No Holiness, No Jerusalem

By Moshe Feiglin

We explained, we shouted, we cried - nothing helped. The Likud Central Committee essentially erased the Likud and concentrated all the power in Netanyahu's hands as he heads toward the partition of Jerusalem. The national values that once motivated the fledgling state's magnificent underground movements have dissipated and can no longer head off trouble before it comes our way. For those to whom the concepts of holiness are foreign, the Land of Israel remains simple real estate. Including Jerusalem.

"Actually, why not partition Jerusalem and bring peace?" veteran broadcaster Chaim Yavin asked me in a radio interview last Friday. "Because it is holy," I answered. "You don't partition your mother and those who ask questions like that also lose their grasp on the Yarkon Park." (Tel Aviv)

Just as we predicted, as soon as Netanyahu got what he wanted from the Likud Central Committee, he scurried off to sell Jerusalem. As seasoned radio commentator Razi Barkai reported on Monday, "I am getting reports from all kinds of places on an agreement between Netanyahu and Obama on a building freeze in Jerusalem." The Ha'aretz newspaper reports that the negotiations will begin with core- issue discussions. In other words, on Jerusalem. All that we can do is to wait and see how much time will pass until the full extent of the betrayal will be clear to the Israeli public and if Am Yisrael will wake up in time to prevent the collapse.

It is not only Jerusalem that is on the drawing boards. The dismantling of Israel's nuclear capabilities is also open for discussion.
"Would you like to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons? No problem. Make 'peace,' retreat from the 'occupied territories' and dismantle your nuclear weapons. Just like everyone else." In other words, settlements-in-exchange-for-stopping-Iran was nothing more than an early-bird sale. Now the ante has been raised, and it will be raised even more. Why shouldn't it? If Israel allows everyone to walk all over her, that is exactly what will happen.

It makes no difference that there is no peace and that there will be no peace. It makes no difference that Iran will keep speeding ahead toward nuclear capabilities even after Israel will agree to dismantle its own. It is irrelevant that Israel never signed the nuclear non-proliferation pact and thus does not owe anybody any type of adherence. An international chorus from Egypt via Washington and the capitals of the West, and all the way to the editorials in Ha'aretz will vociferously demand the dismantling of Israel's nuclear capabilities. Israel's atom will be defined as the number one cause of the instability in the Middle East (while the opposite is true, of course) and countries from all around the world will call for sanctions against insubordinate, dangerous and aggressive Israel. All the green movements in the world will focus their protests on the nuclear plant in Dimona and on boycotting Israel and the local and international media will have a field day.

Bibi will try to "maneuver" and to win time in this impossible situation. Iran will continue to charge ahead with its nuclear program while world attention will refuse to deal with it, preferring, instead, to focus on Israel's bomb.

Then, sadly, we will be able to say "We told you so." In fact, it is already important for us to say "We told you so." Not because that will make us feel better (it won't!). Simply because the fact is that there was only one movement that warned of the impending storm and fought against Netanyahu when the entire Right praised his loyalty to Jerusalem.

When the extent of Netanyahu's betrayal will surface and the mad political scurry will begin, Israel will need brave leadership to replace him. Many of those politicians who remained silent or who even helped Netanyahu last week will try at that point to jump on our bandwagon. That is why it is important from right now - as the facts about Netanyahu's actions begin to assemble before our eyes - to remind everyone that we told you so. The same people who correctly read reality and had the courage to swim against the stream and sound the warning while everyone was still dreaming will have the tools to lead us to safe shores.

And now what?

We have been receiving an endless stream of telephone calls and supportive letters from Manhigut Yehudit supporters and from Jews throughout Israel and the world. There is no doubt that the struggle that revealed the betrayal of Jerusalem - the struggle between two very unequal forces - moved many good people.

"I was touched to see a politician cry over something - and even more so, over Jerusalem," wrote one person.

"I remembered the words of our Sages: He who mourns for Jerusalem will merit to witness its joy," wrote another.

"Don't give up, don't despair," wrote many more.

A young man who teaches in a yeshiva for newly observant Jews told me that what he saw on Thursday prevented him from disassociating from reality and waiting numbly for Mashiach's arrival. "When I saw a leader who really cares, it re-connected me to my Torah, back to reality and back to the Nation of Israel."

Those who think that we have been broken need not fear. We have never been stronger, more determined or closer to achieving our goals. It is impossible to stop the faith based revolution. It is already part of Israel's essence. It is bursting forth from all strata of Israeli society. In the future, nobody will remember the Bibi vs. Feiglin battles. But clearly, the State of Israel will be much more than Bibi's dream of "a place under the sun." Israel will be the state that heralds the Jewish message of perfecting the world in the Kingdom of Heaven - and all humanity will stop to listen.