By Moshe Feiglin
The Shishinski Report is another chapter in the never-ending struggle between socialism and capitalism. Is it permissible for a state to appropriate profits (in this case, from a natural gas discovery) that it deems unreasonable, to renege on previous commitments and signed contracts with investors (in other words, to rob) and to distribute those profits to "society?"The Torah approach to private property is clearly capitalistic. The Torah laws of returning lost items to their owners, for example, do not exist in any other national codex. The Torah relates to an individual's property as to part of his body - an integral component of his being. When one returns a lost item to its owner, he has actually restored a piece of his life. There is no other worldview with as deep an understanding of property rights as is taught in the Torah.
Absolute socialist ideologies - the type that completely nullify property rights - always led to mass murder: Mao, Stalin, and Pol Pot hold the world records for mass murder in their own countries.
Is the Torah strictly capitalistic? If so, what about the laws of Jubilee, when all the portions of land are re-distributed on a "social" basis? And what about the laws that obligate a field-owner to leave part of his yield for the poor? What if he doesn't want to give to the poor? What if he thinks that if they want to eat, they should go to work? These laws seem to contradict the principle of property rights.
The Torah definition of economic liberty draws its authority from G-d - not from man. Capitalism? Yes! But not capitalism that places man at center stage. Capitalism has to place G-d at center stage. It must be informed by the knowledge that all is from Him and all flows to Him. Capitalism must elevate personal property to the status of a 'loan' from G-d, to Whom everything belongs. 100% property rights between one man and the next; zero property rights between man and G-d.
And what happens when capitalism places man at center stage? While the ultimate outcome of man-focused capitalism is not as bad as socialism, it eventually broadens societal gaps so that only a relative few enjoy society's wealth. The inevitable revolt will generally send the pendulum swinging back in the direction of socialism.
It is only the Jewish liberty paradigm that unties the Gordian knot between the two economic approaches and paves the way for true economic liberty.
And what of national liberty?
The entire world is in an uproar over the El-Jezirah leaks. The Creator is telling His children - loud and clear - "The Land of Israel is yours! I have designated the Land of Israel exclusively for you. You cannot give it to anyone because you have received it from Me. I have entrusted the Land of Israel to you so that you may fulfill your destiny from within its boundaries.”
Even an individual Jew cannot give his portion of the Land to anyone else forever- but only until the Jubilee year. Not only is the Land holy to the nation as a whole, but it is also holy to each and every individual Jew.
The source of our national liberty is the fact that the Land does not belong to us, but rather, to G-d. In the Torah, G-d promises that even if we lose our hold on the Land, no other nation will establish a sovereign entity within it. And true to that Divine decree, no other nation-state has ever risen in the Land of Israel since it was initially conquered by Joshua. All the attempts to establish a "Palestinian" state within its borders will never succeed.
It is not difficult to understand that the Arabs of Gaza and Shechem have no intention of establishing a "Palestinian" state. Never has an ethnic group received such generous aid and beneficial conditions with which to establish a state. Nonetheless, that state has not been born.
From the standpoint of the Arabs of Gaza and Shechem, the current situation, in which they are being provided for by the entire world in their "national" struggle against the Jews, is perfect. Their strategic goal is the destruction of Israel. Their short-term goal is to leach whatever they can from it. True, once they succeed in their strategic goal, they will no longer have a source of sustenance. But that type of contradiction only exists in Western thinking. It does not exist in Islamic thinking. A perfect example of this type of thinking is former MK Azmi Bashara and the hefty salary he was being paid by the state, which didn't prevent him from helping the Hizbollah aim its missiles into Israel's cities.
Israel has maneuvered itself into a place in which all the states in the world recognize "Palestine" under conditions that no government in Israel can accept. This is a great success for the leadership of the Arabs of Gaza and Shechem - a success that is completely the fruit of Israeli efforts. When the UN will recognize "Palestine," Israel will become a foreign conqueror and its leaders will officially be criminals. No Israeli leader will be able to leave the country. In short, the Arabs will get much more than they ever wanted. They will bring Israel to its knees. But they will never, G-d forbid, get what they fear most: a "Palestinian" state.
In the words of British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin in his 1947 speech transferring the British Mandate to the UN, "For the Jews, the main point is the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state. For the Arabs, the main point is to oppose Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine to the very end."
The Arabs have proven time and again that they have no genuine aspirations for a state of their own. Their true goal is to prevent the Jews from having a state of their own. And what is the source of their motivation to keep fighting after watching Israel grow and prosper all these years ? Not despair, as the Left would have us believe, but hope that they are nearing their goal. Hope that the State of Israel has fanned into a flame that has become a true threat to its existence.
Even an individual Jew cannot give his portion of the Land to anyone else forever- but only until the Jubilee year. Not only is the Land holy to the nation as a whole, but it is also holy to each and every individual Jew.
The source of our national liberty is the fact that the Land does not belong to us, but rather, to G-d. In the Torah, G-d promises that even if we lose our hold on the Land, no other nation will establish a sovereign entity within it. And true to that Divine decree, no other nation-state has ever risen in the Land of Israel since it was initially conquered by Joshua. All the attempts to establish a "Palestinian" state within its borders will never succeed.
It is not difficult to understand that the Arabs of Gaza and Shechem have no intention of establishing a "Palestinian" state. Never has an ethnic group received such generous aid and beneficial conditions with which to establish a state. Nonetheless, that state has not been born.
From the standpoint of the Arabs of Gaza and Shechem, the current situation, in which they are being provided for by the entire world in their "national" struggle against the Jews, is perfect. Their strategic goal is the destruction of Israel. Their short-term goal is to leach whatever they can from it. True, once they succeed in their strategic goal, they will no longer have a source of sustenance. But that type of contradiction only exists in Western thinking. It does not exist in Islamic thinking. A perfect example of this type of thinking is former MK Azmi Bashara and the hefty salary he was being paid by the state, which didn't prevent him from helping the Hizbollah aim its missiles into Israel's cities.
Israel has maneuvered itself into a place in which all the states in the world recognize "Palestine" under conditions that no government in Israel can accept. This is a great success for the leadership of the Arabs of Gaza and Shechem - a success that is completely the fruit of Israeli efforts. When the UN will recognize "Palestine," Israel will become a foreign conqueror and its leaders will officially be criminals. No Israeli leader will be able to leave the country. In short, the Arabs will get much more than they ever wanted. They will bring Israel to its knees. But they will never, G-d forbid, get what they fear most: a "Palestinian" state.
In the words of British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin in his 1947 speech transferring the British Mandate to the UN, "For the Jews, the main point is the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state. For the Arabs, the main point is to oppose Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine to the very end."
The Arabs have proven time and again that they have no genuine aspirations for a state of their own. Their true goal is to prevent the Jews from having a state of their own. And what is the source of their motivation to keep fighting after watching Israel grow and prosper all these years ? Not despair, as the Left would have us believe, but hope that they are nearing their goal. Hope that the State of Israel has fanned into a flame that has become a true threat to its existence.
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