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Jewish History Professor envisions Israel Society Disaster
Rehovot Residents, don't let Gush Katif proponents and agents provocateurs bring Israel to the Civil War and the nation disintegration
"In September 1975, I was performing my obligatory army service. It was the time of the interim agreement initiated by then-U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger. In his "shuttles" between Cairo and Jerusalem, he managed to get the two sides to sign an agreement to the effect that the conflict in the Middle East would only be resolved by peaceful means. Two years later, Israeli prime minister Menahem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat did in fact sign a peace agreement. The rest is history.
But during the days of Kissinger's shuttles, the country was in an uproar. Begin was the head of the opposition at the time, and demonstrators from the new non-establishment movement - Gush Emunim - were running wild in the streets; this was the generation of the parents of today's opponents of the disengagement.
I received a one-week leave from my Armored Corps base in Sinai. I visited Jerusalem and my heart went out to my friends who were demonstrating in the city streets. I took off my uniform and went to Zion Square where the crowd had gathered.
I met many friends. Suddenly things heated up, and the police decided to act with determination and arrest dozens of demonstrators. I was standing in the wrong place and the heavy hand of a representative of the law was placed on my shoulders. I was thrown into a police van and unceremoniously brought to the police station in the Russian Compound. My pleas were of no avail.
As opposed to the other detainees, who boasted of their arrests and were happy about them ("Let the nation know that its best sons are being thrown into prison," they convinced one another), I was embarrassed. "I was only arrested because of my kippa," I said to the investigator, "I don't belong to this demonstration, and I don't support it.
I was released the next afternoon, and the same day, I returned ashamed and confused to the base in Sinai. Thirty years have passed since then, but I still have a clear recollection of the experiences I underwent in detention.
Among the detainees were the top ranks of the settler leadership. They spent their time in jail in enthusiastic prayer, Torah lessons and a hunger strike. In the morning, an endless stream of politicians and public figures began to arrive; they came to suck up to the new prisoners of Zion and benefit from their celebrity.
Energetic attorney Elyakim Haetzni came and convened the detainees for a legal consultation. It wasn't consultation, but rather a belligerent speech whose extremism astonished me and the likes of which I hadn't heard before. "We will paralyze the country," declared Haetzni, "we will block roads. No car will move and the country will not be able to withstand that. Only in this way will we win in our just struggle."
The leaders of the settlers who heard these words did not silence Haetzni, nor did they voice any opposition. Afterward, all the detainees went out to the courtyard of the detention facility and danced and sang. They encouraged each another with the blessing, "Happy are you who were caught for observing the Torah."
Thirty years later, that occasion seems to me as if it had been the birth of seeds of disaster that were planted and grew, and that now threaten the entire Israeli public.
Although Gush Emunim and the extreme right failed dismally in their efforts to torpedo the peace treaty with Egypt, the plan of operation suggested by Haetzni in the Russian Compound made a profound impression.
Since then, an entire generation of spoiled fruit has grown before our eyes - in the settlements, in the clubhouses and yeshivas of the Bnei Akiva youth movement, in the institutions of the state religious educational system. Young men and women who, along with a strong and authentic love for the Land of Israel (which always lies beyond the Green Line) and an impressive willingness to contribute to its security - military service in combat units - feel a deep contempt for its institutions and its representatives.
These "youth in orange" (as Israel Harel affectionately dubbed them) are not as wonderful as they think, or as their rabbis, educators and admirers see them. They are arrogant and condescending, full of self-satisfaction and afflicted with moral blindness and distorted values - a lost generation.
The contempt that these young people feel toward the state is expressed in various ways. Some of the rabbis of religious Zionism are now seriously deliberating questions whose very mention until recently represented crossing a red line, such as: Should the prayer for the welfare of the state be recited, or should its content be changed, at a minimum. Or, should Israel Independence Day be celebrated as a religious event (as opposed to Jerusalem Day, which is celebrated with extreme fervor).
Until a few years ago, such scholarly dilemmas could be attributed to extremist margins; today they are reflected in the behavior of the mainstream of the national religious right.
I'm not talking about violations of the law, such as the theft of land and property, deception, denial and innumerable, disgusting tricks and shticks that are considered permissible in order to fulfill the vision of settlement in controversial areas. I want to cry out against the obscene language, the intolerance and the violence, the ingratitude and the chutzpah toward the institutions, the elected officials and the laws of the state, and the rudeness and arrogance toward policemen or soldiers.
Anyone who sees this has to feel unease, confusion and shame.
These nice children, who puncture tires and scatter nails, and even refuse to identify themselves before a judge; these young girls, who spit at soldiers and open mouths like sewers, are the educational product of the leaders and rabbis of Gush Emunim. These young people, who are probably scrupulous in their observance of the laws of kashrut, have apparently never heard of the saying attributed to the Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan - Hafetz Haim, that what comes out of one's mouth is no less important that what goes into it.
There is something rotten in the wonderful and efficient educational system of the kingdom of the settlers, and the roots of this rot go back to that same speech by Haetzni in the Russian Compound. This damaged generation, which is now furious at the "crime" of the disengagement, will not be stopped after the plan is implemented. It will be with us for many years to come, and do everything possible to embitter our lives and destroy any hope for change, any plan that involves concession, acceptance or reconciliation.
Prof. David Assaf is the head of the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University." Source: David Assaf. The seeds of disaster Haartez.com (19 June 2005) [FullText]
Gush Katif ..."youth in orange" are not as wonderful as they think, or as their rabbis, educators and admirers see them. They are arrogant and condescending, full of self-satisfaction and afflicted with moral blindness and distorted values - a lost generation.
Also see:
Beware of Gush Katif Anarchists call for Israel Civil War. MyRehovot.Info (11 July 2005) [FullText]
Also see:
Beware of Gush Katif Anarchists call for Israel Civil War. MyRehovot.Info (11 July 2005) [FullText]
"In September 1975, I was performing my obligatory army service. It was the time of the interim agreement initiated by then-U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger. In his "shuttles" between Cairo and Jerusalem, he managed to get the two sides to sign an agreement to the effect that the conflict in the Middle East would only be resolved by peaceful means. Two years later, Israeli prime minister Menahem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat did in fact sign a peace agreement. The rest is history.
But during the days of Kissinger's shuttles, the country was in an uproar. Begin was the head of the opposition at the time, and demonstrators from the new non-establishment movement - Gush Emunim - were running wild in the streets; this was the generation of the parents of today's opponents of the disengagement.
I received a one-week leave from my Armored Corps base in Sinai. I visited Jerusalem and my heart went out to my friends who were demonstrating in the city streets. I took off my uniform and went to Zion Square where the crowd had gathered.
I met many friends. Suddenly things heated up, and the police decided to act with determination and arrest dozens of demonstrators. I was standing in the wrong place and the heavy hand of a representative of the law was placed on my shoulders. I was thrown into a police van and unceremoniously brought to the police station in the Russian Compound. My pleas were of no avail.
As opposed to the other detainees, who boasted of their arrests and were happy about them ("Let the nation know that its best sons are being thrown into prison," they convinced one another), I was embarrassed. "I was only arrested because of my kippa," I said to the investigator, "I don't belong to this demonstration, and I don't support it.
I was released the next afternoon, and the same day, I returned ashamed and confused to the base in Sinai. Thirty years have passed since then, but I still have a clear recollection of the experiences I underwent in detention.
Among the detainees were the top ranks of the settler leadership. They spent their time in jail in enthusiastic prayer, Torah lessons and a hunger strike. In the morning, an endless stream of politicians and public figures began to arrive; they came to suck up to the new prisoners of Zion and benefit from their celebrity.
Energetic attorney Elyakim Haetzni came and convened the detainees for a legal consultation. It wasn't consultation, but rather a belligerent speech whose extremism astonished me and the likes of which I hadn't heard before. "We will paralyze the country," declared Haetzni, "we will block roads. No car will move and the country will not be able to withstand that. Only in this way will we win in our just struggle."
The leaders of the settlers who heard these words did not silence Haetzni, nor did they voice any opposition. Afterward, all the detainees went out to the courtyard of the detention facility and danced and sang. They encouraged each another with the blessing, "Happy are you who were caught for observing the Torah."
Thirty years later, that occasion seems to me as if it had been the birth of seeds of disaster that were planted and grew, and that now threaten the entire Israeli public.
Although Gush Emunim and the extreme right failed dismally in their efforts to torpedo the peace treaty with Egypt, the plan of operation suggested by Haetzni in the Russian Compound made a profound impression.
Since then, an entire generation of spoiled fruit has grown before our eyes - in the settlements, in the clubhouses and yeshivas of the Bnei Akiva youth movement, in the institutions of the state religious educational system. Young men and women who, along with a strong and authentic love for the Land of Israel (which always lies beyond the Green Line) and an impressive willingness to contribute to its security - military service in combat units - feel a deep contempt for its institutions and its representatives.
These "youth in orange" (as Israel Harel affectionately dubbed them) are not as wonderful as they think, or as their rabbis, educators and admirers see them. They are arrogant and condescending, full of self-satisfaction and afflicted with moral blindness and distorted values - a lost generation.
The contempt that these young people feel toward the state is expressed in various ways. Some of the rabbis of religious Zionism are now seriously deliberating questions whose very mention until recently represented crossing a red line, such as: Should the prayer for the welfare of the state be recited, or should its content be changed, at a minimum. Or, should Israel Independence Day be celebrated as a religious event (as opposed to Jerusalem Day, which is celebrated with extreme fervor).
Until a few years ago, such scholarly dilemmas could be attributed to extremist margins; today they are reflected in the behavior of the mainstream of the national religious right.
I'm not talking about violations of the law, such as the theft of land and property, deception, denial and innumerable, disgusting tricks and shticks that are considered permissible in order to fulfill the vision of settlement in controversial areas. I want to cry out against the obscene language, the intolerance and the violence, the ingratitude and the chutzpah toward the institutions, the elected officials and the laws of the state, and the rudeness and arrogance toward policemen or soldiers.
Anyone who sees this has to feel unease, confusion and shame.
These nice children, who puncture tires and scatter nails, and even refuse to identify themselves before a judge; these young girls, who spit at soldiers and open mouths like sewers, are the educational product of the leaders and rabbis of Gush Emunim. These young people, who are probably scrupulous in their observance of the laws of kashrut, have apparently never heard of the saying attributed to the Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan - Hafetz Haim, that what comes out of one's mouth is no less important that what goes into it.
There is something rotten in the wonderful and efficient educational system of the kingdom of the settlers, and the roots of this rot go back to that same speech by Haetzni in the Russian Compound. This damaged generation, which is now furious at the "crime" of the disengagement, will not be stopped after the plan is implemented. It will be with us for many years to come, and do everything possible to embitter our lives and destroy any hope for change, any plan that involves concession, acceptance or reconciliation.
Prof. David Assaf is the head of the Department of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University." Source: David Assaf. The seeds of disaster Haartez.com (19 June 2005) [FullText]
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