ZIONISM - PRACTICAL
The Five Books of Moses (Pentateuch/Torah) – the basis for the
Jewish religion, is meant to be practiced in the context of national
existence in the land of Israel. The
Torah anticipates residence upon the Land, as well as exile from it.
As opposed to all other religious phenomena in the world, the whole
of Israel is both a Holyland and a Homeland. Zionism is Israel’s
national ideology. Judaism is a nationality as well as a religion.
The text of the Torah reveals that, not only the agricultural and
cultic elements are preceded by the introduction: “When you come into the
land”. Even commandments such as fairness in business etc., are set in the frame
of national existence - with specific reference to the Land. There is also the
clear threat of expulsion from the land if these “personal” commands are not
carried out.
Modern Zionism, building on the longstanding Jewish yearning
for a “return to Zion”, began in the 19th century – right about the
time that nationalism started to rise in Europe. A secular Austrian Jewish
journalist, Theodor Herzl, was the first to turn rumblings of Jewish
nationalism into an international movement around 1896. Herzl witnessed brutal
European anti-Semitism firsthand, and became convinced the Jewish people could
never survive outside of a country of their own.
Zionism is
perhaps the most successful and comprehensive political movement of all time.
There is no precedent of a state and language being re-established after a
lapse of twenty centuries.
Other nationalist revolutions try to change a certain dimension of
actual society (economical, political, etc.). The Zionist revolution is a
revival, a recreation of land, culture, political life. Other movements aim to
change the future. Zionism takes symbols and dreams from the past. The
State of Israel is the place to which the Jewish people have returned in order
to reimagine what Jewish life might be, what the Jewish people might be.
The “Palestinians” have only been in existence since 1964 when the
then foreign minister Shimon Peres brought back the arch-terrorist Yasser
Arafat from Tunis, seeing in him a future statesman and peace partner. Araft
was even supplied by us with guns - which he later used to murder and maim over
1,000 Israelis.
Having allied themselves with the Nazis during World War II and
with the Soviets during the Cold War, the Arabs have laid claim to the legacy
of the two greatest sources of 20th century anti-semitism. They are
the first people whose nationalism consists primarily of opposition to the
Jewish people.
We don’t have 22 states as the Arabs do. We have only this one very
small piece of land which we are trying to build up for the Jewish people as
the Jewish state. The practical realisation of Zionism is the
culmination of a situation which the Jewish people and Providence kept open for
2,000 years.
Zionism’s “new
Jew” faced five standing Arab armies determined to wipe out the newly founded
state, and though vastly outnumbered, defeated them – while extending Israel’s
borders. Finally equipped with heavy machinery after German reparations, Israel
did what few would have imagined possible – it built the National Water Carrier
and made the desert bloom. Seemingly bereft of natural resources, a fledgling
state decided to make the most of the only resource it had – human intellectual
capital – with results far exceeding what anyone could have imagined.
The Jewish nation is not one that lives by its sword. The only
justification for bearing arms, in the eyes of Judaism, is for self-defense. The
IDF today can be likened to Jewish fighters defending their people, as did King
David. As written in the Bible: “For the
sake of Zion I will not be silent, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not
rest, until her righteousness shines out like brilliance, and her salvation burns
like a torch [Isiah 62:1].
We still have a long way to go but can only hope and pray for a better
tomorrow - and fighting for it until it is reached.
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