-Aviv (upper class, secular neighborhood) apartment building is filled with children playing," she added with a smile.
This coincides with what Yoram Ettinger and his staff of researchers have been saying for two years. There is no longer a demographic problem in Israel. Israelis are having at least as many babies as Arabs.
To the best of my memory, the last time that Israel experienced a "baby boom" was after the Six Day War. That is logical. The great victory and the romance of Israel's return to the Land of the Bible created a sense of prosperity and national awakening that reflected on the individual and the family. But now? With all the new Olmert scandals? With the wholesale release of terrorists? With the Iranian threat, the Kassams and all the other reasons for despair? What is the source of the optimism?
We are at the threshold of a new season. Just ask the hyacinths about the Invisible Hand. Somebody up there is waking us up and commanding us to blossom.
Elul, 5768
Sept., '08
Translated from the NRG website.
It's always hottest at the end of the summer. I am not a meteorologist and I have not checked the latest statistics. I just know that right now, the sun's rays are searing, the ground is dry as a bone and everything (and everyone) outside just seems limp and faded.
Everything except the hyacinths. Just when the summer heat seems to have baked our landscape and our senses into a dry, dull yellow, the hyacinths go into full bloom. There is something special about the hyacinths. How do they know - in the middle of this never-ending heat wave - that the seasons are about to change and that autumn is just around the corner? Obviously there is a botanical answer to that question. But for me, the hyacinths are a reminder of G-d's Invisible Hand behind the scenes, directing every last detail in our world and bringing these exquisite flowers to bloom just when we have been convinced that the heat and dryness of the summer will be here forever.
Currently, the hyacinth phenomenon is being played out in Israeli society. In the midst of the insufferable dryness and pessimism so prevalent in current Israeli culture, beneath the gloomy headlines and the permanent despair that have become part of our lives, Israeli society has begun to wake up. Behind all the politics and repulsive scandals, we are witnessing a Jewish renaissance.
Let's take the Jewish music scene as an example. It used to be that the only place that you could hear "Chassidic" music was on Arutz 7 or special "religious" radio spots. But then again, it used to be that the only Jewish music available was a verse from Psalms set to a few chords and oy oy oys. That is what was called Chassidic music. But in just a few short years, the Jewish music scene is in full creative bloom. Aharon Razael, Yonatan Razael, Ehud Banai and Shuli Rand (to name just a few) are regularly featured on mainstream Israeli radio by virtue of their talent and clean, rich compositions and lyrics - and not just to allow the radio stations to claim that they also cater to the religious public.
The authentic Jewish creative culture to which we are being treated is just the tip of the iceberg. Israelis are searching for their Jewish identity. The Israeli-ness that was supposed to have replaced Judaism instead of endowing it with the depth of statehood has turned out to be a false savior. So on whom can we rely? On Israeli politics? On its justice system? On the educational system? On our invincible army?
Israelis are returning to their roots. Not in the same way that they did in the seventies. Israelis are returning to their Jewish roots without making major changes in their lifestyles. They are remaining in their neighborhoods and in their social circles and workplaces. They are simply putting more emphasis on their Jewish identity. Like the hyacinths, something is blossoming here before the change of seasons. A research poll publicized a few months ago showed that young people in Israel are more traditional than their parents. The researchers expected just the opposite. Once again we see that the typical image of drugged teenagers partying throughout the night conceals what is occurring under the surface. These young people have lost their faith in the system - and are returning to their roots.
What is most surprising - and what you will not see in the media - is the fact that the average number of children per family in Israel is the highest in the Western world. And no - it is not just due to the high birth rates of the religious and Arabs. "I am working on my fifth" an obviously pregnant secular broadcaster recently told me. "Is that unusual in your circles?" I asked her. "Not at all," she answered. "In the afternoon, the back yard of our North Tel-Aviv (upper class, secular neighborhood) apartment building is filled with children playing," she added with a smile.
This coincides with what Yoram Ettinger and his staff of researchers have been saying for two years. There is no longer a demographic problem in Israel. Israelis are having at least as many babies as Arabs.
To the best of my memory, the last time that Israel experienced a "baby boom" was after the Six Day War. That is logical. The great victory and the romance of Israel's return to the Land of the Bible created a sense of prosperity and national awakening that reflected on the individual and the family. But now? With all the new Olmert scandals? With the wholesale release of terrorists? With the Iranian threat, the Kassams and all the other reasons for despair? What is the source of the optimism?
We are at the threshold of a new season. Just ask the hyacinths about the Invisible Hand. Somebody up there is waking us up and commanding us to blossom.
Recipe for Victory
"When you go out to war against your enemies and G-d will give him into your hands."
(From this week's Torah portion, Ki Tetzei, Deuteronomy 21:10)
This verse is simple in its optimism. Israel goes out to war and G-d gives them victory. Simple as it may be, it is the Divine recipe for victory in war.
First of all, "When you go out to war". War - not a "low intensity conflict" and not "containment." The first condition is to define the situation as war and to invest the resources and fortitude necessary for war.
Secondly, "against your enemies." In a war, there is an enemy. He must be clear and defined. But in order to define the enemy, one must first define himself. If you know who you are, you can know what threatens you, and find the strength and courage to define and defeat it.
When Israel will integrate its Jewish identity into its national life, it will easily define its enemies. And then, G-d promises, He will "give them into our hands."
(From this week's Torah portion, Ki Tetzei, Deuteronomy 21:10)
This verse is simple in its optimism. Israel goes out to war and G-d gives them victory. Simple as it may be, it is the Divine recipe for victory in war.
First of all, "When you go out to war". War - not a "low intensity conflict" and not "containment." The first condition is to define the situation as war and to invest the resources and fortitude necessary for war.
Secondly, "against your enemies." In a war, there is an enemy. He must be clear and defined. But in order to define the enemy, one must first define himself. If you know who you are, you can know what threatens you, and find the strength and courage to define and defeat it.
When Israel will integrate its Jewish identity into its national life, it will easily define its enemies. And then, G-d promises, He will "give them into our hands."
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