A Guest Post by Fozzie Bear
Saying that something is rotten in the core of Haredi
Judaism comes easily to more moderate Jews, but it must be said, with the same
intensity of righteous indignation that something is horribly wrong with
Religious Zionism.
The acts of violence and terror committed by young religious
Zionists that have been much covered recently in the news are only the most
visible results of a too-often ignored awful trend. These are not the
first acts of violence and
they probably won’t be the last.
Religious Zionism has a strong note of racism running
through it. The racism is not
inherent. You can be a patriot without
being a nationalist. However, the
racism of present-day Religious Zionism is too strong a feature of that stream
of Judaism to be ignored. It must be
condemned and eradicated.
Haredi Judaism touts its own superiority as cast against the
evil of the modern world – with all the ugly bigotry that results.
Religious Zionism posits its love of the land
against the evil of the Arabs who also claim it – with all the ugly hatred that
results.
There is hatred of Jews by
Arabs, there is terrorism by Arabs against Jews and you would be simply stupid
to ignore it. None of that, however,
excuses the descent of Religious Zionism into what it has become today.
Religious Zionists talk about Arabs as if they are
sub-human, as if they are the ultimate evil, as if they should all be killed or
driven into the sea. Can anyone possibly
be surprised that the children of Religious Zionist families start committing
acts of violence against Arabs? It is
the inevitable, obvious result.
The Religious Zionist leadership must stand up and end this
trend right now. The Religious Zionist
public must stand up and condemn these acts right now.
Those rabbis
who are part of the problem
must be categorically thrown out of the Religious Zionist movement by those
rabbis who retain their sense of derekh eretz. Rabbi’s Druckman, Lau,
Bigman, Gilad, Lichtenstein, Gigi, Riskin, Neventzahl,
Sherlo, Stav, Ariel, and on and on and on… I call on you now to speak
out. Take a public stand. Condemn those who should be condemned.
Stop paying respect to bigots and racists
because they are learned in Torah. The
problem cannot be ignored any more.
The problem is widespread and
not easily eradicated. But eradicated it must be.
Education must change. Public dialogue must change. The discourse
in religious zionist yeshivot must change. Bnei Akiva must speak to
it's madrichim and chanichim about this. Some
rashei yeshivot need to be thrown out, loudly and publicly. No more
can we stick our head in the
sand. We have been doing that too
long.
How can Religious Zionism hope
to be a force for good in the society of Medinat Yisrael if it cannot even fix
it own back yard first? How can it
inspire others to follow when it is so heavily stained by the evil of hatred
and violence?
We are degraded by these acts of violence.
We are become accomplices
to terror. As a group, we should feel shame and act accordingly to
do Teshuva.
Search for more information about religious Zionism at4torah.com
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