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What is Happening in Israel? Part Two: The Naive Dreams of Secular Zionism by Rabbi Dovid Eidensohn Part One dealt with the naive dreams of the Orthodox Zionists. Now we turn to the naive dreams of the secular Zionists. Theodor Herzl became a Zionist when he saw French mobs shout "death to the Jews" during the Dreyfuss affair. Herzl wanted a land for Jews, because he felt they could not live among the gentiles. He wanted to accept the British offer of Uganda, but Eastern European Jews refused to turn their sights from Israel. Herzl's dream was that once the Jews had a land of their own, anti-Semitism would cease. This, as we know, is a fantasy. The Jews have a land of their own, and anti-Semitism is surely as virulent as ever. Hate for Jews may even have become worse because of Zionism, at least in Arab countries. Until the State of Israel was formed, Jews lived, sometimes with suffering, and sometimes with prosperity, in Arab lands. Jewish communities in Persia and Babylonia, now Iran and Iraq, go back over two thousand years. Now their situation is not very good, even relative to their troubled past. Egyptian President Nasser blocked the straits of water leading to Israel's Negev, and precipitated the Six Day War. No country would help Israel. America, under Johnson, a great friend of Jews in general, refused to give Israel any arms, and even refused to assign a military attaché, even though American ships were near the war zone. America did block Soviet designs in the Middle East, but this was part of the general cold war American position to deny Soviet expansion anywhere in the world rather than love of Jews. Jews were alone, and yet triumphed, and attained Jerusalem and much of the West Bank. Did this stop anti-Semitism? It made it worse. Does this mean we should attempt to find love from gentiles by giving back Jerusalem and the West Bank? That won't help. The fantasy that Jews can find love from gentiles by doing anything is a dangerous one. There is nothing Jews can do to make gentiles love them, other than dying. But anti-Semitism is not the only problem facing the secular Zionist. Giving back land or not giving it back may be in the headlines, but the secular Zionist dream has a much greater challenge. It has been brilliantly articulated in a World Zionist Organization speech by Zionist leader Zvi Bisk on January 8, 2006. Zionism, says Bisk, is in crisis because "It simply does not resonate with relevant messages for the life experiences of the modern Jew. Diaspora or Israeli Zionism is a 19th-century ideology trying to come to terms with an increasingly 21st-century reality." What then must be done for Zionism and Israel to survive? Bisk suggests, "It is the task of Zionism in the 21st-century to formulate those national-universal projects by which Israel can best use the talents and idealism of world Jewry to solve world problems. This is not in order that the Jews become international do-gooders but because this is the only way we can develop Israel into a Third Wave civilization making it a more suitable collective expression for modern Jewry as it is." What is he saying? A Jew lives in Israel, and can make much more money, and get a better position and advance himself, if he leaves Israel and goes to New York City or Los Angeles. Instead, we tell him to stay in Israel, be forced to serve in the army, live in constant terror of suicide bombers and recurring wars, why? Because, because, because... please fill in the missing words. Who needs Israel if its only purpose is to advance the world's economic paradigm, which can be done more easily elsewhere? In truth, this speech is clever, but it has no good answers to the dilemma facing the secular Zionist. Secular Zionism has made more anti-Semitism than it has solved. Far from saving Jews in the Diaspora, it has to beg them to come and accept a life of difficulty. What secular solution is there for Zionism? Only fantasy, dreams, and naivety. Nothing else will do. The secular Jewish base that fueled Zionism a hundred years ago is gone. Increasingly, secular Jews want nothing to do with Israel and with Judaism. They intermarry, convert, and tune out. Not all do, but many do, and those who do threaten the entire enterprise of secular Zionism. The reality of the impending demise of secular Zionism surely was known to secular Zionist leaders in Israel for at least a generation, and probably more. This, for them, was not the main problem, because it didn't directly affect them. What did affect them was something else, something far more threatening to them politically, the rise of the Orthodox. Mr. Bisk teaches the Zionists of the world how to restore a vitality to Zionism, but he speaks to a moribund element, and his speech is not likely to resurrect it. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a million secular Israelis have found a new vitality by becoming Orthodox. Throughout the world, secular Jews are embracing Orthodoxy, and they join the thriving and demographically exploding communities of the Orthodox. The great dream of the secular Zionists, to convert "Oriental" Jews to a secular Zionist perspective, has failed. Sephardic Jews are either becoming Orthodox, in huge numbers, or are leaving Israel, or are staying in Israel and struggling in terms of values and lifestyle. Singers, actors, and high military officers are now being heard as part of the Teshuva returning of Jews to Orthodoxy movement. The major secular Zionist dream, of supplanting Orthodoxy, has failed. The century old battle between secular Zionism and Orthodox Jewry has come to Israel, and it a major political problem for the secular Zionists. Demographically, the Orthodox are geometrically expanding, attracting many secular Baalei Teshuva and olim, while the secular Zionists have low birthrates and attract few people from the Diaspora. The trend is therefore in the favor of the Orthodox, in the long run, and in the short run, gives a certain impetus to Orthodox efforts and a certain decline in the confidence of the secular Zionists. Haredi Jews such as the Yeshiva Agudah element do not directly challenge the secular Zionists, and can usually sit in a secular government without getting involved in the major initiatives as long as money flows to Yeshiva coffers. Since the beginning of the state Haredi Jews were very often in the government, not in foreign affairs, but in places important for the advancement of Orthodox Jews. They are therefore considered a natural partner of the secular Zionist, despite vast differences in outlook. In truth, the secular Zionists come from Orthodox or even Haredi parentage or ancestors, and they often have a certain good feeling for Haredi Judaism, which they can express without interfering with their control over the army, foreign affairs, and basic government. The other Orthodoxy, Zionist Orthodoxy, and Haredi Leumi, nationalist Haredim, are a different story. These serve in the army with an enthusiasm that propels them to the top. The first to arrive at a position where he could solicit a major army generalship was General Ephy Eitam, now the political leader of the Zionist Orthodox. The army made it clear to him he had not option to advance, and had to leave the army. But more Orthodox officers are on the way. This threatens the secular Zionist with his control of the army, and thus, the control of the state. Time was not on the side of the secular Zionist, so something had to be done. It is very possible that a major factor in Sharon's program of depopulating Gaza was to destroy the political strength of the Zionist Orthodox. The Orthodox Zionist Feiglin seized so much control in Likud, that Sharon had to leave and form Kadima. Kadima is a truly secular organization, and Sharon sought out a major Shinui politician to be his preferred Minister of Education, to raise the next generation in secularism. The brutal police beating of Orthodox Zionists for not leaving a settlement site was broadcast live on Israeli television and displayed to the entire world. This is war. It is a political war, but it thrives on the move of the secularists to demonize and destroy the respect in Israel for Zionist Orthodoxy, and to portray them as dangers to the state. The great hope of the secular Zionists is to provoke the religious right in Israel into violence, when they can complete their dream of destroying the Zionist Orthodox. The circus around the death of Rabin was the first major move in this direction, but it is not the last. Rabin's murder was so badly botched by the secular Zionists that they are wary now of doing anything similar. But therein, and only therein, is the possibility of the secular Zionist to destroy the Orthodox Zionist, whose demographic power and Zionist enthusiasm starkly contrasts with the weakening secular Zionism. This dream, itself, of destroying Orthodoxy, or religious Zionism, is another secular Zionist fantasy. They will never destroy any facet of Orthodoxy. When they tried it with Rabin, Managing Editor Rosenthal of the New York Times wrote immediately that he sensed the government provocation in the murder, such as the blanks in the gun of the person who was set up to be the "assassin." Now everything the government does is plastered all over the Internet. Every policeman who attacked the settlers recently with violence had his picture and a number for identification posted on the Internet. Such things can utterly destroy the necessary mystique of a civilization's police powers. After the beatings, the Police Chief who led the police had his car put on fire, which may have been a government act to besmirch the settlers. Such awful thoughts are daily fair of Israel today, as the great internal war goes forward, where it will end, nobody knows. Sharon was the great "solver" who decided to secularize Israel. He went to Russia, spoke to the Jewish community and warned them to get out of Russia, which enraged his hosts and created enormous anti-Semitism, but it did bring some Russians to Israel. Many of these Russians are not Jewish, and some of them are ferocious anti-Semites who came to Israel for financial opportunities. But Sharon did his thing. He is "solving" the problem. His main problem is the Orthodox, and if a Russian Nazi is not Orthodox, Sharon has somewhat succeeded. There are many dreams, and those secular Zionists who lead Israel today cook up new tactics to continue their reign, but time is not on their side. At least, while it lasts, they can dream. They can give back land, they can beat settlers, they can appoint an atheist as Education Minister. But they will not outlast the Orthodox, and what plans they invent are worthless. Increasingly, they will openly admit this, much in the style of the World Zionist Organization's Mr. Bist quoted earlier. They will counter their despair with wild ideas, as Mr. Bist did. But fluff and fog do not a nation make. Israel is waiting for Orthodoxy to triumph, unless Moshiach gets there first, of course. |