The nation was torn asunder 30 years ago

by Robert Rosenberg

July 24, 2004

Obviously, the combination of the disengagement in the south and the barrier Israel is building between the state of Israel and the West Bank (supposedly much closer to the Green Line – or at least off Palestinian property -- after the Jerusalem court decision, if not the ruling from the The Hague) is dramatically changing the physical and human landscape of this land.

But the nation was already torn when Jews started taking Israeli government money out of the Jewish state, into army-occupied areas where the claim of supremacy and mastery over other human beings would become inevitable.

It was obvious that the claim to the territories captured in 1967 would violate the very heart of the concept of law as defined by the Bible; right after the mention of the death penalty for murder, and eye for an eye, at Leviticus 24:22 'Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.'

Woman Crucified # 4 by Silvia Rosenberg, mixed media on recycled paper, 20x30 cm.

And because of the violation of that law in the Bible with the approval of the state’s mechanisms, sometimes I get as angry as a Satmar, not wanting to believe in a state of the Jews can be so vile, profane and ugly openly disobeying such a fundamental law. Indeed, a whole host of rabbis preach the exact opposite of that law, starting with the son of a former Supreme Court justice.

Maybe that’s why in the name of a holy trinity of torah, am, and eretz they need to look for salvation somewhere, and ended up spelling it out in a necessarily militarily acronymic manner, Yesha, as if any Jew could regard any stone as holy (and certainly not graves, even if they really are the graves of the Patriarchs).

So, when you hear in the coming days, weeks and months about how the disengagement is 'tearing the people apart,' beside the fact that it’s actually only 8,000 civilians out of an overall population of nearly six million Jews, who will be moved, keep in mind that for many people, the nation was split years ago when Jews began moving out of Israel, whether it was into their fantasies about doing God’s will, adventuring as revolutionary pioneers in the name of the nation, or, with extremely generous state subsidies, getting a really cheap mortgage.

In the name of that Yesha, the people lining up on the roads – or their parents or grandparents – started tearing the moral heart out of Israel when they moved out to the territories, looking for trouble in the name of God, demanding protection and tax money to build their colonies, called settlements as an echo, in Hebrew, of pre-state days, the yishuv.

They are the ones who split the nation, claiming the moral high ground by declaring their Jewish nationalism the purest form, and in its name, also claiming supremacy, the most anti-Jewish concept of all. Through their antics they have given Judaism a bad name, as well as Israel, and their hypocrisy simply does not deserve the attention it is given.

So, about 150,000 people are supposed to line up – mostly kids already organized into ideological or local community summer camps – but they are far from the majority of the public. Yes, they still inspire some Israelis who live far from the settlements, rarely go to prayer (but wave at the mezuzah on their way into the supermarket). But everyone knows, they’ve cost us too much, in money and morality, for our stature in the world and our safety at home. They should be treated politely and decently, as an educational gesture to them and to us.

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