Here, things seem to get a little hazy, why should a Jewish State “based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel” confine itself to ensuring “complete equality… irrespective of religion, race, etc.”, especially when this includes “Arab inhabitants” who launched an “onslaught” against the State, months before it even existed? It is quite apparent from the wording of the Declaration of the Independence that there is a clear distinction between the Jewish immigrants and settlers, and the Arab inhabitants, which indeed echoes the cries of the Prophets of Israel to take heed of the differences between the two. However, the authors of the Declaration of Independence ignored this difference and expected both sides to equally “participate in the upbuilding of the State, etc.” Sounds somewhat like inviting the wolf to join in the lambs’ tea-party… When we see the devastating effects of this attitude, which continue to this very day, we can see how absurd this clause is.
The first and foremost Prophet of Israel was Moses, who stated, “When Havayah, your God, brings you into the land to which you are coming to possess it, He will cast away many nations from before you… And Havayah your God, will deliver them to you, and you shall smite them. You shall utterly destroy them; neither shall you make a covenant with them, nor be gracious to them.”[1]
The Jewish founders of the State of Israel were trying to be gracious then, and today’s government of the State of Israel (which has included Arab M.K.s in its ranks since the first government was established in 1949) is simply following in their wake. Unfortunately, because of their graciousness, the Jewish inhabitants of the State of Israel have also been compelled to follow in the wake of countless Jewish souls as they were brought to rest as a result of this “graciousness.”
Bewailing the situation is all very well and good but it’s easy to be an armchair politician sitting at a computer and writing an Internet blog to let off steam, but what can possibly be done to change the situation?
The first thing that can be done is to recognize that herein lays the root cause of the situation and to want to rectify the fault at its source. If more and more individuals come together in awareness of this realization, we will eventually generate a critical mass that will sooner or later effect the desired change in reality by creating a genuinely Jewish leadership in the Holy Land.
The trend towards individuals returning to their Jewish roots is familiar to us, thank God, and is certainly more than welcome in the Jewish world. However, a turn must be made towards adapting social norms to conform with the Torah’s requirements. As quoted from Rabbi Ginsburgh in one of the Derech Chaim Movement’s publications, “The quantitative growth of individuals returning to their Jewish roots must lead to an essential growth in quality. A new era must begin in which the voice of Torah can openly be expressed in public by all those who have returned to their Jewish roots!”
Derech Chaim’s range of activities to date has included (amongst others) various Public Relations actions, including distribution of bumper-stickers, fliers and other publications; Derech Chaim runs a youth movement and Torah study groups for young boys; during Operation Protective Edge, Derech Chaim distributed publications to teach proper war morals amongst IDF soldiers, emphasizing the fact that our soldiers’ lives must be given priority over enemy civilians; the men’s and women’s sections of the organization also organize special evenings to celebrate auspicious dates in the Jewish calendar with music, dancing and Torah study; another clear objective is to promote Jewish labor in Israel rather than employing Arabs.