Israel's Front Porch

By Moshe Feiglin

12 Cheshvan, 5771
Oct. 20, '10

Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG website.

I get to Elmatan almost every morning - on my mountain bike. The dried creek beds and mountains on the way there and back provide me with half an hour of solace and physical fitness that are the dream of every mountain rider. After ten years of riding here and playing catch with the sun's first morning rays, I thought that I had already seen all the different views from Elmatan. Nevertheless, it is important for me to share this picture of the Elmatan synagogue with you:

Elmatan is a "mixed" outpost - a neighborhood of the Ma'aleh Shomron settlement that is open to everyone - with or without a kippah on his head. They built the synagogue pictured here about a year ago. Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the synagogue to be sealed off. Mosques are popping up like mushrooms after the rain in this entire area - which is under Israeli jurisdiction - and nobody dares touch them. But the synagogue within the boundaries of the Elmatan settlement unhinges the "rule of law" clan. Their norms dictate that the Arabs here are permanent while the Jews are a passing phenomenon. I am talking about Tel Aviv, of course.

Due to the fact that last week it looked like the government was going to seal off the synagogue, the residents of Elmatan asked the residents of Ginot Shomron, where I live, to come and boost the regular prayers there. And so, after my bike ride and shower, I picked up my son and we drove over to Elmatan for the morning prayers.

There are more panoramic views of the country than from Elmatan. From Moshe Zar's house at the top of the mountain, for example, the entire State of Israel is laid out on the palm of your hand; from the slopes of the Carmel Mountain all the way down to the shores of Gaza. I stood there once on a clear day and watched the unloading of coal for the power plant in Hadera through my binoculars. In his better days, Arik Sharon would bring US senators to the home of his buddy from Israel's famous battles and explain the strategic importance of Judea and Samaria to the American lawmakers from Moshe Zar's back yard. "Israel's front porch," he would call it.

I do not believe in basing our claim to the Land of Israel on security interests. It simply does not work. We are here in the Land of Israel because it is ours, because this is our Land and our home and this is our life. Without it, we have no ability to build, strengthen our character and fulfill our destiny. We are here in the most simple and natural way and whoever tries to take this Land from me will have to kill me first. If you are not feeling up to the task of keeping and guarding this Land, you can leave. But nobody has the right to uproot Jews from their homes and their Land. This is very simple and has no connection to the welfare of Tel Aviv with or without the Shomron.

Nevertheless, when a photographer arrived in Elmatan, I asked her to take a picture of the view glittering before my eyes at 6:30 a.m. from the synagogue that the High Court ordered sealed.

Never mind the fact that from here they will fire Katyushas at Tel Aviv, just like they fire them now at Be'er Sheva from the ruins of Gush Katif. That is really not the point. I just felt that there is so much symbolism in this surrealistic sight of the state of Tel Aviv spread out below the small synagogue from which - among other things - it draws the justification for its existence - and which it insists on destroying.

All the towers there, at the feet of the small synagogue, all the modern interchanges and even the permanent cloud of pollution over Tel Aviv that can be detected in the photo - all this amazing achievement of Zionism is planted on shifting sands. The more that we have disengaged from our Land and our identity, the more we have lost the legitimacy for the very existence of a Jewish state on the face of the earth. We have all the military prowess necessary to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat. But we lack the fortitude and courage to do what we must for the coming generations because deep down, we have lost our faith in the justice of our existence here.

If it is illegal to build a synagogue in Israel's heartland, then certainly the Azrieli Towers there on the coastal lowlands are not legitimate. Soon there will be Congressional elections in the US. Afterwards, the cat in the Oval Office will come back to derisively torment the Israeli mouse and invigorate world anti-Semitism. And then what will we do? On whom and on what will we rely after we have invalidated the justice of our existence here with our very own hands?

Physically, Elmatan hinges on Tel Aviv. But the opposite is also true. Just look at what happened to the State of Israel after the destruction of Gush Katif. Just look at how our international legitimacy has eroded, how the dangers surrounding us have intensified and how the ability to defend ourselves has been abrogated.

This week the sealing of the synagogue in Elmatan has been postponed. Tel Aviv can breathe a sigh of relief.