FEAR, THE NEW ZIONISM - 1986 ( Kahane)

If there is anything left of secular Zionism to prove its success in the wake of its ideological tatters and bankruptcy, it can only be the claim that it took the Jew out of the ghetto, out of the exile, out of fear and terror, and created a state of security and safety for the Jewish people.  Alas, the truth is that what has occurred is that Israel is in the process of creating a new Minsk, Pinsk, Sa’ana and Brooklyn.  Fear has become a permanent resident of Israel, moving into the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of Jews who fear the night, fear to hitch rides, fear to drive in the evening through Arab villages, fear to allow their children to play alone in the streets.

Four Jews have been stabbed within two months, within the Old City of Jerusalem, capital of Israel, home of Teddy Kollek and his Arab friends.  One was Yossi Martin, a tank commander, whose girlfriend blurted, “I will never again enter the Old City.”  Fear. It is hard to find Jews who are prepared to use the Damascus Gate to walk to the Western Wall.  Fear.  The Jerusalem weekly paper Kol Ha’ir printed a survey asking, “Should we continue going to East Jerusalem?” Fear.     

As yet another soldier, waiting to hitch a ride, was murdered in cold blood (just three kilometers from his Petach Tikvah home), the response from hysterical politicians was, “compel public transportation to give rides to (female soldiers!”  Which led, of course, to outrage and the brave new Zionist demand, “free bus transportation to male soldiers, too.”  And, since this leaves civilians to the pleasure of the Arabs who move freely and without fear about Israel, naturally a columnist in the Histradrut paper Dvar wrote an article, “Home Before Dark,” in which he outlined his terror, driving through Jerusalem late at night.

That secular Zionism from its beginning was the bankrupt and naked of all ideological meaning was obvious to me long ago.  But here, we see in the State of Israel, that rose in order to sanctify G-d’s name through Jewish power and strength and victory, the exact opposite – Hillul Hashem, desecration of G-d’s name – as the same fear and terror of the Exile is recreated in Hebrew on the soil of the Holy land.

The nations, the gentile, understand Jewish destiny and truth only in terms of power and victory.  If for two millennia they were able to persecute, trample, humiliate, burn, gas and massacre the Jew – to them this was proof not only of Jewish impotence, but of the very non-existence of the G-d of the Jewish people!  Defeat, humiliation and weakness of the Jew have always been the yardsticks of gentile desecration of G-d’s name, whereas power and victory of the Jew over his enemies have always been proof to the gentile that the G-d of Israel is One and the only one.  Kiddush Hashem, sanctification!

The pitiful secularists of Israel, joined by the ghettoized ritualists, have institutionalized fear in Israel.  They desecrate G-d’s name daily.  The answer to Arab arrogance, to attacks on Jews, stoning of Jews, stabbing of Jews, murder of Jews – is not to have Jews fearfully ride public buses or use the “Jewish” Jaffa Gate rather than the “Arab” Damascus Gate in the Old City.  It is not to tell Jews to keep a watchful eye out for bombs and explosive devices.  This is the policy of Minsk and Brownsville, Brooklyn.  This is pandering to the fear and humiliation of the ghetto and Exile we left.  This is the reincarnation of Hillul Hashem in the Land of Israel, the Land of Kiddush Hashem.

The answer to the Arab who desecrates G-d’s name by attacking Jews is to rise up with the Jewish wrath of G-d and drive the contemptuous Arab from the land.  For in the end, the removal of the Arab is the removal of desecration.  Jewish power and strength and pride and confidence – walking with the G-d of Israel – are the Jewish reply to Both Arab and Hellenized Jew.