Implications of Amona

Reflecting on the situation in Amona, Israel Perspectives writes:

In the State of Israel, Judaism is no longer the official religion, and Israel is no longer the Jewish State. The powers-that-be in the State of Israel (the government, media, Supreme Court, academia...) now worship at the Temple of the Rule of Law.

...For nearly 2,000 years Jews throughout the world prayed for a return to the Land of Israel and to reestablish Jewish sovereignty there. They did not pray for a return to the Land of Israel out of a desire to live in a country that was guided by the "rule of law" or to live in the "only democracy in the Middle East", but to return home to the Land of Israel where they could live proudly, as Jews, in their ancient and eternal homeland; to live in a place where no Jew would be discriminated against for living as an openly proud Jew and where no Jew would need to live in fear.

Zion Report adds:

No doubt the secular Zionist movement failed us, but we should have expected as much. Without an unabated love for Hashem and without the belief that our covenant is the very tie that binds us to the land, what good is Zionism?

If your basis for the love of the land is historical, your love will fade away. But if your love for it based upon Torah, your love will last forever.

Though this week's Jewish Press apparently was published without being able to include coverage of what is going on in Amona, it does have an article that bears on the terrible outbreak of violence there.

In Orthodox and Israeli: When the Two Don't Mix, Avraham Shmuel Lewin writes about the religious/non-religious divide. He quotes Aaron Klein, Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily and a co-host of ABC Radio's national John Bachelor Show--who finds that when wearing a kippah he is often stopped at checkpoints because he is suspected of not being a real journalist, but without a kippah he passes through easily:

Asked to explain the institutionalized anti-religious practices he's encountered, Aaron replies, "It's the new nature of the cultural war in Israel. The great divide used to be the so-called right wing versus the so-called left wing. Essentially, whether or not to give up land to the Palestinians. Now the mask is coming off and the real battle is starting to be waged openly – religious nationalism versus anti-religious post-Zionism.

"More simply, is Israel supposed to be a Jewish state based on religious ideals or will it be a state like all others that just happens to be comprised mostly of Jews? At its core, it is what all the land withdrawals and proposed land withdrawals are about, and it's what my 'yarmulke problems' are about. That is the fight I am witnessing here. The victor will determine the future of Israel and the Jewish people."

Thought Klein argues that the true nature of the divide is only now coming out into the open, Lewin concludes his article with a 1959 letter to Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, from the Lubavitcher Rebbe:

It was once fashionable in certain circles to suggest that the Jewish religion and religious observances are necessary for those living in the Diaspora – as a shield against assimilation. But for those who can find another "antidote" in the place of religion, particularly for those living in Eretz Israel, within their own society, where the atmosphere, language, etc. (apparently) serve as ample assurances, the Jewish religion was superfluous – what need had they to burden themselves with all its minutiae in their daily life? But the trend of developments in Eretz Israel in the last seven or eight years has increasingly emphasized the opposite view: That however vital the need for religion amongst Diaspora Jewry, it is needed even more for the Jews in Israel. One of the basic reasons for this is that it is precisely in Eretz Israel that there exists the danger that a new generation will grow up, a new type bearing the name of Israel but completely divorced from the past of our people and its eternal and essential values; and, moreover, hostile to it in its world outlook, culture and the content of its daily life; hostile – in spite of the fact that it will speak Hebrew, dwell in the land of the Patriarchs and wax enthusiastic over the Bible. [emphasis added]

Cabinet Minister Roni Bar-On asks, in defense of the actions taken by soldiers at Amona:

"What is more traumatic than a country losing its ability to enforce the law, to carry out the decisions of a sovereign government in Israel?"

The answer: a country losing its soul.

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