what some jews think about the goy:
Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel
By Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky. London:Pluto Press,1999, 176
pp.List:
$18.95; AET: $16.00
Reviewed by Allan C. Brownfeld
In recent years there has been a dramatic growth of Jewish fundamentalism
in Israel which has manifested itself in vigorous opposition to the peace
process and has played a key role, as well, in the assassination of Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the murder of 29 Muslims at prayer by the
American-born fundamentalist, Baruch Goldstein.
Few outside of Israel have been properly informed about the extent of the
fundamentalist movement or the theology upon which it is based. American
Jews, in particular, seem unaware of the narrow ethnocentrism which is
promoted by the movement's leading rabbis, or of the traditional Jewish
sources they are able to call upon in drawing clear distinctions between
the
moral obligations owed to Jews and non-Jews.
In an important new book, Jewish Fundamentalism In Israel , Israel Shahak
and Norton Mezvinksy provide a thorough assessment of this phenomenon in
modern Israel. The authors trace the history and development of Jewish
fundamentalism, examining the various strains, and identify the messianic
tendency which they believe to be the most dangerous.
Israel Shahak, an Israeli and a Holocaust survivor, is a retired
professor
at the Hebrew University and a leading human rights activist. Norton
Mezvinsky is a professor of history at Central Connecticut State
University
who has written and lectured extensively on the modern Middle East.
The authors point out that ".the adherents of Jewish fundamentalism in
Israel oppose equality for all citizens, especially non-Jews." The
respected
Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling, citing evidence from a study
conducted by other scholars, declared: "The value of the [Jewish]
religion,
at least in its Orthodox and nationalistic form that prevails in Israel,
cannot be squared with democratic values. No other variable-neither
nationality, nor attitudes about security, nor social or economic values,
nor ethnic descent and education-so influences the attitudes of [Israeli]
Jews against democratic values as does religiousity."
What particularly concerns the authors is the total contempt which Jewish
fundamentalists show toward non-Jews. Rabbi Kook the Elder, the revered
father of the messianic tendency of Jewish fundamentalism, said, "The
difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews-all of them in all
different levels-is greater and deeper than the difference between a
human
soul and the souls of cattle."
Rabbi Kook's entire teaching, which is followed devoutly by, among
others,
those who have led the settler movement on the occupied West Bank, is
based
upon the Lurianic Cabbala, the school of Jewish mysticism that dominated
Judaism from the late16th to the early 19th century. "One of the basic
tenets of the Lurianic Cabbala," the authors write, "is the absolute
superiority of the Jewish soul and body over the non-Jewish soul and
body.
According to the Lurianic Cabbala, the world was created solely for the
sake
of Jews; the existence of non-Jews was subsidiary. If an influential
Christian bishop or Islamic scholar argued that the difference between
the
superior souls of non-Jews and the inferior souls of Jews was greater
than
the difference between the human soul and souls of cattle, he would incur
the wrath of all and be viewed as an anti-Semite by most Jewish scholars
regardless of whatever less meaningful, positive statements he included."
The scholarly authors of books about Jewish mysticism and the Lurianic
Cabbala, such as Gershon Scholem, have, the authors charge, "willfully
omitted reference to such ideas. These authors are supreme hypocrites.
They
are analogous to many authors of books on Stalin and Stalinism. Until
recently, people who read only the books written by Stalinists could not
know about Stalin's crimes and would have false notions of the Stalinist
regimes and their real ideologies."
According to the ideologies which underlie Gush Emunim, the militant West
Bank settlers group, and Hasidism, non-Jews have "satanic souls" Shahak
and
Mezvinsky note that "the role of Satan, whose earthly embodiment
according
to the Cabbala is every non-Jew, has been minimized or not mentioned by
authors who have not written about the Cabbala in Hebrew. Such authors,
therefore, have not conveyed to readers accurate accounts of general NRP
(National Religious Party) or its hardcore Gush Emunim politics."
Common to both the Talmud and Halacha, Orthodox religious law, is a
differentiation between Jews and non-Jews. The late, highly revered Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the "Lubovitcher Rebbe" who headed the Chabad
movement and wielded great influence in Israel as well as in the U.S.,
explained that, "The difference between a Jewish and a non-Jewish person
stems from the common expression: 'Let us differentiate.' Thus, we do not
have a case of profound change in which a person is merely on a superior
level. Rather, we have a case of 'let us differentiate' between totally
different species. This is what needs to be said about the body: the body
of
a Jewish person is of a totally different quality from the body of
[members]
of all nations of the world.A non-Jew's entire reality is only vanity. It
is
written, 'And the strangers shall guard and feed your flocks' (Isaiah
61:5).
The entire creation [of a non-Jew] exists only for the sake of the Jews."
Rabbi Schneerson always supported Israeli wars and opposed any retreat.
In
1974 he strongly opposed the Israeli withdrawal from the Suez area. He
promised Israel divine favors if it persisted in occupying the land.
After
his death, thousands of his Israeli followers played an important role in
the election victory of Binyamin Netanyahu. Among the religious settlers
in
the occupied territories, the Chabad Hassids constitute one of the most
extreme groups. Baruch Goldstein, the mass murderer of Palestinians, was
one
of them.
Rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburgh, who wrote a chapter of a book in praise of
Goldstein and what he did, is another member of this group. An immigrant
to
Israel from the U.S., Rabbi Ginsburgh speaks freely of Jews'
genetic-based,
spiritual superiority over non-Jews. "If you saw two people drowning, a
Jew
and a non-Jew, the Torah says you save the Jewish life first," Ginsburgh
states. "If every simple cell in a Jewish body entails divinity, is a
part
of God, then every strand of DNA is part of God. Therefore, something is
special about Jewish DNA.If a Jew needs a liver, can you take the liver
of
an innocent non-Jew passing by to save him? The Torah would probably
permit
that. Jewish life has an infinite value."
Shahak and Mezvinsky point out that, "Changing the words 'Jewish' to
'German
' or 'Aryan' and 'non-Jewish' to 'Jewish' turns the Ginsburgh position
into
the doctrine that made Auschwitz possible in the past. To a considerable
extent the German Nazi success depended upon that ideology and upon its
implications of being widely known early. Disregarding even on a limited
scale the potential effects of messianic, Lubavitch and other ideologies
could prove to be calamitous.The similarities between the Jewish
political
messianic trend and German Nazism are glaring. The Gentiles are for the
messianists what the Jews were for the Nazis. The hatred of Western
culture
with its rational and democratic elements is common to both movements.
The ideology.is both eschatological and messianic. It resembles in this
respect prior Jewish religious doctrines as well as similar trends in
Christianity and Islam. This ideology assumes the imminent coming of the
Messiah and asserts that the Jews, aided by God, will thereafter triumph
over the non-Jews and rule over them forever."
Members of Gush Emunim argue that "what appears to be confiscation of
Arab-owned land for subsequent settlement by Jews is in reality not an
act
of stealing but one of sanctification. From their perspective the land is
redeemed by being transferred from the satanic to the divine sphere.the
Gush
Emunim rabbis assert that this one messianic sect has to handle and lead
the
ass-like Jews, who have been corrupted by satanic Western culture, with
its
rationality and democracy and who refuse to renounce their beastly habits
and embrace the true faith. To further the process, the use of force is
permitted wherever necessary."
The Jewish fundamentalists believe that God gave all of the Land of
Israel
(including present-day Lebanon and other areas) to the Jews and that
Arabs
living in Israel are viewed as thieves. Rabbi Israel Ariel, a
fundamentalist
leader, published an atlas that designated all lands that were Jewish and
needed to be liberated. This included all areas west and south of the
Euphrates River extending through most of Syria, much of Iraq, and
present-day Kuwait.
Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, another spokesman, said, "We must live in this land
even at the price of war. Moreover, even if there is peace, we must
instigate wars of liberation in order to conquer it [the land]."
Mordechai Nisan, a lecturer at the Hebrew University, expressed this view
in
an official publication of the World Zionist Organization. Relying on
Maimonides, he said that a non-Jew permitted to reside in the land of
Israel
"must accept paying a tax and suffering the humiliation of servitude." He
said that non-Jews must not be appointed to any office or position of
power
over Jews.
When it comes to Baruch Goldstein's murder of 29 Palestinians at prayer,
fundamentalists refuse to acknowledge that such an act constitutes
"murder"
because, according to the Halacha, "the killing by a Jew of a non-Jew
under
any circumstances is not regarded as murder. It may be prohibited for
other
reasons, especially when it causes danger for Jews." When asked if he was
sorry about the murdered Arabs, militant Rabbi Moshe Levenger declared:
"I
am sorry not only about dead Arabs but about dead flies."
For the fundamentalists, Goldstein became a hero. Military guards
transported his coffin to Kiryat Arba through Palestinian villages. Rabbi
Dov Lior in a eulogy stated that, "Goldstein was full of love for fellow
human beings. He dedicated himself to helping others." Authors Shahak and
Mezvinsky write that, "The terms 'human beings' and 'others' in the
Halacha
refer solely to Jews."
Although messianic fundamentalists constitute a relatively small portion
of
the Israeli population, their political influence has been growing. If
they
have contempt for non-Jews, their hatred for Jews who oppose their views
is
even greater.
The murder of Yitzhak Rabin, the authors show, is one in a long line of
murders of Jews who followed a path different from that ordained by
rabbinic
authorities. They cite case after case, from the Middle Ages until the
19th
century.
One typical example was the assassination by poison of Rabbi Avraham
Cohen
in Lemberg, Austria on Sept. 6, 1848.
Assuming his rabbinical position in 1844, Cohen initiated changes in
Jewish
life. His most important initiative was his attempt to abolish taxes on
kosher meat and sabbath candles which Lemberg's Jews paid to Austrian
authorities. These taxes were burdensome for poor Jews but were a source
of
income for many Orthodox Jewish notables.
The Austrian authorities accepted Cohen's request and abolished the taxes
in
March 1848. The five Jewish notables of the town began a total struggle
against Rabbi Cohen. Critics argued that the "law of the pursuer" applied
to
the rabbi. One placard said: "He is one of those Jewish sinners for which
the Talmud says their blood is permitted" (that is, every Jew can and
should
kill them). On Sept. 6, a Jewish assassin successfully entered the
rabbi's
home unseen, went to the kitchen and put arsenic poison in a pot of soup
that was cooking. Both Rabbi Cohen and his small daughter died. The
Hassids
and their leaders did not attend the funeral, but celebrated.
It was precisely the same Talmudic laws that caused Rabbi Cohen's death
which were used to murder Yitzhak Rabin. Yigal Amir, Rabin's assassin,
cited
the "law of the pursuer" (din rodef) and the "Law of the informer" (din
moser). The first law commands every Jew to kill or to wound severely any
Jew who is perceived as intending to kill another Jew. According to
halachic
commentaries, it is not necessary to see such a person pursuing a Jewish
victim. It is enough if rabbinic authorities, or even competent scholars,
announce that the law of the pursuer applies. The second law commands
every
Jew to kill or wound severely any Jew who, without a decision of a
competent
rabbinic authority, has informed non-Jews about Jewish affairs or has
given
them information about Jewish property or who has delivered Jewish
persons
or property to their rule or authority.
The authors write: "The land of Israel has been and still is considered
by
all religious Jews as being the exclusive property of the Jews. Granting
Palestinians authority over any part of this land could be interpreted as
informing. Some religious Jews interpreted the relations that developed
between Rabin and the Palestinian Authority as causing harm to the Jewish
settlers. In this sense, Rabin had informed."
For the future, the authors fear the growth of such fundamentalism just
as
the prospects for peace have dramatically improved. They note that, "It
should not be forgotten that democracy and the rule of law were brought
into
Judaism from the outside. Before the advent of the modern state, Jewish
communities were mostly ruled by rabbis who employed arbitrary and cruel
methods as bad as those employed by totalitarian regimes. The dearest
wish
of the current Jewish fundamentalists is to restore this state of
affairs."
This book should be a wake-up call to many Americans, particularly Jewish
supporters of Israel who are not aware of the nature of the
fundamentalism
which is growing strong in that country. This fundamentalism is
increasing
in influence as a result of Israel's electoral system, which bestows
power
to minority parties far beyond their representation in the population.
The
authors declare: "We believe that awareness is the necessary first step
in
opposition." Professors Shahak and Mezvinsky have done a notable service
for
men and women of goodwill of all religious traditions by pointing to the
ideological roadblocks to genuine peace which must be overcome. |
