It's Not About Shalit

By Moshe Feiglin

5 Cheshvan, 5772
Nov. 2, 2011

Translated from Ma'ariv's NRG website

Polls taken just prior to Gilad Shalit's release show that the main opposition to the deal was in the National Religious sector. How can we explain this? Are National Religious people heartless?

Obviously, National Religious people feel the same solidarity with Israel's POWs as every other Israeli. I only wish that Israeli society at large would remember Jonathan Pollard the way that the National Religious do.

The reason that the National Religious as a sector opposed the Shalit deal is because they derive their legitimacy for existing in this Land from their faith. The National Religious truly believe that this is our Land. The worldview that drew the legitimacy for our presence here from Herzl alone basically petered out in the seventies. Today, the Israeli subconscious feels moral inferiority to the "native" Arab. They see the Arabs as the real owners of this Land and the Jews as nothing more than uninvited guests.

This approach is regularly reflected by the decisions handed down by the Supreme Court. It is realized by the way the IDF secures the hallowed right of the family of the murderers of the Fogel family to pick olives under the orphans' window. It is expressed by the way the government turns a blind eye to illegal Arab construction while it destroys Jewish homes with zeal. This "just passing through" mentality has coursed through the entire Israeli bloodstream: in its justice system, academia, media, army, everywhere – except for the National Religious.

For the Arabs, Tel Aviv is also Moslem land. But we attempt to quell our feelings of existential moral inferiority by dividing the Land and establishing an additional state in its heart. We hope that when we exit the "territories" that we conquered in 1967, the landlord will somehow cede the land that we robbed from him 19 years earlier – in the "Nakba" ("catastrophe") of 1948. We will then be able to repress the moral stain of our existence in his land within in the green line and return to our natural feelings of Zionist legitimacy for living here – just like it was before the Six Day War.

How does all of this connect to Shalit? By signing the Oslo Accords, we recognized that there is a "Palestinian" nation and that it has rights in this Land. By doing so, we also recognized that the "Palestinian" fighters are actually freedom fighters and we must release those that we have imprisoned. After all, didn't the British release all the Jewish "terrorists" when it recognized our right to establish a state?

True, the Arab fighters are extremely cruel – but they are not terrorists. They are merely noble savages who are not bound by Western mores. From the moment that we bought into the justice of the "Palestinian" struggle in Oslo, our continued incarceration of their freedom fighters highlights the fact that we are conquerors – in Sheikh Munis, a.k.a. Tel Aviv.

Just as peace is not the reason for Oslo, but rather, a lame excuse, so Shalit is not the reason for the release of the terrorists, but rather, an opportunity to let them go. Of course, everybody wants peace and everybody wants to see Shalit home. But when Oslo brings with it rivers of blood and we jaunt merrily down its path nonetheless, and when the clear statistical evidence shows that the terrorists released in the Shalit deal will G-d forbid kill hundreds of Israelis and encourage more abductions, the obvious conclusion is that this has nothing to do with peace or with Shalit. There is something else at work here: the Israeli need to surrender Judea and Samaria and release terrorists in order to justify our existence in Tel Aviv.

If it is difficult to accept the above, I suggest taking a look at the new Israeli policy for murderous terror attacks. Israel is now releasing terrorists even before they are apprehended. Just before Rosh Hashanah, Israel's security forces decided to ignore the clear evidence on the ground and announced that Asher Palmer and his baby son, may G-d avenge their blood, were killed in an "accident." In other words, they released the terrorists even before they were caught. Later, the state was forced to admit the facts and even caught the murderers.

The same happened with the murder of Moshe Talbi, may G-d avenge his blood. Rabbi Talbi was murdered near the entrance to Revava, but the police were determined to release his murderers before they were caught. After a 15 minute investigation, they announced that Talbi had committed suicide, murdering his good name and causing his family unspeakable pain in the process. Months later, the police finally admitted that Talbi had been murdered.

I'm sorry to ruin the euphoria, but Shalit is not the reason for the terrorist release. He is simply the excuse.