The Government of Israel is preoccupied, as usual, with security. Hence it is devoid of a constructive political philosophy clear enough to guide statesmen and vivid enough to inspire youth. The shallow Zionism of yesterday has become the anti-Jewish Zionism of today.

Labor and Likud: co-conspirators in shallow Zionism

The Knesset, observing 61 years of existence. Photo: Itzik Edri, CC BY 2.5 Generic License

Superficial observers blame the Labor Party for this decadence.  But the Likud is also decrepit, being nothing more than right-wing of Labor Party. Even more culpable are the religious parties which, despite their promotion of Torah education, have contributed nothing to statecraft.

As I have often observed, the seed of this decay was planted in the opening sentence of Israel’s Declaration of Independence (which four rabbis signed).  Aping the 19th century doctrine of territorial nationalism, the secular authors of that document proclaimed, in its first sentence, “The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people.” This falsehood, this denial of the Sinai Covenant, which had made the Jewish people a nation under God, is the root cause of Israel’s political decay and territorial truncation.

Having made territorial nationalism the basis of the Jewish State, and having thereby abandoned Israel’s only solid justification, 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 misguided government.

What the critics should have emphasized is that the metamorphosis of Zionism into post-Zionism is a consequence of secular 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, even the Vatican, a seedbed of anti-Jewish hypocrisy, has endorsed the creation of a Muslim state in the Holy Land, as if Islam did not regard the Pope and his Christians as infidels!

Infidelity to God costs dear

That is the price 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 and direction, has been replaced by a new covenant: the Oslo covenant of death.

Infamy of infamies, a Likud leader outdid the Vatican’s two-faced endorsement of the two-state “solution” by condoning the Oslo Covenant. And even now, with death hovering over Israel, the religious parties sustain a government of blind-deaf-mutes. With Iran developing nuclear weapons to fulfill its curse “Death to Israel,” no one calls for the abrogation of Oslo, and no one even harbors the idea that the State has exhausted its historical tenure under secularism.

Of course, the political heirs of those who founded the State had to offer a substitute for decayed Zionism to justify their existence: they replaced the God of Israel with the god of Democracy!

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 — for My people have … forsaken Me …

Note the Government’s lack of any distinctive Jewish national purpose. None can be more spiritually vacuous and timorous than Israel’s ruling elites. Having 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 harass religious Zionists who want Israel to restore Jewish sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, the cradle of Jewish civilization. To preserve their power and perks has become the paramount purpose of Israeli politicians.

Let’s face some ugly facts.  Labor’s policy of “territory for peace” became the policy of the Likud. Likud leaders, from Rabin to Netanyahu, discerned that if Jewish sovereignty was extended over Judea and Samaria, that ancient Jewish land on which the prophets walked and taught would become the haven of a burgeoning Jewish population. Year by year the power of the secular parties in the Government would evaporate. The reign of shallow Zionism would end. Israel would become an authentic Jewish polity. The God of Israel, no longer exiled, would be home in every heart and soul.☼