religious extremism
We will stop for a moment, for the purpose of reviewing our situation today, and the processes that led us to it.
In the chapter discussing the psychological value of religion, we have shown that religious extremism is inevitable. Within the group of people who accept the principles of religion as absolute truth, there will always be those who take this set of principles to the extreme.
This is a natural result of going all the way with conclusions that stem from assumptions that are fundamentally irrational.
The rule of religious extremism
In every religion there will always be a part of the believers who will take the principles of faith of the religion to the most extreme extreme.
in another chapter, we discussed the enormous and destructive potential damages that religion can bring on the social-sociological level, which shapes the behavior of groups. We have seen this damage reach its peak, when religion combines missionary (internal or external) with political power. The obvious examples are the Christianity of the Middle Ages, and the extreme Islam of today. Devastating damage of this kind is upon us today, and threatens to destroy the State of Israel.
The balance of power - who against whom
The State of Israel was established on the basis of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and referred to its Jewish origins alongside its commitment to the principles of humanism. According to the Jewish community in the country, the accepted name for the country on the way was "Hebrew country". This name was free of religious connotations. And why did Ben-Gurion choose the term "Jewish state"?
He did this to conform the statement to the UN resolution, which spoke of a "Jewish state". This, in turn, relied on the partition plan of the Peel Commission, which spoke of dividing the land between Jews and Arabs.
In its early years, the State of Israel was a country with a clear liberal-humanist color, with a religious minority. Within the religious minority there was an almost negligible minority of religious extremists, Messianic and ultra-Orthodox.
Then, within a few decades, something unexpected happened: the Messianic mutation swallowed parts of religious Zionism, parts of the ultra-orthodox sector and even parts of the Likud party. This movement is responsible for the establishment of the first messianic government in Israel, at the beginning of 2023.
How did it happen?
The beginning of the story in an idea that Shasfi Rachlevsky ("Mashiach's Donkey" "Israel or Judah") attributes to Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook, the father of religious Zionism. According to this idea, the seculars were sent by God to serve as the "donkey of the Messiah" for the purpose of redemption, i.e. the establishment of the state. But in the next step, secular Zionism is supposed to end its role. Then the reins will pass to a religious leadership that will build a Messianic Israel here.
Looking back, this vision turned out to be a fairly accurate prediction of the process that the State of Israel has gone through until today.
This idea has grown magnificent messianic branches. Meir Kahana and Baruch Goldstein are the fruits of labor that grew over time on these branches. These were recently embodied in their successors, Itamar Ben Gabir and Bezalel Smotrich.
A democracy that wants life, would have denied these two criminals and declared racists the right to be elected to the Knesset. This was all the more necessary when it comes to a country that knows the history of the Jewish people, and knows intimately what fascism and racism can do. Unfortunately, due to the survival problem of a prime minister fighting for his political life, they were normalized by him.
Instead of being restrained, religious and Christian extremism gained incentive after incentive. The result - it turned, with the support of the state, from a negligible minority, into a monster that threatens our existence here. This happened mainly because of the lawlessness of the education system.
The State of Israel invests a huge part of its budget to maintain a completely distorted education system. This system goes to the trouble of depriving an entire public of life skills. In addition, it also incites this public against the country and its democratic and liberal way of life.
And who bears the burden? Exactly the public that brought Israel to prosperity through hard work. This is the same public that enlisted in the IDF, and whose education system was shamefully neglected. And somehow, we were all brought up to accept all of this as normal.
Author's note:
| Narrated by Sefi RachalevskyIsrael or Judah" describes in detail and clearly the processes mentioned here, and is a must read for those who want to understand what the State of Israel has been going through in recent years. |
Disconnection from reality
One of the characteristics of every sect is detachment from reality. And for those who are looking for a demonstration of this disconnection in Messianic Judaism: - On January 28, 2024, a "Returning to the Gaza Strip" conference was held in the Nation Buildings in Jerusalem. The conference was attended by an audience of thousands, which included many ministers and members of the Knesset, including ultra-Orthodox.
The things that were carried there were in the spirit of the verse "and you will inherit all the inhabitants of the land from before you", which means ethnic cleansing of the land. The concept of "the land", it should be known, is interpreted by the rabbis there as the boundaries of the promise from the Euphrates to the Nile. The spiritual father of this group is Rabbi Dov Lior. Lior was the inspiration for terrorist attacks on Jews in the Arabs by the "Jewish underground" in the 1980s.
A short reminder:
- Members of the underground murdered three civilians in Hebron by shooting and throwing grenades and wounded dozens of others.
- Members of the "Jewish underground" planted explosive devices in order to hit three Palestinian mayors. This led to the serious injury of two of them, and the injury of the Border Guard saboteur who was blinded during the dismantling of one of the charges.
- The members of the underground also planned to blow up the Dome of the Rock. They were caught while trying to blow up five buses on their passengers in East Jerusalem.
Rabbi Lior was also the inspiration for Baruch Goldstein, the role model of Itamar Ben Gabir, who massacred the Arabs in the Cave of the Patriarchs (1994).
The potential for damage
The behavior of this sect is aimed at creating a maximum of friction between the populations in Israel. The goal is to reach an explosion, which will sweep the rest of the population to extremes. Like the evangelical Christians, they seem convinced that the Gog and Magog war that will break out here after this explosion will be decided by divine intervention.
In this way, you have to understand the behavior of Itamar Ben Gvir who tries to set fire to everything he can get his hands on. The potential damage of other religious extremism comes from the direction of the ultra-Orthodox factions, which we discussed in the previous episode. The disconnection of these from reality is rivaled only by that of the Christians, and these also add anti-Zionism to this dangerous mix.
The coming together of the two types of extremism, the ultra-Orthodox and the Messianic, endangers the existence of the State of Israel as a democratic state, and its existence in general.
right and left?
The labels "right" and "left" that are so common in our places, are no longer relevant. This is a diagnosis that might have had meaning twenty years ago.
These labels have become nothing more than cynical tools in the prime minister's arsenal. Thus, for example, according to the Prime Minister, Lieberman, Bennett and Sa'ar are "leftist". That is, "right" is those who support him and "left" is anyone who does not. Historically, "right" and "left" differ on issues of economy and society, nationalism and religion (political religion vs. freedom of religion, separation of religion and state).
כלכלה
The absolute majority of Israeli citizens agree in principle on economic issues (a combination of a welfare state with capitalist principles).
nationalism
In the national axis there is a broad consensus (excluding Arabs and ultra-Orthodox) that the line is Zionism (the nation state of the Jewish people). The dispute over a "Palestinian state" is not as acute as it is usually presented. Even a vast majority of those who are labeled "left" understand that, in the current situation, this is not immediately possible, and the Palestinian "state" will in any case be a military demilitarized autonomy.
In the national context, the remaining debate is about annexation yes or no. This is a debate between Christians and the great majority.
religion
On the religious axis (religious state or separation and freedom of religion), the debate is mainly between the ultra-Orthodox and the large majority.
Summary
"Right" and "left" are today a smoke screen based on branding built over many years (similar to "Pepsi Cola" versus "Coca Cola").
Those who built these brands as a basis for polarization continue to stick to them because it serves them. But this does not serve the truth nor the State of Israel.
The relevant camps in the State of Israel today are "Orthodox-Messianic" Against "Democratic-Liberal".
And this is the background to the struggle over the image of the State of Israel, which has been going on here in recent years.
Yoram, go to your friends, leave us alone
Dear David,
I apologize for messing with your head.
And really, why does a man like you need noise in his head?
You can go to articles about thinning pigs or something like that, and I promise you will have a nicer and quieter time.
In the meantime, I'm trying to get meaningful responses from your friends, and for some reason it's not working for me.
can you talk to them
Is it this newspaper, or the Israeli Progress Bulletin?
A writer who claims to be an objective journalist
And hunting a one-sided and superficial position that ignores many very important elements that have to be said on this subject
Just extreme trouble from Kaplan's testimony..
Too much time, energy and money to try to create a divide and rule using MAPI methods
Dear colleague,
I analyze a topic that is important to all of us, and I do it step by step and try to explain and reason.
This is the tenth episode in the series, and it is not the last, I'm sorry that it seems "superficial" to you.
I initially invited comments, but I asked that they be factual.
Calling names and making baseless accusations does not indicate depth of thought, and this is certainly not the way to conduct a useful discussion.
If you have a claim to things you've read and / or you have "a lot of important elements to say", I would appreciate it if instead of arguing you would elaborate and reason.
That way we might learn something from you.
It is not clear why the site publishes propaganda. This article is propaganda for everything. What's more, her content is so unprofessional, starting with the incorrect use of terminology. Through the use of crooked methods, and ending with relying on such poor sources on the subject as Sefi Rakhalevsky.
In fact, the author of the article himself belongs to a group that has religious characteristics for everything, especially in the negative sense of the word, only that it lacks self-awareness - a shame.