Earlier this year, Yossi Beilin, leader of Israel\’s Meretz-Yahad Party, called for the establishment of an assembly of Jewish lawmakers from around the world to address issues of consequence to global Jewry.
Jerusalem officials admitted that a U.N ouster of Iran was unlikely, given that it would require a Security Council recommendation and two-thirds majority vote in the General Assembly — traditionally a bastion of anti-Israel sentiment.
The disengagement or expulsion has ended. But is this also the end of religious Zionism? Are there lessons we can and must learn that may enable us to emerge stronger from this most difficult period?
The first lesson we learned is that we are indeed one nation. There was no real violence, and there was even majestic fortitude and an exaltation of spirit displayed by many Gush Katif settlers and leaders.
On the other side of the barricades, only a small number of soldiers refused to carry out military evacuation orders, despite the charge to do so from major rabbinic voices; the soldiers and police behaved with incredible sensitivity and restraint.
It was heart wrenching but uplifting, a period in which I was both tear-filled and pride-filled to be an Israeli Jew.
Where Jewish terrorist Eden Natan-Zada lived — first in Rishon L\’Tzion, then evidently in Tapuach — there is ostensibly an ideology that encourages the murders he committed last week in Shfaram.
The disengagement plan from Gaza and the northern Shomron communities has not yet begun, and yet, Israelis witness daily TV scenes of right-wing teenagers, mothers with children and yeshiva boys donning orange hats and T-shirts and struggling with young soldiers and policemen as they show common cause with the settlers in Gush Katif — and attempt to break through to stand side-by-side with them.
Despite its fair share of controversy and assaults on its reputation, the school Jerry Friedman founded 13 years ago has established itself as an innovative, liberal Modern Orthodox high school with high academic standards, where kids for the most part really love the school.
\”Evangelical Christians support Israel because according to prophecy, Jews have to be in Israel in order for the apocalypse to happen, and the messiah and all that stuff,\” Al Franken said.
\”And when that happens, of course, Jews will all burn in hell,\” he said. \”And so I think at that point the coalition will break up.\”
OK, so let me float this one by you. Most people can\’t contend with provisional thinking, so if you\’re one of those people, please don\’t read further.
One can argue whether the actions Israel\’s government has taken in the face of terror and recalcitrance are moral or effective. One can argue that Israel\’s settlement policy — as its architect, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, has come around to doing — is deleterious to the nation\’s security.
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