The Last Days of Pompeii?

By Moshe Feiglin

How many Israelis are we willing to kill in order to free Gilad Shalit? Ten? Twenty? One thousand?

According to the facts compiled by the terror victim organization Almagor, 200 Israelis have been murdered directly by released terrorists. This figure does not take the morale-boosting effect that prisoner releases have on the terrorists in general and the people murdered as a result, into account.

Strangely enough, though, all the demonstrations and pressure to free Gilad are based on the assumption that we will release terrorists, who will proceed to kill Jews - exactly what happened when we released terrorists in the past. Not one of the protesters or petition signers proposes that we go to war to get Gilad back, or take any other type of assertive action. What they are demanding is that we take Israel's general collapse one step further.

Why does everything seem upside down? Why did we insist on losing in Gaza when we were so close to defeating Hamas? We could have freed Gilad Shalit and ended the vicious cycle of kidnappings and murders. Why do murderers like Barghouti get the royal treatment in our jails while Pollard, a Jew who sacrificed everything for our country, is so cynically betrayed? Are we worthy of the self-sacrifice of the soldiers that we send off to battle while already setting the stage for their defeat? Are we worthy of the self sacrifice of the spies that we send to risk their lives for us?

The Hamas, Hizbollah, Iran and all of our surrounding enemies claim that the entire Land of Israel is theirs. Israel's claim, however, is simply that we have the right to defend ourselves. In other words, one side is saying, "It's mine!" while the other is saying, "Just let me live." Have you ever heard official Israel explain that this is our land?

Why can't we also proudly say that this is our land? Why don't we present an intrinsically ethical claim that would take the moral high ground against the Arab falsehood? The answer is that first of all, we have no rights to this land. The first line of Israel's Declaration of Independence, "In the Land of Israel the Jewish Nation came into being" and quite a bit of the rest of the document is balderdash. The Nation of Israel came into being as a nation of slaves outside the Land of Israel. Most of its spiritual treasures - including the Torah itself - made their first appearance outside the Land of Israel. The entire Israeli attempt to create a connection to the land similar to the natural connection of other nations to their lands is doomed to fail.

We do not have rights to this land, but we do have a plethora of obligations toward it. For the Jewish People, the Land of Israel is the venue upon which we realize our destiny. The Land of Israel is not the goal. When we fulfill our destiny, we merit the Land of Israel much more than any other nation merits its own land. And when we attempt to escape our destiny - we lose our merit and lose the Land.

When Israel flees its Jewish identity, it is incapable of saying that this is our land. That is why it cannot win any war. Just imagine if we had really defeated the Hamas in Gaza. We would have had to organize the society there and rule. In short, we would have had to implement our sovereignty in Gaza. But we don't even believe that this is our land. All we want is to defend ourselves. So we hurriedly fled Gaza before we would - perish the thought - win.

O.k., so we don't believe that this is our land. But why do we release the murderers of our children? Why do we encourage the continued kidnappings? What makes an entire nation commit collective suicide?

Politicians do not make long term plans. What they need is short-term popularity. If Israel's lost sense of justice has brought about a mentality of disintegration, then there is no more reason to stubbornly preserve anything. I have written about Pollard many times, and I often receive responses that justify his continued imprisonment. Israel identifies with its enemies because it has lost its own sense of justice. Barghouti is a hero while in the eyes of many identity-challenged Jews, Pollard is an American who betrayed the US and deserves to be in jail.

This disintegration mentality makes our leadership react as if it is running a fire sale. It doesn't stop at surrendering parts of our homeland and releasing murderers who our soldiers risked their lives to apprehend. When Olmert, with the generous help of Attorney General Mazuz, attempts to present his friend with a gift of Bank Leumi or when former Speaker of the House Avraham Burg takes advantage of his connections to do something similar with the Israel Military Industries (as reported in last month's B'Sheva newspaper) then we are dealing with much more than petty corruption. We are dealing with corruption on the backdrop of the Last Days of Pompeii. If everything here is temporary anyway; the terrorists caught today will be released tomorrow, the State's assets will be lost in any case - then why shouldn't those people who can squeeze a few more drops of temporary popularity out of a prisoner release or make a few more dollars for their personal bank accounts from the public coffers do so?

Ultimately, we will have leadership that will proudly claim that this is our land. And when it does so, it will restore our lost sense of justice and our power of deterrence. It will end corruption and be free to build an exemplary society. It may take a bit more time, but if Israel wants to have a future, we simply have no other choice.