Professor Paul Eidelberg
Israel is losing its Jewish character. Zionism has metamorphosed into post-Zionism. Superficial observers blame Labor for this decadent state of affairs. But the Likud is little more that right-wing of Labor’s leftward sliding party. No less culpable are the religious parties which, despite their promotion of Torah education, have contributed to the corruption and contraction of the Jewish state.
The seed of this national decay was planted in the opening sentence of Israel’s so-called Declaration of Independence (which four rabbis signed). Aping the 19th century doctrine of territorial nationalism, the secular authors of that document proclaimed, at the very outset, that “The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people.” This falsehood, this denial of the Sinai Covenant which made the Jewish people a nation under God—this is the fundamental cause of Israel’s malaise and territorial truncation.
Having made territorial nationalism the basis of the Jewish state, and having thereby abandoned the only solid justification for such a state—God’s Covenant with the Jewish people—divine justice requires the piece-by-piece loss of that territory. This is why well-intended but misguided critics of the “territory-for-peace” policy have had no impact on Israel’s intellectually and morally impoverished governments.
What the critics should have emphasized is that the approaching demise of Israel is a consequence of secular Zionism’s misuse of the term “Zion.” That term is one of the most sacred words in the dictionary of authentic Judaism. Zion is the dwelling place of God’s glory. It is the Sanctuary of the Torah, the Holy City which surrounds it, the Holy Land of which Jerusalem is the eternal capital. From Zion, from Jerusalem, the word of God—the Truth—shall come forth. Because the term “Zion” has been corrupted, Jerusalem is on the negotiating table.
This is the price to be paid for betraying the God of Israel and His Covenant with the Jewish people. Indeed, that Covenant of old, which endowed the Jewish people with life, dignity, and direction, has been replaced by a new covenant: Israel’s COVENANT OF DEATH with the PLO. (See Isaiah 28:15.)
Of course, the political heirs of those who founded the State of Israel had to offer a substitute for Zionism to justify their political existence. And so Israel’s ruling elites now adorn themselves in the cloak of Democracy, the god of modernity. Every party in the Knesset genuflects to this god, which most Israelis are profoundly ignorant.
Ponder, therefore, the words of Jeremiah (2:11-13): “Has a nation [ever] exchanged its gods, [even] though they are not [genuine] gods? Yet My people has exchanged its glory for something vain. Be astonished, O Heavens, over this; and be horribly afraid, be utterly amazed and devastated -- says the Lord. For my people have … forsaken Me …”
Notice the confusion and insecurity in this country. But nothing can be more desperate and dangerous than Israel’s ruling elites. Because they have no ideology other than the meaningless pluralism of Democracy, these elites can only destroy or seek to destroy the Judaism still alive in Israel. Hence they want to transform Israel into a “state of its citizens,” precisely the (initial) aim of Israel’s Arab parties. Power has become the paramount purpose of Israel’s ruling elites, thus their treachery.
Let us face some ugly facts. The Labor Party is dependent on the Arab vote to gain (and maintain) power. Hence the Oslo agreement. LABOR’S POLICY OF “TERRITORY FOR PEACE” NOT ONLY MEANS “TERRITORY FOR POWER” BUT “JUDAISM FOR POWER” VIA THE ARAB VOTE. And so it has become with the Likud. How did Omri Sharon induce thousands of Israel’s Arab citizens to register for his father’s party prior to the January 2003 Knesset elections? Is not his father committed to a Palestinian state?
This treachery is made possible by Israel’s defective parliamentary electoral system. Since the entire country constitutes a single electoral district necessitating proportional representation, the Likud as well as the religious parties kowtow to Arab voters to win an extra seat in the Knesset. An extra Knesset seat can give a party a money-wielding ministry in Israel’s grotesque multi-party cabinet government.
Flawed men and flawed institutions have brought decay and death to Israel—and there is no end in sight so long as the God of Israel has been replaced by the god of Democracy.