Anticipation and Revolutions

By Moshe Feiglin

4 Adar II, 5771
March 10, '11

Editor's note: This article was written following last week's extreme police brutality at the demolition of Jewish homes on the Gilad Farm hilltop community.

Amona was the beginning of Olmert's end. If Netanyahu will allow those same dark forces to continue to lead the nation in the direction we saw this week on the Gilad Farm, it will be the end of his government, as well.

Olmert had calculated that if Sharon expelled the Jews from Gush Katif and his political base strengthened as a result, he would do the same. And if Sharon acted with determination, then he - Olmert - would do even better and act with cruelty. But Olmert misread the map. The public was disgusted by the pictures from Amona. His popularity clearly began to erode from the day that his troops descended on Amona until it dissipated into oblivion.

Netanyahu is not the same type of scoundrel as Olmert. As he explained in the Likud faction meeting, he is under strong international pressure, to which he has apparently succumbed. Netanyahu left the conditions of surrender to others. It is reasonable to assume that it suited him well to allow Ehud Barak, Shai Nitzan and their cohorts to stage this week's war against the hilltop pioneers; settlers and builders of the Land of Israel, in an attempt to lay new ground rules for dealing with them.

Whether Netanyahu knew of their intended actions or not, he cannot escape his responsibility for the abominable conduct of his police forces. If he does not absolutely negate the use of weapons against settlers, his political end will be similar to Olmert's.

There is a question, however, that we must ask: Why does this happen time and again to Religious Zionism?
In his monumental commentary on his times, brilliant author, philosopher and Lehi fighter Shabtai Ben Dov (1924-1979) humbly criticized Rabbi Kook's approach to the emerging State of Israel. In my humble opinion, Ben Dov's criticism explains Kfar Maimon, the Gilad Farm and everything in between.

After an introduction in which Ben Dov writes how much he admires and respects Rabbi Kook's vision he continues (excerpts): "Although Rabbi Kook envisioned the dialectic of the redemption and knew that in the future it would take place through the separation of the dynamic foundation from the static tradition and their renewed bond on a Messianic base, he himself remained entirely subject to the static foundation. In other words, although he envisioned the entire process from beginning to end, he remained a visionary, an onlooker. He maintained the old, exile-pattern anticipation so that it would be prepared to contribute its part in the holistic merging that will be created sometime in the future."

Those who are simply in anticipation-mode cannot exit the gates of Kfar Maimon. And when they finally do emerge to their own form of disengagement - instead of merging with the dynamic redemptive foundation - they open the gate to public demonization, despite the basic sympathy that the public has for their cause.

The Gilad Farm pioneers are true heroes and we stand behind them and their positive energies. The police and those who gave them their abominable orders will ultimately pay for their conduct and we will do all that we can to ensure that justice is done soon. But it is important to understand that it is impossible to run away from responsibility. We cannot flee our responsibility to lead Israel. We cannot flee to the "state supremacy approach" that answers Amen after every abomination of the regime and not to the hilltop approach that separates itself from the rest of the nation. Although the hilltop approach engenders much more respect, both approaches flee the responsibility to lead the Nation of Israel to its destiny, preferring to remain in anticipation-mode.

We have entered an era of revolutions. The revolutionary winds blowing through the Middle East will not skip over Israel. We do not know when it will happen and how it will take place. But the hunger for meaning in our lives in Israel will ultimately prevail. When the sovereignty will return to the people, even the tyranny of the leftist bureaucrats in the Justice Ministry will not be able to overcome the Jewish revolution.

The new leaders of tomorrow will be those who have prepared themselves for that moment. This is the prism through which to understand all of Manhigut Yehudit's actions today.