Settlers: Cabinet vote an "eternal disgrace"

The Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip (also known by its Hebrew acronym as the Yesha Council), said Sunday it objected to the Cabinet's approval of the 'road map' peace plan.

In a statement released Sunday evening, the council said that the Cabinet's decision "would be remembered as an eternal disgrace in the history of the State of Israel".

"The decision ignores out historical rights over the Land of Israel and damages the national security interests of Israel," said the statement.

Now one might receive the mistaken impression that the Torah endorses this attitude, whereby we should assign a greater value to our own people’s good than to the welfare of others. After all, the Torah commands the Children of Israel to conquer the land from the indigenous nations. But this is clearly unacceptable! How could God, Whose mercy extends to all His creations, oppress His own handiwork?! How could the Most High command that we remove from our hearts the well being of the entire human race for our own selfish good?! Therefore, at the time the covenant was first established with our ancestor Abraham, a divine protest was lodged: The very thought of nationalism is despicable to God, for He equates all mankind. The goal is to seek the true success of all God’s creations. True justice means that one views with equal concern the advancement of the entire human race.
Where then does the the notion of the “Chosen People” enter? The Jews were elected to work at uplifting the entire human race; to bring humanity to the goal the Almighty expects of it. Israel were set aside as a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” A kingdom of priests ministers to the other nations in order to morally perfect them. So the separation from the nations is itself the greatest unification, in order to benefit the human race. However, if Israel will desert the good, which is the holy Torah, then its nationhood and its territorialism are an abomination before God. It is inconceivable that for the sake of a people’s natural self-love, other nations should be displaced. All are God’s handiwork. Israel must know that no permission was granted to displace a nation for the sake of national self-aggrandizement. There is one form of justice, whether it be on the individual or collective level.Therefore, several times over, the Torah links the giving of the land to the observance of Torah. Without the raison d’etre of Torah, the setting apart of one nation, would be considered an injustice.
War? A war could be waged only if divine will had ordained that it was necessary for tikkun ‘olam, for setting the world right. Halakhically, a milhemet ha-reshut (optional war) could be authorized only by the king acting in consonance with the Urim ve-Thummim (oracle) and the Sanhedrin.
This is the import of God’s directive to our ancestor, “No longer shall your name be called Abram,” which, as the rabbis say, signifies leadership of the single nation of Aram. I have raised you beyond this norm of nationalism, which is but a convention, not true justice. Your heart should not be devoted exclusively to the benefit of Aram, but rather seek the peace of all God’s creations. “Your name shall be Abraham, father of a multitude of nations.” Your role is as father of all nations, of the entire human race. Seek out the wellbeing of all. “One who calls Abraham, ‘Abram,’ transgresses.” By doing so, one causes Israel to regress to a state of nationalism. One makes a statement that Israel’s existence can be founded on nationalism. Nationalism, which is no more than a collective form of egoism, is a transgression. Israel’s election is just only if its basis is true universalism. Israel is to be “a father of a multitude of nations.”
Abraham represents a combination of two tendencies, universalism and separatism, but even his being separated from the world is in order to positively influence the world. His son Isaac again combines these two tendencies: Uniting with the world and retreating from it to preserve an ideal of kedusha (holiness). By the third generation, these two tendencies had grown apart; each of Isaac’s two sons inherited a different facet of his personality. In Esau, the aspect of worldliness was pronounced, but he was defiled by the world. In his twin brother Jacob, particularism was more pronounced. His allegiance was to preserving the ideal of kedusha (holiness); the goal of universalism will emerge on its own when the time is ripe. Esau was “a hunter, an outdoorsman,” which is another way of saying, a man of the world; “Jacob, a simple man, a homebody,” a man who cultivates his own innate spirituality in the hope that thereby the world will benefit.

When you work land that nobody owns because it is the dregs, drain the swamps filled with malaria misquotes and make farms, and make the desert bloom where even Arabs cannot live, that is the American Spirit, when the houses are finally built, the orchards become of age and produce fruit, and the crops are ready, then it becomes a settlement. Once the Arabs have stripped the houses, burned the orchard for firewood and broken the dams so the swamp is back and the disease spreads, then they are happy.

As for the good Rabbi being the father of the settlements? He may have thought it was a good idea, but I bet his hands were never calloused.

The father of the settlements was the Jewish-American family that drained the swamps in the 1800's because that is the only land that the Arabs would sell the Jews because they thought it was haunted. He lost 13 children to malaria.

The father of the settlements was Ben Gurion who had the vision to see the deserts planted, and has indeed reversed the desertification of Israel.

The religious left stay in the cities and live on welfare, the religious right work the land. It is not a matter of religion at all, it is a matter of values.

Phil, you need a better understanding of both the religious situation and the "settlement" issue.

They dug ditches by hand, this was right when quinine was discovered. Some of the kids died from quinine overdose as the use of the drug was experimental. This was during the Otoman empire, Jews were not allowed to buy good land, they paid $1000 a acre for swamp land! I visited the actual spot myself once for the heck of it.

Simply Amazing what was done, by hand, without fancy equiptment. The land became the most productive farm land for hundreds of miles. That is when the Arabs attacked to steal the land back.

They failed, it was the birth of the kibutz system of farming. The buildings were built in a circle like a fort to help defend against the Arabs.

In time a huge town was built around the farmland as the Jews productivity made wealth for all. The story of Israel, in a microcosm. I am sure it is called a settlement somewhere...

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