Israel: An Untried Policy

Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Countless Jews are appalled or dumbfounded. They cannot understand how a Jewish government, backed the Israel Defense Forces, could give away Judea and Samaria, the sacred heartland of the Jewish people to terrorist thugs.

The Prophets and Sages of Israel predicted that, in the end of days, the Jews would have such a government. They foresaw that Israel would be ruled by “scorners” of the Torah. These scorners, said the Prophet Hosea (12:1-3), will fill Israel with lies and deception. They will strive after wind (“peace”) and make alliances with Israel’s enemies.

The Prophet Isaiah (28:14-18) chastises these insolent Jews. He foretells that they will make a “covenant with death,” but that this pact will not protect them, indeed, that they will be swept away like refuse. Remarkably, the Targum translates this pact with death as a contract with “terrorists” (mechablim)!

Similarly, the Zohar (Exodus 7b) predicts that in the end of days certain Jews in Israel will make an alliance with the enemies of the Jewish people. The Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles fits this dire prediction.

In the Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin (98a), we learn that in the end of days Israel will have the “cheapest” government. Only the cheapest politicians would negotiate with terrorist thugs responsible for the murder and maiming thousands of Jewish men, women, and children. Such shamelessness should make any man of taste want to vomit. This leads me to examine the certain conclusions of Mishna Sotah (49b):

With the footsteps of the Moshiach arrogance shall increase and honor dwindle. The government shall turn to heresy [such as secular humanism] and there shall be none to utter reproof. The council-chamber [the Knesset] shall be given to immorality. Galilee will be barren, the Golan shall be desolate, and the dwellers on the frontier [in Judah, Samaria, and Gaza] shall go from place to place with none to take pity on them.

The wisdom of their writers [journalists and academics] will become insipid and degenerate [will become morally neutral if not anti-Jewish]; they that shun sin shall be despised. The truth shall nowhere be found [thanks to the university-bred doctrine of relativism]. Youth shall shame their elders, and the elders shall stand up in the presence of youth [a commonplace in democracies] ... The face of this generation is as the face of a dog [impervious to shame]... So upon whom can we rely? Upon our Father in heaven.

● Is it not obvious that the Jews in Israel cannot rely on the opposition parties such as Likud to save them from disaster?

● Is it not obvious, from the experience of Lebanon and Sderot, that Jews cannot rely on the Israel Defense Forces?

● Is it not obvious that Jews cannot rely on rabbis who pontificate about pikuach nefesh?

● Is it not obvious that Jews cannot rely on political and strategic analysts to stop the suicidal course of Israel’s government?

● Is it not obvious that Jews cannot rely on the United States or on information campaigns (hasbara) to save them from the successors of the Nazis?

By now it should also be obvious that it is precisely because Jews have relied on such vanities that they have been given spineless politicians who would sacrifice Eretz Yisrael for mere wind.

Finally, consider Rashi’s commentary to Genesis 1:1.

If the nations of the world should [question Israel’s title to Eretz Yisrael] and say: ‘You are robbers in that you have seized by force the territories of the seven nations,’ Israel can retort: ‘The entire world belongs to the Holy One, Blessed be He. He created it and gave it to whomsoever it was right in His eyes. It was His will to give it to them and it was His will to take it from them and give it to us.’

To whom are these words of centuries ago addressed? Surely, to Jews in Israel today. But no Israeli government has ever uttered these words. Nor has any religious party in any Israeli government ever made such words its clarion call!

You will say: “But the nations will mock these words and laugh at us.” I reply: Have countless appeals to “security” won the supportive concern of the nations? Have ingratiating words about “Israeli democracy” earned the respect of the democratic world? Has willingness to yield “territory for peace” appeased the voracious appetites of Janus-faced Arab despots?

Is not Israel despised by the nations no matter how yielding it has been in the “peace process”? I dare say that it is precisely because Jews have not based their claim to Eretz Yisrael exclusively on Rashi’s commentary to Genesis 1:1 that Israel is so often disdained and condemned by the nations!

I am not saying that citing Rashi will convince any nation that the Jews have a G-d given title to Eretz Yisrael. The task of the Jews is not to convince the nations of anything! That happens to be the compulsion or futility of assimilated Jews. Too many Jews—religious included—want to win the approval of the nations rather than the approval of G-d.

Legions of religious Jews rely more on politicians and political rhetoric than on the Torah and on the G-d of Israel. This is why the above Mishna indicates that in the end of days, when we have exhausted the heresies of our time and are utterly helpless, that we shall turn to our Father in heaven.

This is not a counsel of despair. It is a plea for rational analysis. Stop relying like addicts on failed ideas and flawed politicians. Start proclaiming that G-d alone has given us title to Eretz Yisrael—and never mind the scorners! Just do it and leave the consequences to G-d, Who alone is the Master of war and peace.

(1995 updated)