The Zionist movement did not wish merely to bring Jews to Israel, it attempted to create a culture to go along with it, creating in the Soviet model, a "New Jew" unstained and untainted by the humiliation of the ghetto and the persecution of the Christians and Moslems. This originally was to be combined with the ideas of socialism and equality, and in building the society that became Israel, many innovations in how people interacted with each other were tried and used to some success. The most famous of all of these turned out to be the kibbutz, the collective farming system that sought not merely to turn out farmers with excellent yields and crops, but intellectuals as well.
Many of the youth for many years who ran the country came from kibbutzim and issues of wealth were not the primary ones in their minds. But power corrupts and over time, the power to borrow money backed by the state allowed for bad judgment to replace good judgment, and for ineffective ideas to replace effective ones.
Eventually those who created this culture abandoned it entirely, attempting instead to import everything to this nation and spurning the native Israeli culture, even the secular Israeli culture that had grown up here in the fifties and sixties. Today, secular Israeli culture is a pale imitiation of European and American culture. And it is failing us. We are left with inequality, a terrible competitiveness, no sense of fair play, corruption and crookedeness wherever we turn - and falafel.
I assert here a concept that is becoming all too self-evident to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear:
The State of Israel is not the final goal of Jewish destiny. It is a station on the way. Zionism is not the final set of beliefs or the dream of our people. It is a tool to accomplish a goal. In order to accomplish the Redemption promised, which is the goal, this State must be transformed and Zionism must move aside.
We can see the government of the State of Israel destroying the Zionist dream, even as it mouths words to the opposite. The use of the term "Palestinian" to describe the resident Arabs and presuming that they have a right to live here equal with ours, the recognition of a "Palestinian Authority", allowing this “Palestinian” Authority to impose a death sentence for the sale of land to a Jew, allowing and abetting a campaign of demonization against those Jews who live in liberated Judea and Samaria, eliminating Zionism from the education curriculum, allowing the expulsion of Jews from Jewish holy sites like Kéver Yoséf (the Tomb of Joseph) and the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif and plans for further expulsions, all fit into a pattern of self destruction that began in 1992.
Article comments
1 - Matthew T. Sussman
Probably here just to piss you off. Good to see it's workin'.
2 - Christopher Rose
Ruvy's a good bloke but on the subject of Israel and Judaism he's like some throwback to thousands of years ago when religious mumbo-jumbo passed for insight rather than delusion.
3 - JustOneMan
Chris..your right I suggest an adjustment in medication or some in-patient therapy!
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I see that the Comments Editor erased one of your comments, JOM, from this article. That would explain why Matt Sussmans's comment is enumerated #1. When you make an intelligent comment to the subject of this essay (if you have that capability), I'll be glad to answer you.
Chris, I see that under your own name, you've not read this either, or if you did, you do not understand it at all. Or more to the point, you do not wish to understand it. To understand what I've writen, you may have to look in a couple of rooms in your mind that you'd rather not, and recognize that reality may not have the borders you've set for it, and that the reasons for Awe in the universe (somthing that you do indeed have) may be closer at hand to you than you realize.
Whenever something is written in this magazine that you find uncomfortably beyond your comfort zone, you dismiss it, as you have done this article.
Remember, that I was once an atheist, as you are, and I had to look in those rooms in my mind when life forced me to, and recognize that my perceptions of reality were not quite what I thought they were.
Nevertheless, thank you for regarding me as a decent bloke. You're a decent bloke also...
5 - Christopher Rose
Wrong again, Ruvy, I read the whole thing thoroughly. I think I'm far more open to looking in the (mostly empty!) rooms in my mind than you are, as I seek answers but you think you already have them...
As for awe, that's one of my most common feelings.
6 - gonzo marx
Ruvy sez....
*The use of the term "Palestinian" to describe the resident Arabs and presuming that they have a right to live here equal with ours,*
as soon as you Postulate a greater Right to live somewhere than others who have been living there, and continue to live and work there...you lose me, or any sense of Reason...
much less "fairness", much less the avowed goal of "This originally was to be combined with the ideas of socialism and equality, and in building the society that became Israel,"
you cannot have Equality, as a Nation or as a People...if it is not Equality for all
this is NOT to defend those who commit atrocities, on either side...nor am i belittling the adverse struggle the Israeli's have suffered through
i am just laying out the Thought that much of the suffering could have easily been avoided if "fairness" and "equality" had ever been taken seriously by the leaders of both sides
but, alas...too many consider themselves "the Chosen" and thus appear to believe they do not have to live by the strictures of basic human decency...
and as long as that is the case, i can forsee no end to needless violence...until all sides can sit at the same table and talk in good Faith in the cause of common bonds rather than piddling details that divide...
then Hope remains fleeting...
my best Hopes for peaceful Resoloution
Excelsior?
7 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Gonzo,
My kids are chasing me off the computer to watch a movie (one of the consequences of not having a TV) so I'll make this very short.
Part II of this two part article deals with the issue of what would happen under a "Republic of Palestine" (Jamhurria Filastin). For us Jews, based on what we have already seen it would be a series of massacres, riots and rapes.
Another solution is preferable.
Later
8 - gonzo marx
Ruvy, i have read and commented on that one...
i reject the simplistic dualist nature of your analysis... there are far more Possibilities than you Postulate, and you well know i have no desire to see Israel disappear
it strains my Imagination for me to even get my feeble head around the simple Fact that so many on both sides fo your Conflict cannot sit down and work this out to the benefit of all, the closest was shot down by Arafat when a decent Step towards a solution was all laid out and ready to go...so any Blame lays squarely on his dead shoulders for the horrors of the last few years...
but like building those stairs, it takes one thing at a time, some Work, and an eye on maintenance
be willing to do the "Work" , rather than expecting an easy way out via messianic miralces of Divine Intervention
i do think you, and most Israeli's, are up to the Task
be Well
Excelsior?
9 - Yonah Cohen
When one clicks on Rav Bar Hayim's name one goes to the Temple Institute site.It should lead to the Rabbi's website which is www.torahlight.com
10 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Thank you, Yonah. In writing the article, I was looking for a website for the Rav, but could not find one. I've made your link to the Torah Light Website a live one. Wish I could go and change the article...