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Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe: "If the government withdraws from Judea and Samaria, then we will start a new state."
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| By Reuven Koret December 7, 2007 |
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As the government of Israel prepares to abandon tens of thousands -- and perhaps hundreds of thousands -- of Israeli citizens residing in Judea and Samaria, there are increasing calls from those residents and their supporters, in Israel and abroad, to declare an independent Jewish state in the areas vacated.
Among the latest to make this call is Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe, who told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday bluntly: "If the government withdraws from Judea and Samaria, then we will start a new state," said Wolpe. He plans to publish his views in an article that will appear this Shabbat in a weekly pamphlet called Our Land of Israel distributed to synagogues.
A year ago, Wolpe made headlines by sending a "warning letter" to then Acting PM Ehud Olmert, advising him that he would face "a personal catastrophe" if he moves forward with the evacuation of houses occupied by Jewish settlers in Hebron. "Don?t make the hasty move of abandoning the Land of Israel, and don't bring catastrophe upon the people of Israel and yourself," the rabbis write.
Wolpe is the founder of SOS Israel, a grassroots umbrella organization of right-wing groups who believe that Judea and Samaria belong to the Jewish People and must remain in Jewish hands. SOS has even organized a contest to choose a flag and a national anthem for the prospective state.
Wolpe -- a leader of the Chabad Chassidic sect that believes the deceased rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson is the messiah king -- published a book "Between Light and Darkness" that suggests religious Jews view the secular government as an "administrative body, like the British government who controlled Israel before the country's establishment.
Wolpe also says, "The religious Zionist public should prove that the State is unholy, and cannot serve as a means for achieving salvation. It must not pray for the country's wellbeing. We are now in exile and are waiting for the kingdom of the house of David." According to Wolpe, the pullout was a sign from God that there is no relation between the existence of the democratic state and salvation, and that the religious public should therefore cease to believe in the holiness of the State and its institutions.
Referring to the religious Zionist teens who forcefully attempted to prevent the disengagement, Wolpe writes that "the Orange youth prays only for one thing: That the current rule, which is called 'the State of Israel' is abolished and replaced with the true Kingdom of David."
Since the pullout, Wolpe's ideas are not so rare among the disheartened religious Zionists. In a Jerusalem conference held in 2005, the participants danced to the words of the song, "we do not believe in the rule of the heretics, and disregard their laws."
The destruction of Jewish communities in Gaza and northern Samaria in 2005 convinced Wolpe that it was essential to organize early, and take more dramatic steps. "Why should we wait until soldiers come to people's homes," he asked rhetorically. During the "Disengagement" Volpe envisioned creation of a Holocaust Museum to commemorate the expulsion of Jews and the destruction of their communities there.
The idea is not new. Of course there is the more than two thousand old legacy of two Jewish state: one called Israel and the other Judea. Israel was the first to go, and Judea followed, with the Romans putting an end to all that with the destruction of the Second Temple and the expulsion and enslaving of the surviving Jews in 70 C.E.
But in the 21st century, the idea of a separate Jewish state has gained some momentum, and the splitting of the Palestinian Authority into Gaza and the West Bank -- in additional to the Palestinian State of Jordan -- has apparently inspired the Jews on the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) to wonder: if they can get away it, why can't we?
Obadiah Shoher is the pseudonym of a mysterious author, originally from the former Soviet Union, who has created the popular Samson Blinded blog and publication of a book by the same name. Describing himself as a Zionist anarchist, he has taken an outspoken stance in support of a new State of Judea using what he describes as a "Machieavellian" strategy.
"Judea would encompass the contested Palestinian territories, with the aim of eventual expansion into Sinai and all of Eretz Israel. Although Judea would not be economically self-sustaining in industry as Israel, Judea would get the lion?s share of material support that pours into Israel from Jews around the world. Judea could defend herself against Arabs without great expense and depend on Israel and the West for last-resort protection against major Arab aggression."
Whereas Israel is saddled with the tension of being both "Jewish" and "democratic," the Judea that Shoher proposes would have no such conflict. "Being a profoundly religious Jewish state offers advantages in confrontation with Arabs which secular Israeli nation does not possess. Judea would be free to clear out Arab indigenous inhabitants. Following Hebrew biblical guidelines, Judea could use military measures otherwise unacceptable in the modern world?though the nations that decry them were themselves established in fire and blood--and unavailable to Israel."
If Hamas can apply Sharia law to Gaza, why can't Judea apply Jewish law? Shoher suggests: "Judea can forget the notion of civil rights and obey Jewish religious law. Unlike Israel, Judea can afford to stop non-Jewish immigration, directly or through inter-marriage of Jews with gentiles, and limit non-Jewish Orthodox conversions and other Jewish Reformist practices, which, though compatible with modern secular values, significantly water down the Jewish religious identity."
"Judea could become a classic Jewish theocracy, organized along the lines of pre-kingdom Israel ruled by the judges, giving rabbis in Judea the judicial functions of the late Second Temple period onward. Judea could use Talmudic law, updated to accommodate present reality of Jewish life, instead of contemporary Israeli legislation. An influx of fresh Jewish ideas into the body of the Talmud would benefit the Jewish tradition and spark renewed interest of Israelis in it. Judea?s official language would be the beautifully powerful biblical Hebrew, not the modern garbled Hebrew substitute spoken by Israeli Jews."
Shoher points out the benefits of a Jewish spin-off state to the mother nation: "Israel could withdraw from the contested Palestinian territories, enjoy peace with Israel's Arab neighbors, and concentrate on rapid economic development of the Jewish state. That would win Israel some international respect. Israel could become the dominant Middle Eastern economy, replacing Switzerland, the United States, and Russia as the source of financial, technological, and military commodities and services to Muslims. Western powers will not compete with Israel for hegemony in a Middle East plunged in incessant wars between Arabs after Muslims lose the common Israeli enemy." He adds that "Relieving Israel of her war expenditures will let Israel work to recapture Jewish prominence in banking and trade, fundamental research and technology, and the arts."
There would be internal benefits as well: "Dividing Israel into two states, Israel and Judea, would not cause enmity among Jews, rather would eliminate the enmity currently brewing in Israel where whatever policy Israeli government chooses displeases to about half the Israeli population. The division of Israel would let both Israel and Judea 'specialize' and limit their liability. Israel would not be responsible for Judea?s expansionism, while Judea, financed by Israelis, might disregard the economic consequences of its decisions."
But wouldn't it be illegal to advocate a new state in Judea and Samaria? Perhaps so at the moment, when the laws of the State of Israel are still applied there: civil law to Israelis, and military law to Palestinians. But what about a scenario in which the government of Israel withdraws and disconnects from the disputed territories? In the resulting power vacuum, a declaration of independence might well result without infringing in any way Israeli law.
If Israel is prepared to abandon all claims to the Biblical heartland of the Jewish People, it stands to reason that there will be Jews -- those who live there and those who believe Jews have a right to live there -- yet willing to take a stand and fight for that right. |
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