Holiness, Justice and Sacrifice
Moshe Feiglin
03 February 2002 Email this story
Print this story
[A dinner was held on Sunday, January 6, in the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan, in memory of Rehavam Ze´evi ("Gandhi", as he was nicknamed, was Tourism Minister in Sharon´s government and was the head of the Moledet movement. He was recently murdered by Palestinian terrorists in a Jerusalem hotel). Speeches were delivered at the dinner by several leaders of the Jewish community in New York, as well as by three representatives from Israel: Palmach Ze´evi, Gandhi´s son; Binyamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Prime Minister; and Moshe Feiglin, head of the Jewish Leadership faction in the Likud. The following is the text of Feiglin´s speech.]
Dear Ze´evi family:
Rehavam Ze´evi was a soldier. He fought in the service of the nation, fought for Eretz Israel and always held the Bible in his hand – the link to the roots of Israel. Gandhi always remembered captured and missing IDF soldiers, always mentioned Jonathan Pollard and helped every Jew struggling for Eretz Israel. I remember personally how Gandhi came to give evidence in the trial in which I and my colleague in the Zo Artzenu movement, Shmuel Sackett, were charged with civil disobedience. This evening we bow our heads and remember a dear, beloved, and courageous Jew. Gandhi was so courageous that, since the murder of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, he was the only one who dared to openly declare the suitable solution for the Arabs in Eretz Israel. Transfer is in fact the sole just and feasible solution.
In this evening in memory of a courageous man, it is appropriate to act like him and ask without fear the most difficult questions. How has it happened that, although we are fortunate to have the best and most talented leaders, the Left continues to rule, even when it seems that we won in the elections? Before I boarded the plane to come here, I heard an interview with Yossi Sarid on Kol Israel (Voice of Israel). Sarid was asked by the interviewer to explain the failure of the Left in the elections. "You call this a failure?" answered Sarid in amazement, "When Ariel Sharon, the head of the furthest Right government that you could imagine, publicly offers the Palestinians a state – something that we never dared to offer them in the Oslo agreement; when the Right has totally abandoned its ideology and is implementing the policy of the Left, you call this a failure? This is the greatest victory possible!"
Ladies and gentlemen, I think that Sarid is right. I don´t want anyone to think that the problem lies with Sharon. Sharon is the best figure on the Right that anyone could imagine. There has never been a greater military leader than him in Israel and it would be difficult to find in Israel a politician who has made a greater contribution to the cause of settlement than Ariel Sharon. So, if the problem is not a personal one, how have we arrived at a situation in which all Arafat has to do in order to receive his State in the middle of Eretz Israel is to stop killing Jews for seven days? That´s all – just restrain yourself and don´t kill Jews for seven days and, in return, we shall destroy the settlements, evict their residents, and give you the heart of our country so that you can set up your State.
What we are lacking is the hand holding the Bible. We lack that Bible that never left Gandhi´s pocket. In order to understand how the Bible forms the solution, I should like to tell you a short story.
About a year and a half ago I was invited to participate in a public debate held in the Jerusalem Theater, with Feisal Husseini and with the then-minister, Mrs. Yuli Tamir. The audience consisted entirely of people from the extreme Left - members of the "Be´tzelem" organization. Husseini got up to shake my hand and I refused to do so. I don´t shake hands with the enemy, I explained, to the sound of cries of contempt from the hall. Husseini gave an excited speech about how his family has been living in Jerusalem for six hundred years and that everything was fine until Jerusalem was conquered by Israel. Yuli Tamir, a minister in the Israeli government, agreed with him, that is, she agreed that Jerusalem is an occupied area.
My turn came to speak.
"You know, Feisal," I addressed him by his first name, "we have something in common that no-one else in the hall has." Husseini looked at me in amazement. "We both believe in G-d," I continued, "You believe in G-d, right?"
"Of course," Husseini replied, "I am a Moslem."
"Look," I said to him, "In my bag I have the most sacred book of the Jews, the Bible."
Husseini looked at me without understanding what I wanted from him.
"Do you know, Mr. Husseini, how many times Jerusalem appears in the Bible? More than eight hundred times. But I also have another book," I said and took from my bag the Koran, "This is your most sacred book, right, Mr. Husseini?"
"Of course," Husseini agreed.
I placed the Koran next to the Bible and said slowly: "Find me, please, the word Jerusalem in your most sacred book, even once, and then tell me who conquered whom."
You know what happened? The audience that had previously booed started clapping. It turns out that the Bible is a winning argument. Husseini was used to Israelis presenting arguments about security against pragmatic claims. It was easy for him to defeat them, but against the Bible, against historical Jewish justice, he didn´t stand a chance.
When Egyptian President Anwar Sadat met with Menahem Begin, he told him that he was prepared to sacrifice a million Egyptian soldiers in return for the last grain of the holy earth of Sinai. What happened? In Camp David he received the last grain of Sinai without sacrificing a single soldier. Sadat did not talk in terms of democracy or peace. Certainly not! He talked in totally different terms – he talked about holiness, justice (the very concept of returning territory originates in a feeling of justice) and about sacrifice. We can learn a lot from the enemy! This is the kind of leadership that we need today in Eretz Israel! Leadership based on the values of holiness, Jewish justice and sacrifice. This is the sole kind of leadership capable of extricating Israel from the cul-de-sac in which it currently finds itself.
I have good news for you this evening: we have such leadership in Eretz Israel! It is steadily developing. Do you know where it exist? It exists in Hebron, where people are living and thinking in terms of holiness. It exists in Beit El and Shilo, where it is expressed as Jewish justice. It exists on the roads of Judea, Samaria and Gaza where, unfortunately, every day it takes the form of sacrifice. The new leadership of the Jewish people will come from there.
Ladies and gentlemen, I could talk at length about what is happening in Eretz Israel in general and in Judea, Samaria and Gaza in particular. The murder of Gandhi is not the only act of murder we have witnessed recently. In my settlement alone, in recent months, we have buried three friends and we are currently taking care of orphans, widows and widowers, and seriously injured people. Yet, if we want to continue Gandhi´s path, the last thing we must do is request flak jackets, steel helmets and other protective measures. A great challenge faces us, both in Eretz Israel and here in the US: We must establish leadership capable of really facing up to the problem. We must establish leadership based on holiness, justice and sacrifice. The Jewish people deserves leadership capable of extricating it from these dire straits and realizing its mission – putting the world to rights in the kingdom of the Almighty. It deserves leadership based on belief.
-----------------------------------
Moshe Feiglin, founder of the Jewish Leadership Movement (www.Manhigut.org), led the campaign of mass civil disobedience against the Oslo accords in 1995. Feiglin is currently championing the registration of thousands of new members to the Jewish Leadership bloc in the Likud party, to create a Judaism-based leadership for the State of Israel. |
