_a.jpg "Photo: Yaron Brenner")
Jews deported, and the stock market goes up?
Photo: Yaron Brenner
No apologies for religious Zionism
No more apologies to Tel Aviv or Bnei Brak. Modern Orthodoxy must break out of its shell
Why is the Land of Israel spitting us, the knitted kipa community, out? Where did we go wrong?
Hagai Re'em lives in Mercaz Shapira, one of the settlements to take in teenagers from Gush KatifUs or them
By Amos Oz
Gaza withdrawal first battle in war for Israel's identity
These are difficult days, our eyes are filled with tears and our hearts are broken. It's exactly the time for religious Zionism to change direction.
No more tribalism like they've got in the Arab world, no more contempt for those different than we are, no more emphasis on "religious" mitzvoth, no more religious measuring sticks.
We need a general openness, whole with itself. From now on, we are the leaders.
No apologies
No more apologies to the left for not being "Zionist" enough, or apologies to the ultra-Orthodox for not being "religious" enough.
No more getting upset about the opinions of Nahum Barnea, Amos Oz, Amnon Danker or the Hamodia newspaper popular amongst our black-hatted, ultra-Orthodox brothers.
Never again will we allow the stock market to rise while other Jews are being kicked out of their homes. Or 10 out of 11 Supreme Court justices to decide that the Land of Israel is actually occupied territory. Or that not even one media network represents our opinions.
The time has come to be proud of who we are: Nationalist Religious Zionists, integrating Torah with worldly pursuits, Torah with science, Torah with law, Torah with economics.
Changing goals
It is time to change our goals: We cannot afford to limit ourselves any longer to settlements, farming and the army.
From now on, we must build financial companies, media outlets and rabbinical courts.
We have a legitimate path, and the time has come to be proud of it. The time has come for the 300,000 people who showed up at Rabin Square to understand they constitute a first-rate public that must lead the country.
Of course, this will require a drastic change of attitude towards greater openness. No more "religious-only" settlements. No more schools, yeshivas and seminaries for our children alone.
We are strong enough to open up. Our children have proven themselves over a long period of time to be strongly committed to our ways.
We must establish or buy businesses that will drive a significant part of the Israeli economy.
We must encourage our children to establish high-tech companies, to encourage Jews and non-Jews from around the world to invest in companies who draw their ethics from the Bible.
We must create or buy media channels that will broadcast our message. We must send our children to view this line of work as a calling.
Creating an alternative
We must work hard for the nomination of judges with knitted skullcaps on their heads, who are not afraid of the tyrannical powers of the left-wing.
We must also present Torah law as a relevant option for Israelis by establishing an alternative court system to operate according to halacha, and to create an atmosphere in which lawyers will want to argue before it.
In the realm of politics, we must find the best way to change both the leadership and the system, while encouraging other to join our struggle.
We must widen the circle to include national-religious Jews, together with traditional (but not fully observant) Jews and Jews from the former Soviet Union. These elements comprise more than 60 percent of the population. Such a partnership could bring us the leadership of the country.
Over the next 10 years, the political map will greatly, and we must be really, really ready for it.
Religious officers at every level
In the army, officials must want our children to serve and advance. Religious officers must be promoted to senior roles at every level. The chief of staff must declare immediately that religious soldiers are wanted in his army, including those who threw paint on soldiers and police.
More than this, we will no longer be afraid of sending our sons, graduates of a stellar educational system, to army units in which men and women serve together.
To the contrary, they will volunteer for these units, having been educated to respect a woman's privacy. Only they will protect the honor of their female counterparts.
Needed: modern-day Moses
To succeed in such a wide-ranging mission, we will need a new leadership. I call on the current generation of leaders and rabbis: Please, follow the example of Moses, who passed the mantle of leadership to Joshua before entering the Land of Israel, knowing that such a move required different leadership than did wandering in the desert.
We need leaders who understand that we are not a pursued minority begging for food scraps from the table of others in power. We are a quality public with the power and the ability to govern this country.
These goals are not simple, and will take many years to achieve. But as we've sung countless times in recent months, "The eternal people is not afraid of a long path."
