Jewish Extremism in Israel
Dateline: December 09, 1998
Yitzhak Rabin's murder was neither the conclusion nor even the beginning of a long and not always subtle process which is moving Israel away from a secular state towards a theocracy. Two very different groups are attempting to peacefully coexist in Israel, each with mutually exclusive identities and each contending to define the nature of Israeli society. Sometimes one is dominant, sometimes the other - but at all times it is impossible to understand Israel with recognizing both.
One group promotes a modern society functioning according to the accepted rules of developed western societies, based on the concepts of civil liberties and civil citizenship. A second group, the focus of this article, recognize as their sole authority a selective interpretation of the Jewish halacha, or religious law. Their aim is to create a "halachic Jewish state," a theocracy where the only law is religious in nature and all obligations and rights are defined in ancient religious terms. Their "Land of Israel" is not a strip of land with territorial boundaries, it is instead a spiritual and theological concept which must be realized.
Who are they? Where do they come from? What are their current political activities and immediate political goals? And, most importantly, what effect are they having on the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians? The answers are disturbing at best.
History
The history of Gush Emunim, or Bloc of the Faithful, can most simply be traced back to a cadre of young men hardened in the 1967 war and who, through the 1970s, came into leadership positions in far-right and ultra-religious communities across Israel. After becoming organized on a wider scale by the mid-1970s, they engaged in a considerable variety of direct-action political activities. Their efforts ranged from mass-protest rallies in which the morals of the nation were rebuked, to terrorist acts designed to sabotage peace efforts with Arab neighbors.
With assistance from various sympathetic government leaders, Gush Emunim have been especially involved with the effort to increase the numbers of settlers in the Occupied Territories. Those areas are considered by them to be a part of "Greater Israel" - part of the spiritual and theological state which Jews are destined to rule over. Settlers are often themselves members of Gush Emunim who then proceed to engage in deliberate conflict with Palestinian neighbors, provoking confrontation at every turn. As you will see, the interests of their immediate Palestinian neighbors are simply not considered relevant.
Violence
Violent activism in the name of religious politics found a logical, if desperate,
conclusion in the attempted plot to blow up the sacred Islamic mosque and shrine
on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This is the purported site of Solomon's Temple,
and it is the goal of Gush Emunim members to eliminate the blasphemous presence of
Islam from their holy site and rebuild their own temple. This was to have been the
crowning glory in activities of Jewish underground terrorism in the Territories.
It is fortunate that covert efforts by the Israeli secret service foiled this plan
in 1984, because simulations conducted by the Harvard Center for International Affairs
indicated that World War III would have been a likely result had the plot succeeded.
In fact, activist-believers had taken just that possibility into account, expecting
that the bombing would result in a massive Muslim jihad which would sweep the entire
planet into confrontation. We, evidently, were to be sacrificed in their war. This
was interpreted as the "War of Gog and Magog" from which a religious Israel
would emerge victorious, paving the way for the appearance of the True Messiah. Such
inhuman attitudes towards everyone outside the Gush Emunim must be kept in mind at
all times - they don't care about what happens to the rest of us.
Through their "sacred vigilantism," not only are the rights of the native
Arab population threatened, but the future of Israel as a free democracy as well.
The rest of the world is none too safer, either.
Political Religion
To understand Gush Emunim, it is necessary to see how they manage to meld politics
and religion. By self-definition, they are a group of devoted religious believers
for whom the concept of compromise is practically foreign. They know Truth, and of
course Truth cannot be compromised or abandoned in any manner. Leaders tend to be
religious scholars and clerics - among the best and brightest of their generation
(what does this say about religious scholars?). Motives and goals are defined solely
along religious lines and experiences are expressed in religious, if not mythic,
terms.
Gush Emunim must be recognized as exceptionally radical in at least three crucial
aspects. The first is the settling of "The Greater Land of Israel" - more
commonly known as the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These
are territories which were captured in war by Israel but populated almost entirely
by Palestinians. For Gush Emunim, these territories rightfully belong to Israel since
it was originally given to the ancient Hebrews by God.
It is thus the sacred duty of Jews to populate these areas - Arab rights and interests
are disregarded as a matter of principle. If God wants them to have that land, then
presumably the intransigent Palestinians deserve whatever happens to them should
they stand in God's way. It would probably be a good idea to keep in mind the excessive
violence and inhumanity displayed by the Hebrews in the Old Testament when first
conquering the land they believed promised to them. Then, recognize that the Gush
Emunim take all of that very, very seriously.
It should thus come as no surprise that the issue of Jewish settlements in the Occupied
Territories are a matter of such conflict in the current peace process. Foreign observers
may imagine that it is a lot of unnecessary excitement on the part of Palestinians
about a few new Jewish neighbors, but people in the region realize that Jewish settlements
are part of a coordinated effort by radical religious Jews to fundamentally alter
the character of the entire region. With the tacit if not explicit assistance of
the Israeli government, they hope to transform the Occupied Territories into a part
of a theocratic Israel.
The second radical aspect is their consistent attempts to impose their own religious
vision on the rest of a secular Israel. They work diligently to manipulate state
power and pubic opinion in an effort to control state and society, forcing both to
adhere to the movement's religious norms. The Gush Emunim have little actual respect
for Israel's civil and political institutions, except insofar as they can be used
to attain certain practical goals. On the whole, secular institutions are viewed
as a long-term impediment to the maturation of a truly religious Jewish state.
| Quote of the week: To sum up: 1. The cosmos is a gigantic flywheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute. 2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3. Reigion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride. H.L. Mencken |
The third radical aspect of Gush Emunim is perhaps the most subtle, and that is the symbolic/mythical system which underlies their world view. Their radical vision of Judaism incorporates religious Zionism as an integral and irreplaceable aspect of Judaism itself. There can be no religion for the Jews which does not incorporate religious Zionism, and Zionism itself can only be religious in nature. Moreover, it is argued that Zionism is not merely important to Judaism, but must be the core of any true Judaism - the central aspect around which all else revolves. Thus, extreme nationalism and expansionism are elevated for inclusion within traditional definitions of Judaism.
There is, then, no sort of politics which is separate from religion and no measure of personal autonomy in an authentic or secular society.
Peace?
Consider, now, the issue of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. For the
Gush Emunim, it really doesn't matter if the partners are Egyptian, Syrian, Jordanian
or Palestinian. Their interests are disregarded and their claims viewed as irrelevant
as a matter of basic principle - their actual content is meaningless. God has already
told the Jews what they must do, and if that annoys anyone else, tough.
Decisions about foreign policy need not take other sides into account, since the
relations between Israel and Gentiles really do not matter - only the relation between
Israel, the Torah and faith matter. Peace is not a complex web of relations between
communities of equals but instead a spiritually correct orientation towards God.
Once such principles are recognized, everything else is supposed to fall into place.
Yitzhak Rabin went to extraordinary lengths to shed himself of his more violent past
and move Israel towards a peaceful future with its Arab neighbors - and for that,
he was branded a traitor by religious leaders in the Gush Emunim. Thus, his death
was religiously justified. Threatening the tribal and superstitious orientation of
some radical religious groups, his policies were moving Israel away from an eventual
theocracy.
And he wasn't the first to be killed. In 1994, New York-born Baruch Goldstein massacred
29 praying Palestinians at the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank town of Hebron
in an effort to eliminate the blasphemous presence of Muslims - today, this mass
murderer is venerated as a martyr to the cause of Israeli religious fulfillment.
His memory is such an inspiration to radical terrorists that the army has attempted
to remove the words "holy" and "martyr" from his grave in the
Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. Unfortunately, the army, which is responsible for
administration in the West Bank, has been blocked in its efforts by the Israeli Supreme
Court.
What is a Jew?
The obvious question which come up in all of this is: just what is a "Jew"
anyway? Since Israel is supposed to be a Jewish state and exist as a Jewish homeland,
who should be considered a Jew, and who not? Such questions are much too big to be
answered here, but perhaps a few general principles should be mentioned.
Jewishness isn't racial, since it would be absurd to say that Jews all belong to
any one, pure race. Ethnic variety within Judaism is quite wide. Jews aren't simply
a "socio-religious" group, since that would quickly exclude people like
Freud and Marx. Jewish identity cannot simply be cultural identity - there are more
differences between an American Jew and a Yemenite Jew than between an American Jew
and an American non-Jew.
Most Jews and probably many non-Jews will regard any person as a Jew if they have
a Jewish mother - regardless of the beliefs of the father. The tricky point comes
when we consider conversion to Judaism. All sects of Judaism - Reform, Conservative
and Orthodox - perform conversion rituals by which a person can become officially
a Jew. Unfortunately, the Orthodox Jews flatly refuse to recognize the validity of
non-Orthodox conversions.
This might not be so bad, until we remember that the Orthodox radicals are attempting
to impose their beliefs on the rest of society - and this has been one of their prime
targets. They have spared little expense in attempting to have only their conversion
ceremonies officially recognized by the state. The importance lies in the fact that
Jews are granted citizenship in Israel, so by controlling the official state definition
of who may become a Jew, the Orthodox radicals will control who becomes a citizen.
Naturally, Reform and Conservative Jews haven't taken kindly to this threat, but
only time will tell if their fight will be successful.
There is no question but that the current peace process is being severely hindered
by radical religious groups in Israel. Matters are made worse by the fact that the
current Netanyahu administration is politically beholden to the extreme religious
political parties which give Netanyahu the majority he needs to form a government.
This is why he proceeds with Jewish settlements at a breathtaking pace. This is why
Jewish settlers are defended and justified, almost regardless of what actions they
take. The Palestinians have certainly not been saints in this issue, and the peace
process has obviously been hurt by the terrorist acts of Hammas. But we must all
recognize the harm done by extremist orthodox Jews.
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