Mohammad's Passion

By Moshe Feiglin

24 Adar, 5764
March 17, 2004

Editor's note: Moshe Feiglin wrote this article over five years ago, but his prescient analysis of the global forces shaping Israel's reality today are still a must-read.

In its first week in the movie theaters, Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion," is already a tremendous box office success. Millions of Americans and Europeans wait in long lines to watch an arid movie in Aramaic that revolves around the nails thrust into the body of their deity. Gibson had the guts to take a chance on this movie, which forces Americans to read subtitles translating Aramaic and to view, more or less, a two hour documentary of a slaughterhouse - even when nobody else gave it a chance. But Gibson understood something that most of us want to repress: The world is becoming less and less stable and its occupants are looking for something to hang onto - something more eternal than the transient physical world. In other words, the world is looking for religion.

The two religions that encompass most of humanity - Christianity and Islam - are both based on Judaism. That is why they hate it. Both wage a constant struggle for world hegemony. Christianity rules with its hug; Islam rules with the plunge of its dagger. The stock broker at the Twin Towers did not understand what the suicide pilot wanted from him. But, in truth, economic and cultural conquest (McDonald's, Coca Cola, Hollywood) are no less effective than a suicide bomber. The poor broker who found himself covered with soot and broken glass hadn't understood that he was playing on a global arena.

When the Twin Towers collapsed, the Jews mistakenly thought that it would increase Western sympathy for their position. "Now they understand what Israel is fighting for," friends told me at they watched, hypnotized, as the Twin Towers burned. "They," of course, is the entire Western Christian world that found itself so cruelly attacked by Islam. It made a lot of sense: After all, "My enemy's enemy is my friend."

But what actually took place was the complete opposite. Huge waves of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel rhetoric surfaced at U.S. universities. These waves do not stop at the gates of the campus. Europe has become openly anti-Semitic. Instead of enjoying its new found allies in the Christian world, Israel finds itself on the defendant's stand in the International Court in The Hague.

The Christian world has two options. The first: to fight terror, or more accurately, Islam, which nurtures terror. The second: to surrender to it and to be slowly but surely overpowered by the waves of the modern Islamic jihad. London's ladies are presumably not interested in wearing veils and floor-length coats all year round. New York is not interested in turning into Cairo, which would be the final result of the Moslem conquest. Westerners know that everywhere the Arabs will reach, growth will stop and a harsh Eastern wind will sweep away all hints of civilized living. Consequently, surrender to Islam is not an alternative for the West. But it is not interested in fighting a war, either.

Look at the poor Americans. They defined their enemy as a state and a terror organization. They did not want to understand that they are in a religious battle against Islam. They may have turned Iraq upside down, but against Islam - they are losing big-time. The Western politicians refuse to admit it, but the millions waiting patiently in line for Gibson's movie are searching for an answer in the dimension in which they are being attacked.

But there is a third solution for the seemingly dead end situation: the Jews.

Christianity and Islam have one common denominator: hatred of Israel. Judaism, the mother of the two major religions, refuses to disappear. With its very existence, Judaism highlights the falsehood at the foundation of its two daughter religions.

"If you can't beat them, join them," the adage recommends. Christianity will join Islam, but against whom? The answer is clear: Anti-Semitism has always existed in the West, even when the memories of Auschwitz sent it underground.

In America, the process is slow. Christianity in America is not as all-encompassing as its European counterpart. But as the Western defeat at the hands of Islam becomes more obvious, hatred of Jews and Israel increases. In Europe the process is much quicker. The Spanish changed their leadership overnight, rewarding the murderers of the 200 railway passengers with a speedy retreat from Iraq. Toward what will all the energies seeking revenge be channeled? Toward the common enemy, of course.

And what about Israel?

Israel's victory in 1967 sparked an interesting worldwide phenomenon. Its resounding triumph and the fact that it conquered its Biblical heartland actually lowered the flames of world anti-Semitism. Western Jews who previously hid the fact that they were Jewish suddenly discovered their identity and took pride in it. To put it simply, when Israel is strong and defeats its enemies, Anti-Semitism runs for cover. And vice versa. When Israel strikes at the Moslem world, the Christian world suppresses its inherent anti-Semitism and lets the Israelis do the work for them. When Israel is strong in its struggle against Islam, it is not the West's punching bag. It is its commando force.

But today Israel leads the worldwide retreat from the Islamic offensive. It suffers terror attacks and the blood of its children has become increasingly cheap. This type of Israel revives worldwide anti-Semitism. And justifiably so! Were there suicide bombers before the Jews surrendered their sense of justice at Oslo?

There is no such thing as a moral vacuum. When we declared that we are not right and that the Holy Land belongs to the Moslems, we let the suicide genie out of the bottle. If the Oslo Accords had never been signed, the Twin Towers would still be standing today.

Identification of this process leads us to a difficult conclusion: Israel's defeatism will feed the flames of both Christian and Islamic Jew hatred. The more that Israel retreats, the more the West will surrender to Islam and will attack Israel instead. Islam, encouraged by its successes, will continue to attack both the West and Israel.

How will this madness be stopped? We can't really know. But one thing is clear. It is not only Jewish history that is being written today in Israel. It is the history of the entire world.

Splinters Hurt

By Moshe Feiglin

"You are children of G-d, your G-d. Do not disfigure yourselves." (Torah portion of the week, Re'eh, Deuteronomy 14:1)


The Hebrew word for 'disfigure' is 'titgodedu.' The Torah warns the Jewish people not to adopt the pagan custom of cutting oneself as a sign of mourning. The Torah reminds us that we are not just an ordinary nation - a nation of Hebrew speaking non-Jews. We are G-d's children and we must act accordingly.


There is another - related - explanation for the word 'titgodedu.' This word can be translated as the formation of congregations; cutting the whole into splinters.


You are children of G-d. Every Jew who remembers that he is a Jew, every Jew whose Jewish roots are the foundation of his identity and every Jew who is a Jew before any other identity is part of the wonderful family of the children of G-d. He may err, he may sin, he may not integrate the significance of his bond with G-d into his daily life - but he is part of the family. If he splinters off into his own small group, he disengages from the family. And he should not be surprised if the family disengages from him.


There is only one large party of the national camp. It is the party of the Jews who identify themselves as part of the Jewish family. It is the party of all the Jews; religious and secular, rightist and less rightist, righteous and less righteous. The name of the party is Likud. We can break off into hundreds more splinters. The result is the abandonment of our fellow family members to the leftist elites. The result is also the destruction that we have witnessed in Gush Katif and the perpetuation of the Left's control of our country.


Splinters hurt! Now is the time to take responsibility and join the Likud. Call (Israel) 09 792 9046 and our English speaking staff will assist you.

America's Real Guidance

by Yocheved Seidman

US Program Director, Manhigut Yehudit

While in the airplane on the way home from the Manhigut Yehudit USA Summer Tour’s last stop in Detroit, I opened a copy of “The Economist” magazine. One of last week's lead editorials on Israel is entitled “Get Stuck in Mr. President” (p. 10 of the 8/1 - 8/7 issue). A more appropriate title would be, “You’re Israel’s Real Leader Mr. President - Act Like It!” The ever haughty Economist editors have high praise for President Obama’s Cairo speech calling it “masterly”. They were also pleased back in June with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s public statement that the Arabs must have a state in Judea and Samaria.

But now the Economist’s anonymous editors are getting impatient. They are despondent that rival Arab factions Fatah and Hamas cannot just get along or at least try to put on a show of brotherly cooperation for appearances. And although Bibi tries harder and harder to follow their script they are deeply dissatisfied with his efforts. So they have an action plan to solve the whole problem once and for all - put the US President in charge of the whole enchilada. According to the esteemed editors, President Obama should immediately “address the Israeli people directly, telling them why a Palestinian state is their only long-term guarantee of security.”

This is something akin to the announcement at the end of the old Rush song, “We have assumed control” or if you prefer the Borg motto from Star Trek, “Resistance is futile”. The Economist editors would like to see the US President bypass the annoying sovereignty of the Jewish state and dictate to Mr. and Mrs. Israeli that their eternal G-d given inheritance is being cancelled. They wish to see the US President talk to the average Israeli in the style of a mob boss, “Pay up with your Holy Land or we can’t promise you’ll live to see your grandchildren.”

The Economist editors view the elected prime minister of Israel as an irrelevant obstacle. The precious outcome of the ballet box, so highly guarded by Westerners at home, is tossed to the curb when they advise their “friends” overseas. In fact, in the editorial on US healthcare in the same issue, the editors comment that “In foreign policy an American president enjoys the most freedom of operation. At home the man in the Oval Office is mightily constrained by Congress.” (p. 9, Economist, 8/1 - 8/7 issue). Please note carefully the words “mightily constrained”. Who has the ability to constrain the influence of foreign powers wishing to impose their will on the Jewish state?

The Israeli voters hold the keys to their sovereignty in their own hands. Maybe they all need to get refrigerator magnets with quotes such as:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

-- Benjamin Franklin (1759)

Israelis must take charge and use the power of the ballot box to elect a prime minister who is unapologetically dedicated to the principle that the Land of Israel is the eternal inheritance of the Jewish people. Ordinary citizens of the Jewish state must organize themselves and implement the techniques used by their American friends to bring about change that they can really believe in - in the form of a leader who will stand up and finally say proudly on their behalf ... Zo Artzeinu ... This is our land, it is not for sale, not one inch, not now and not ever. The Jewish people do not recognize the right of the Obama administration, or any other entity to dictate where Jews can or cannot live and build in the Holy Land.

Israelis will find such a leader in Moshe Feiglin. Now it is their job to use the sovereign democratic process of the Jewish state to elect him as the answer to their would-be overlords. As the people become active and rise to shake off the internal pressure to conform to the ideas being spread in the left-wing controlled Israeli media they would do well to have another refrigerator magnet that reminds them:

"In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." -- Mark Twain (1904)

As an American Jew I hope that Israeli Jews will take from America the great gift of dedication to liberty and national sovereignty and use it to stand fast against external pressure aimed at eroding these critical principles.

The Golden Rule and Democratic Process

By Moshe Feiglin
The main excuse that the soldiers who expelled their brothers from their homes in Gush Katif used to justify their actions was that if they would not carry out their orders, Israel's democracy would collapse, it would be impossible for the government to govern and the state would essentially crumble away. So it made no difference whether the soldier agreed with his expulsion orders or not. He was brainwashed to believe that not carrying them out would guarantee destruction on an even greater scale.

Obviously, the factor that completely destroyed public faith in Israel's democratic process was the political unscrupulousness that paved the way for the destruction of the Land. Entire books can be written about the callous scorn for the law and democratic process emblematic of the way that the Oslo Accords became law in Israel. Yossi Beilin, Shimon Peres, Prof. Hirschfeld, Dr. Pundak and the entire Oslo pack deserve to be behind bars for many years to come.

There used to be a basic law in Israel that prohibited a prime minister from appointing more than 18 ministers to his government. But a short while after Oslo (in the elections of 1999), Ehud Barak was elected and revised the law to fit his political needs. "That is the price of peace," his spin doctors explained. "If we want to see progress in the peace process, we have to pay the price of more ministers for all the parties in the coalition." The media - democracy's "watchdog" - went along with the farce. After all, proper democratic process and public faith in Israel's democratic political system may be important - but for destruction of the Land ("peace") those values can surely be sacrificed.

Sharon followed in Barak's footsteps. His government also boasted more than 18 ministers. He destroyed Gush Katif with all sorts of blatant manipulations. The Eviction Compensation Law that passed the Knesset would not have made it past the average student council. It entirely contradicts all the civil rights that former Chief Justice Aharon Barak worked so hard to legislate. But there is one golden rule that overrides all others: It is permissible to change the law as necessary as long as it promotes the Left's agenda. That rule triumphed in Gush Katif.

It is obvious that no self-respecting court would have authorized Netanyahu to change the rules of the game in the middle of the Likud primaries. But the Golden Rule prevailed. Netanyahu needed to rid himself of the Feiglin trouble and to pave the way to destroy the Land of Israel by means of the votes of the Right. When Netanyahu had me demoted to the 36th slot and Michael Ratzon appealed to the Supreme Court against the move (that also demoted him to an unrealistic slot on the roster), the Supreme Court could not manage to comprehend what the District court and the citizens of Israel clearly understood. The Supreme Court rejected Ratzon's appeal. The general rule is that the Supreme Court will only change the decision of the District Court in extreme cases. It seems that the fact that Moshe Feiglin was legally elected to a high place on the Likud roster was just such an extreme case.

Netanyahu has gotten used to manipulating the law and the democratic process for his political purposes. His latest breach of democratic process is the Mofaz Law, which makes it easier to split Knesset factions and is a prelude to the defection of Kadimah MKs to the Likud and the eventual destruction of settlements, G-d forbid. The leftist opposition MKs put on a good show of being shocked by the rude violation of democratic process that this law exemplifies. But in truth, it was no more than a show. The Golden Rule concept was born to feed the insatiable Oslo monster. Changing the law to foster the destruction of settlements and settlers is an old leftist trick.

No matter. Everybody knows that the hilltop youth and the settlers are the real danger to democracy.

The Divine Nature of the Land of Israel

By Moshe Feiglin

For the land that you are going in order to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from where you came out, where you sowed your seeds, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land, that you go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, you will drink water as the rain of heaven comes down; a land which G-d your G-d cares for; the eyes of G-d your G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.
(From this week's Torah portion, Ekev, Deuteronomy 11: 10-12)

Tavor Stream in Israel's North

The Land of Israel is unlike any other lands. The rules of nature do not apply here. Back in Egypt, there was no rain, but the Nile always flowed and irrigation provided a steady source of water for the crops. But when you are always looking down at the Nile, it is easy to forget G-d. All the other lands closely resemble Egypt. While most receive their water from rainfall, the rain is dependable - just like the Nile. You don't have to pray for it.

The Land of Israel is different. In Israel, you must pray for rain. The Land of Israel is situated along a meteorologically unstable latitude that keeps us guessing about rainfall. And it is not only rainfall or lack thereof that keeps the eyes of the Jews in the Land of Israel fixed steadily on heaven. The Land of Israel is situated on a strategic and volatile geographic axis. All the great conquerors traversed the Land. The kings of Israel would never know which side to take in wars that crossed Israel's borders. In politics, as well, the Land of Israel leaves you no choice but to raise your eyes heavenward, to remember Who is running the world and to experience the fact that, " the eyes of G-d your G-d are always upon it, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year."

One of the first things a Jew learns in the Land of Israel is that nature here is supernatural. In Israel, faith in G-d is the pre-eminent law of nature.
G-dless leadership in Israel simply cannot succeed here for long. That is why we have elections every two years and that is why any government that is not faith-based serves on borrowed time.

At Manhigut Yehudit, we are patiently preparing ourselves for the next round and are confident that the Divine laws of nature unique to this Land will prevail and triumph.

Shabbat Shalom.