By Moshe Feiglin
April 28, 2005
The Likud branch in Beit She'an is located in an old building made of black basalt stones, similar to those used to construct the "palace" on the shores of Lake Kinneret, not far from there. The materials are the same, but the two worlds are totally different. In that palace near Lake Kinneret the Israeli aristocracy was born, while the black basalt stones in Beit She'an belong to the masses.
This building in Beit She'an has witnessed many events since it was built during the time of the Turkish rule a century ago, but the most serious one occurred two and a half years ago. Six Jews, Likud activists, were slaughtered here in a murderous attack on election day for the Likud Primaries. The memorial erected on the site contains a kind of undertaking not to let terrorism overcome us. However, the person elected leader of the party on that same day quickly turned his back on the masses who had brought him to power and surrendered to the aristocracy in the Kinneret palace.
It was also a pleasure to visit my great-grandmother, aged 100, who lived in the Kinneret moshava. From the porch of her home we could still see, on the hills opposite, burnt-out remains of the Six Day War battles, bearing silent witness to power and might of our hands and to the successful, unchallenged leadership that emerged from this place.
It was always a pleasure to visit these good, beautiful people living in the Kinneret moshava.
No-one there thought of Beit She'an.
The rows of seats in the Beit She'an branch were filling up. Some of the people wore kippot, others didn't. Some came wearing paint-stained clothes, and others in tailored suits. These people, who came from work, belong to the middle class. They are first of all Jews, and represent the Jewish people. They are the nation, but not the State. I will meet the people who regard themselves as the State later that same night.
Now the hall is really full. Rafi Ben Shitrit, deputy mayor of Beit She'an, a pleasant-looking, refined person, says a few words and then allows the guests to speak. The audience listens in rapt silence, but despite their attention one feels that the lecture is unnecessary, since they all understand the issues anyway. You don't have to explain to Likudniks from Beit She'an that they are first and foremost Jews, where they came from and where they are going. You don't have to explain their rights and obligations regarding this country, or why the proposed disengagement plan is such a crime, and what such a surrender will lead to. Explanations are unnecessary. You just have to return them the right to choose.
Jack Levy then spoke. He is the son of MK David Levy, mayor of Beit She'an, and chairman of the local Likud branch. He wears a kippa and his words combine elements from the Likud Center and the Rabbi Kook Center. He doesn't have a lot of time for Sharon. He talks about belief, about adherence to the truth even when we are small, about national pride. When I hear him speaking I feel that I need not have bothered to come. The Beit She'an Likud branch doesn't need an injection of Jewish leadership -- it already exists.
It's all over after an hour and a half. Everyone starts talking, shaking hands, expressing great emotion. A woman wipes her eyes and tells me how long they had waited to hear such things said. We exchange phone numbers and plan the next meeting. We feel completely at home, and want to continue what we have started here.
We go to the car for the next meeting. It's nearly ten o'clock, and we drive along the Jordan Valley road. This morning Aryeh Rokah from Kedumim called me, and told me that at 11 o'clock the Israeli Institute for Democracy was paying them a visit. Can you participate in the panel and respond?
"At 11 o'clock?" "Yes", he answers. "There were all sorts of constraints. They'll come in a bullet-proof bus: Prof. Arik Carmon, president of the Institute, Carmit Gai, Prof. Kremnitzer, Prof. Avi Ravitzki" -- in short, the whole aristocracy, I say to myself.
"What are they looking for in Kedumim?", I ask. Rokah finds it difficult to explain. "The subject is a dialog between brothers", he answers.
"OK", I reply, "If I'm late apologize for me".
The Jordan Valley road is always tiring, but now, at the new moon, it is darker than usual. Somewhere on my right is the Sartaba peak on which at the time of the Second Temple the Jews lit bonfires to signal the new moon. The message was sent in this way from Jerusalem to Babylon.
I finally reached Kedumim, where Prof. Carmon spoke first. He explained that he was very concerned by the disengagement plan, but even more by the possibility that we would halt it. "Do you understand the meaning of a government that cannot implement its decisions?"
Neither I nor the audience in Kedumim understood what he meant. Someone reminded him that only recently Interior Minister Pines announced that this year he would not enforce the Hametz Law. "This is an unenforceable law", he explained, and despite this the country still exists?
I had a very surrealistic feeling during the evening. After all, I had come from a meeting with people who represent the nation but had been pushed aside, and now I was meeting with a fringe movement that regards itself as the nation. Members of the Israeli Institute feel that they are the real Israelis.
The aristocracy that formed the panel in Kedumim acquired its status honestly. It faithfully serves the cause of enlightened despotism, that brought to us the bloody decade of Oslo, after all our demonstrations against it failed. But you need hardly delude yourself that they came to Kedumim in order to apologize. On the contrary, they come to preach, to explain to the settlers that they must continue to obey orders. They are afraid that we will succeed in halting the disengagement plan and they admit this openly. They know that the word "brothers" has always hypnotized this public. Everyone has his own role to play: Sharon will crush us underfoot, Marcus will write articles in Ha'aretz, Police Chief Karadi will beat up protesters, Supreme Court Judge Barak will hand down judgments, and the Israeli Institute for Democracy will explain to these ignorant people what to do -- this is democracy and for the sake of fraternity we must obey orders.
To drag the children of the Cohen family, whose legs have been amputated, from their home and give it to Mohammed Dahlan, who blew up the school bus they were traveling in ? this is democracy. To display responsibility, to listen to the voice of conscience, to save the country from the perpetration of this crime -- this will destroy the State. That's how the president of the Israeli Institute for Democracy regards democracy. This is, of course, a classic fascist philosophy, but I suddenly remembered that I have already heard these views expressed by rabbis. This is precisely what Rabbi Sherlo explained in Makor Rishon, so why should I complain about Arik Carmon.
There is a relaxed atmosphere, but inside I feel enraged. However, I don't want to spoil things for my host, Aryeh Rokah, and anyway the visitors are pleasant and educated people. They really believe in what they saying, and think that good will come of their approach.
Prof. Carmon introduces himself: "I'm Arik and I have a son called Omri", he says smilingly. Everyone laughs.
The first Zionists wished to discard their Jewish identity and replace it with a new, Zionist one. They wished to establish a nation like all the rest. They placed their trust in the IDF instead of in the Almighty. They chose names from the Bible for their children, preferring Nimrod and Omri, despite their negative connotations. Now these Nimrods and Omris are waiting in line, in their thousands, outside the embassies of Poland, Germany, and Hungary. They lack nothing except identity. Yuval Rabin, Yitzhak Rabin's son, works in advertising in the US, and he isn't the only one of the sons of the aristocracy who are living there. You won't find in these queues outside the foreign embassies David or Avraham from Beit She'an, members of the Jewish nation pushed aside. In fact you'll find in the queue for a German passport the sons of the fringe elements who decided that they really represented the State.
The lectures continued. One after the other, each learned person explains why we should obey orders. They all stare at me. Boaz Daromi explains why the religious Zionist movement is so important to him. I tend to believe him. He is a charming person, but his last sentence really aroused me. "I am worried that you will be pushed aside after implementation of the disengagement plan". He isn't lying. He really thinks that he is everything Israeli, and he's afraid that I'll fall overboard from his ship. I want to answer him: "I'm also worried about your place in Israeli society. Hold on tight, so that you won't fall". But I don't want to ruin things for Aryeh Rokah, so I remain silent.
Prof. Ravitzki is getting worked up. "You have to understand that all these years in which we sent our sons to places and wars that we opposed, we did so in order to preserve democracy. It is inconceivable that now we are finally realizing our philosophy you should suddenly start breaking the rules and refusing to obey orders." I am certain that Ravitzki is in fact captivated by the meaningless demagogic statement he has just made. It's rather difficult to take seriously a person who encouraged the process that brought to our country the greatest terrorist organization in the world, gave it bases and weapons, dragged the country into the most bloody and terrible decade in its history, caused the need to deploy far greater IDF units in Yesha then before Oslo, and forced our sons to defend not only the settlements but also every coffee house and shop. Now Ravitzky blames those who tried with all their might to prevent the disaster.
The performance goes on and on, and at 2:30 in the morning Prof. Kremnitzer finishes condemning refusal to obey orders.
Prof. Carmon then invites me to respond. "Only because it's so late, please speak briefly", he requests. I would need ten full speeches in order to say everything I feel about this group of people. However, I didn't come for them, but in order to cry to the humiliated public in Kedumim: "You are the nation, the religious Zionist movement is now disintegrating, and this frightens you, because you no longer have the chains that kept you in the nature reserve. These people are now trying to use you to return the genie to the bottle and hang on to their hegemony." So in fact, when I got up to speak, I addressed them, and not the Israeli Institute.
"Tell me, please", I asked Prof. Kremnitzer, "Suppose that tomorrow I am Prime Minister, and I decide according to the proper procedures and in accordance with all the rules of democracy, to apply the eviction-compensation law to Arab villages. In this case also will the Israeli Institute for Democracy get aboard a bus and travel to all the villages and explain to the Arabs that there is no alternative, and that in the name of democracy they must obey the law?"
"But they are not Israeli citizens", cried Prof. Carmon.
"OK", I reply, "Let's apply the eviction-compensation law to the residents of Tira and Taibeh, in the State of Israel. There the Arabs have a proper blue ID card. Just the same law, and the same Supreme Court ruling, will be on my side. Will you then persuade them to leave?"
Prof. Kremnitze shook his head.
"Thank you for your honesty", I continued. "You are fascinating people, and I can learn a lot from you. I'm ready to listen to you all night, but you have to admit that the last thing that you are representing is democracy. Don't mention this word ever again."
It is now three in the morning. The journey home from Kedumim doesn't leave me a lot of time for reflection. In the same night I met the nation that isn't the State, and the State that isn't the nation. It seems that this distortion is coming to an end. Those people who regard themselves as the State are subconsciously sensing the danger facing them and are desperately attempting to sink the flagship of those who have the belief, vitality, and force to lead, and restore the State to the nation.
How to navigate during this process?
How to embrace those desiring to destroy you, without adopting their philosophy?
G-d preserve us.
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