Inspiration from Chanukah

By Michael Fuah Picture: The Temple Institute Gallery 'Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in your midst, says G-d. And many nations shall join themselves to G-d in that day, and shall be My people, and I will dwell in your midst; and you will know that the G-d of hosts has sent me to you. And G-d willl inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. (From this week's haftarah, Zecharia 2:14-16) "Things are tough in the Land of Israel," said the Jews who made aliyah after the Cyrus Declaration. "We can't make ends meet, the Samarians who were brought to the Land harm us, and the good, fat exile beckons." And then, Zecharia the prophet makes an odd declaration. He calls upon the suffering new immigrants to build the Temple in Jerusalem as a solution to all their problems. G-d will imbue the Land with His Divine Presence, the non-Jews will admire Israel and Judah will inherit its Land. It sounds out of touch with reality. But reality proves that when a nation has a spiritual focal point, it flourishes. When Zechariah related his prophecy, Israel still did not have political independence, but the building of the Temple restored vitality to the nation and the Land of Israel regained its status as spiritual center of the Jewish Nation. The nation that had been exiled from its Land 70 years ago and was apparently doomed to extinction triumphantly returned to the stage of history. Two hundred years later, evil winds once again gusted through the Land. This time, the main danger was internal. The Hellenist globalization process had been at work for years and in the Land of Israel, many succumbed to assimilation and loss of their Jewish identity. The public leaders were Hellenists and used their power - even the position of High Priest - to achieve their goals. Most of the public was enchanted with Greek culture and sport and did not notice that it was losing its identity, its uniqueness and most of all - its Jewish destiny. But the Hellenists were impatient. They wanted to finish the process quickly and what they could not achieve with the lures of their culture, they chose to achieve by coercion. "Use force against Israel," wrote Gideon Levi of the Ha'aretz newspaper to Barack Obama. The Hellenist leaders in Jerusalem used the same logic and convinced Antiochus to impose his evil decrees against the Jews. That is the point where the tables turned. The Nation of Israel came back to its senses. When the traditional Jews felt that they had to choose between their loyalty to their nation, Land and G-d or the charms of universal culture, they quite unexpectedly chose their loyalty to their Jewish identity. Their choice had implications much more serious than a few weeks in a military prison or loss of their source of income. It was a choice between life and death. Perhaps because the choice was so fateful, the answer was so loud and clear. The holiday of Chanukah is the holiday of the triumph of Jewish identity. "Not with military might and not with power, but with My spirit, says the G-d of hosts." (From this week's haftara, Zecharia 4:6) We will continue to struggle for Jewish leadership that will build the Holy Temple and re-fashion the State of Israel as the spiritual center that illuminates the entire world. The Jewish People always triumphs and with G-d's help, we will triumph this time, as well. Happy Chanukah

Who's Pressuring Bibi?

By Moshe Feiglin

19 Kislev, 5770
Dec. 6, '09

Translated from the NRG website

If Obama didn't exist, Bibi would have had to invent him.

My schedule during my current trip to the US is tight. From my visit to Pollard I run to meetings in states throughout America. The televisions in the airport are broadcasting Obama's address to the nation. Obama squirms as he explains why he is sending another 30,000 soldiers to Afghanistan. In Viet Nam the Americans had one clear enemy; in Afghanistan it is hard to understand who is against whom. The Afghan mud is sucking the US deeper and deeper into a war that Obama promised to end.

On the domestic front, the White House is attempting to explain to the citizens how the miniscule sum of 1.2 trillion (yes, that's one thousand, two hundred billion!) dollars that Obama has decided to spend on his grandiose health plan will heal the failing American economy. Fortunately for Obama, the Tiger Woods scandal broke and stole the limelight from America's pressing military and economic issues. As opposed to my previous visits to the US, I haven't even heard the word "Israel" once on the news.

There is no doubt about it. If Netanyahu would want to stand his ground, he could easily deflect the American pressure. Obama has his own troubles and is not interested in a head-on battle with the many Israel supporters in the US and particularly in Congress. But Bibi needs Obama to create the illusion of American pressure. Sharon destroyed Gush Katif despite the fact the President Bush was opposed to the scheme. Sharon was a bulldozer and did not attempt to use Uncle Sam as an excuse for his exploits. This is not to say that Obama is an Israel-lover. He does want Israel to retreat, and he is happy to provide Bibi with the excuse that Sharon did not need.
Will Obama act where his determined predecessor did not and attack Iran? Of course not. Our short history shows that every time that Israel has faced an existential threat, America abandoned it. The Iranian threat is no different. What we will not do for ourselves, nobody will do for us.

During the ten month building freeze - that will naturally continue indefinitely - Iran's defense capabilities will continue to improve. We are giving up our right to our Land in exchange for the resuscitation of an old principle that we thought had been relegated to mothballs 65 years ago; that for the right to live, the Jew has to pay in hard currency. After all of this, we will still be forced to act alone against Iran - just under more difficult conditions.

Will Netanyahu's regain his backbone then? I doubt it. Netanyahu's decrees in Judea and Samaria are not only immoral; they are also illogical. In order to try to understand the rationale behind them, we must return to the days of Sharon and the Expulsion. It is not Obama, but rather the Israeli left that Netanyahu is so anxious to please. As the existential Iranian threat closes in, we can only hope that Israeli society will elect authentically Jewish leadership that fears only G-d.

The Wake Up Call

By Jason Gold

Why the surprise?
I've had this discussion at numerous times these past weeks. Over Shabbat lunches/dinners, in shul after davening or just trying to explain Jewish pathological psychology to non-Jewish supporters of the Land of Israel.

It usually starts out by my pointing out that these people have no reason to be surprised at what Bibi Netanyahu is doing to destroy Israel and how he is betraying the people who supported him. I, and others far more politically astute than me, warned about this the instant the primaries/elections were over. It was clear then that by sabotaging the Likud position of Moshe Feiglin, Bibi intended to govern from the left no matter what the consequences were. It was clear that by allowing the self hating Jew and settler-hating Ehud Barak into his coalition along with the usual assortment of self-serving thieves, thugs and reprobates disguised as the so-called religious parties to aid and abet him, the sell-out was underway along with Mafdal remnant Bayit Hayehudi led by right-wing poser Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz. My only real surprise was not the sell-out and neutering of Avigdor Leiberman (probably the biggest beneficiary of the rightest vote after Feiglin's demotion), nor Bibi having Dan Meridor kill the referendum that would require a 2/3 majority vote to give up the Golan, but how supposed "hawks" Benny Begin and Boggie Yaalon decided to tow the freeze line for their master.

Impotence of the Right
Reading Arutz-7, one would think that the thundering voice of Katzeleh being featured on the site every day (oh that's right, he owns the place) would make Bibi shake in his boots. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Katzeleh is a good man. A war hero and a land of Israel lover. So is Aryeh Eldad. Good people, but ultimately misguided by outmoded ideals and perhaps out-sized egos and with almost zero news coverage on any other Israeli news outlet. A rather inverse relationship with Feiglin. So with all the hoopla and Eldad's ultimately folding his new right-wing secular party Hatikva into Katzeleh's National Union they ended up with four whole seats standing outside the coalition. What did they accomplish? Nothing. Because with Hershkowitz playing Bibi's game, Bibi didn't need the likes of Katzeleh/Eldad in his coalition to make trouble. So now, scores of good people led by these men have been rendered impotent because their leaders couldn't comprehend that they do not command sufficient mass to get anything done electorally and that the fight for Israel's survival begins and ends inside the Likud. Imagine if these men had brought their followers into the Likud. Bibi couldn't begin to contemplate doing what he is doing now. But for now, they yell and scream and Bibi just blithely ignores them because he can.

The Nation Stirs
I am not sure Bibi counted on this much resistance to his policies. Resistance to an insane prisoner swap for Shalit, military/reservist discord and of course a spit-in-your-face resistance to the settlement freeze. People are angry and not buying into the 10 month nonsense. And aside from the hard-core left, people are realizing that dysfunctional leadership is putting them in grave peril and that Israel's "friend" the United States, may actually have interests and ideologies that are not compatible with Israel's survival. Could we be seeing the last gasp of the old guard?

A Personal Plea
Uri Ariel of the National Union. You are a good man. You love the Land of Israel. You have been sucked into a dead-end party by people who cannot see past their own misguided agendas and ideals. Leave the National Union. Today. Join Feiglin in Likud. That move will cause an earthquake among the religious right and let the rest of the country who lean right but are not dati, see you in a new light, free from the perception of "another settler party". Start the process of ending the sectoral politics that leads nowhere and is endangering Israel every day. As the Nation begins to wake up, I implore you to do the same.

Insubordination can Save Israel

By Moshe Feiglin

5 Kislev, 5770
Nov. 22, '09

As a result of my attempts to halt the Oslo collapse, I was put on trial for "sedition." I asked the judges to allow me to read a short piece from a book that I had brought with me. The judges agreed, and to their surprise, I removed "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupיry from my briefcase:

"Sire--over what do you rule?"

"Over everything," said the king, with magnificent simplicity.

"Over everything?"

The king made a gesture, which took in his planet, the other planets, and all the stars.

"Over all that?" asked the little prince.

"Over all that," the king answered.

For his rule was not only absolute: it was also universal.

"And the stars obey you?"

"Certainly they do," the king said. "They obey instantly. I do not permit insubordination."

"I should like to see a sunset. Do me that kindness. Order the sun to set."

"If I ordered a general to fly from one flower to another like a butterfly, or to write a tragic drama, or to change himself into a sea bird, and if the general did not carry out the order that he had received, which one of us would be in the wrong?" the king demanded. "The general, or myself?"

"You," said the little prince firmly.

"Exactly. One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform," the king went on. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable." (The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupיry, Chapter 10).

It is a mistake to think that the state works within the boundaries of laws. The public does not obey laws. It obeys rules within the boundaries of a triangle, the first side of which is the law. But the triangle has two other sides: common sense and ethicality.

What if the Knesset would pass a law requiring drivers to drive in reverse all winter? That would counter the logic side of the triangle. The public's subsequent refusal would be the fault of the government, not of the public. In other words, the fact that we obey the law is not because of the law itself, but because it is logical enough to warrant our adherence.

The third side of the triangle is ethicality. If the government would order us to drive our elderly and infirm out onto the frozen tundra, as per Eskimo custom, we may agree that it would logically aid the economy. But nobody would obey, because it would be patently immoral. The party at fault for the insubordination would be the government that enacted the law and not the citizens who refused to obey.

How are the boundaries of this triangle determined?

The law is obviously determined by the government. A government has unlimited power to enact and enforce laws. The government, with its Knesset majority, can enact a law that would postpone elections for fifty years. Why doesn't it do so? For only one reason. Because it knows that the public would not accept it and the government would subsequently lose its credibility. In other words, just like Exupיry's king, the government enacts laws within the boundaries that it assumes the public will accept, both logically and ethically.

Power always strives for more power and the government will always attempt to test the boundaries of common sense and ethicality. But fortunately, it is not the government that determines these boundaries, but the public. How does the public accomplish this? By using its right and sometimes, its duty - to refuse to obey the law. That is how the logical and ethical platform for the healthy functioning of society is created.

In order to increase its power, the government tries to convince us that insubordination will cause the state to collapse. But that is completely false. The greatest crimes in human history were perpetrated when citizens ignored their duty to delineate logical and ethical boundaries for the rule of law. The societies in which this took place by and large collapsed.

"Good men must not obey the laws too well" (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
Emerson understood what the disengaging Israeli tyranny no longer wants to hear.

Those soldiers who obeyed the Expulsion law in Gush Katif despite the fact that they knew that it was illogical and unethical, brought the Hamas missiles to Be'er Sheva, the resulting Cast Lead Operation, Goldstone and the international anti-Israel demonization campaign that is gaining momentum by the day. In short, our eager-to-obey soldier has endangered Israel's very existence.

The writing on the wall of Netanyahu's office is clear: Destruction of the Golan Heights, of the settlements in Judea and Samaria and the division of Jerusalem. Public delineation of clear, logical and ethical boundaries for the law can prevent Netanyahu from carrying out his plan.

In the past few weeks, soldiers from two separate units in the IDF expressed their civic responsibility by refusing to obey orders to expel Jews from their homes. These brave young men are positioned to save Israel from collapse.

The Shalit Deal

By Moshe Feiglin

An ominous sense of an impending deal is in the air. It is hard to oppose it. All of us pray for Gilad's release. All of us will cry with joy when, with G-d's help, we will see his parents hugging their beloved son.

But we already know the price that we will have to pay. 80% of Hamas terrorists return to terror after their release, as do 60% of Fatah terrorists. In other words, 16 of the 20 terrorists released in exchange for the short video of Gilad, will commit new acts of terror. It is reasonable to assume that two or three Jews will pay for this movie with their lives.

The wholesale release of professional murderers will cost much more, G-d forbid. But their victims are still nameless and faceless. They do not have addresses, they do not know that they are the next in line and they cannot lobby politicians on their own behalf. In the Israeli reality in which questions of life and death are decided by rating considerations, the future victims have no chance.

About a month ago, I published an open letter to Defense Minister Barak in which I requested that no negotiations should be conducted for my release if I were to be abducted, G-d forbid. The letter made waves and many people joined added their signatures to my letter or penned letters of their own. One of those people was Yitzchak Ovitz, a soldier in Gilad's company. His letter was widely covered in the media:

"Since Gilad was abducted, I feel torn and I do not know what to do to help him. Like every Jew on earth, I pray for him and hope that he will be released soon - safe and sound.
Yet, I am dismayed at how our entire country kneels before the terror organizations every time that they succeed in capturing one of our fighters in their clutches. This situation is intolerable and we fall into this trap time and again. I am frequently forced to refuse the requests of my fellow soldiers from our company and brigade to participate in demonstrations for Gilad. I have reached the conclusion that our intellect must take precedence over our emotions, as painful as this is for me."

Manhigut Yehudit put an internet petition on its website, affording people the opportunity to add their signatures to the request not to negotiate their release. Due to lack of funds, we were not able to run a major campaign to publicize the petition. Nevertheless, approximately 100 soldiers and citizens signed. In light of this spontaneous response, we are certain that tens of thousands of citizens would sign this petition if they could. A major public outcry against the pending dangerous deal could sway some ministers from authorizing the exchange.

Click here to sign the petition (Israeli citizens only).