The End of the Religious Zionism

From the Jerusalem Post (Hat Tip -- Leib) :

JPost.com » Israel » Article

Nov. 28, 2005 18:25 | Updated Nov. 28, 2005 18:26
Chabad rabbi: Disengage from state
By MATTHEW WAGNER

Shalom Dov Wolpe, a Chabad rabbi, argues in a new book that the disengagement is proof that religious Zionists should abandon their faith in the state of Israel as a vehicle for ultimate spiritual redemption.

In Between Light and Dark, Wolpe states, in an I-told-you-so way, that the disengagement proved Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last Chabad-Lubavitch rebbe, was right about rejecting Zionism as a way of hastening the messianic era.

"Even after that terrible destruction took place people stubbornly believe that we have begun the process of redemption," said Wolpe in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Wolpe was instrumental in organizing anti-disengagement demonstrations before the Gaza pullout. Two weeks ago Wolpe organized a rally under the slogan 'we won't forgive, we won't forget' that drew thousands to the Jerusalem Convention Center [Binyanei Haumah].

"If this is redemption how could something so horrible happen?" asked Wolpe rhetorically. "The disengagement is God's way of saying that only the messiah, not the state will bring redemption."

Belief in the coming of the messiah is shared by all orthodox Jews. However, while religious Zionists believe the state of Israel is a means of bringing the messianic era, Chabad holds that only our good deeds [mitzvot] can hasten the coming of the messiah. [link]

JRT commentary:

The dream of religious Zionism died in Gaza. When the socialist state mercilessly was throwing out women and children out of their homes, Zionist Rabbis were protecting government property as if these were holy objects. The pictures of them hugging soldiers/executioners became a low-class shmalzy drama replayed all over the world. Let's us state clearly -- big Israeli government is an instrument of corruption and oppression, to believe in its sanctity is a foolish dream. Dreams are dear to us, even foolish ones. But to get on with reality one needs to face it. Otherwise on what ground would you complain about the crime of the "Disengagement"? After all -- the State giveth, the State taketh.

posted by: jrtelegraph

Comments

[Response to Gene]

I would respectfully rephrase Gene's statement to read, "Jews today cannot survive without the State of Israel, which in turn cannot survive without its army. None can survive without wise leadership." People will quarrel as to what that is but history has shown examples of wise leadership and also of leadership that betrayed the Jewish people. People who possess “straightforward simplemindedness” can recognize it easily.

Gustav Hendrikssen wrote to Mordechai Nisan "I noticed a profound deficit [of] … diligent, straightforward simpletons who are the mainstay of a well-ordered nation, behind the barricades of which the land guards its soul from the spiritual AIDS of the ‘world improvers’.... On the contrary, with every step you find ‘the creative genius’… [who] girds his loins and sallies forth to defend the rights of those who want to annihilate him…Send a letter to your own people… to the simpletons… Go and find them in the markets, in the buses, in the stores, in all the places where their instinct for survival has not yet been extinguished. "

[Gene]

Rabbi Wolpe makes some strong points (which are not so easy to gather from the little snippets from JPost). However, I think there is a serious danger of throwing the baby with the water by declaring that the religious zionism is dead. It might be true that some attitudes towards the state might need to be reconsidered. However, I always wonder what exactly those, who denounce "hugging of soldiers", would like to have seen instead? Jews killing Jews? The pain of disengagement is great. I would prefer that we ourselves try not to make shmaltzy drama out of it. None of the fundamental choices of people involved were easy and it is silly to reduce ALL of them to careerist considerations, and such (though I have no doubt that there were plenty of those). Talk to your friends and you will find quite a few whose children were in Gaza on different sides of the fence, despite total ideological unity. You might have even read about some who were there in the army first and then were released from service only to come back "on the other side".
Jews today cannot survive without the State of Israel, which in turn cannot survive without its army. Trivializing the dilemmas entailed in these facts is irresponsible and misses the point. Yes, there probably are ways to "disengage from the State" which are meaningful in the Israeli reality - one example is highlighted in another piece in today's JRT (about Porat). But let us not be hasty and superficial.