Channels
Settler vandalism in Hebron
Photo: Reuters

Hatred won’t lead to victory

Rabbi Yuval Sherlo calls for non-violent struggle against evacuation of Hebron home

I’m not at all certain that we can win with love. I also don’t have any kind words for law authorities objecting to the legal purchase of the House of Peace in Hebron. We need to wholly change their approach. The hypocrisy inherent in the attempt to legitimize illegal construction in the south while at the same time preventing Jewish settlement is outrageous.

 

However, those who wish to contend for the leadership of the state must not do so via Knesset members calling for a belligerent struggle against authorities or via calls for insubordination or “war to the end.” The path we need is wholly different: When they destroy, we shall build at a site where we are allowed to do so legally. They will badmouth us and we shall overcome; they will try to push us down yet we shall get up and draw encouragement, seeking to connect them to Hebron as well.

 

Our victory holds supreme importance. Hebron is the cradle of our nation; it is the basis of the people of Israel’s connection to its country. Hebron’s settlers are public servants who constantly face a pressure cooker and do so courageously.

 

Love had no proven itself victorious, at least not in recent memory, in Gush Katif. Therefore, I am not certain that we shall win with love. However, I am absolutely certain that we shall lose if we resort to hatred and violence.

 

We shall lose, first and foremost, because those who resort to violence and hate commit grave violations, and this is neither legal nor moral or fair.

 

We shall lose because we will raise a generation of anarchist and law-breaking children, who will justify their conduct based on the authority of the Torah and words of their leaders.

 

We shall lose because we will again make the mistake of engaging in a fight on the backs of soldiers and police officers, while this struggle needs to be managed somewhere else entirely.

 

We shall lose because by resorting to violence we shall join other elements that are destroying the Israeli nation and the State of Israel, by bringing public discourse out of its rightful place and into the street, thereby turning Israeli society into one that spills blood.

 

Growing rift

We shall lose because again it will turn out, and correctly so, that we only focus on one issue while failing to address the broad issues faced by the State of Israel today. We shall lose like we lost in Amona – the homes of Amona were razed, while both we and the police emerged from this clash beaten and bruised. As opposed to our rhetoric, which claims that there were no more evacuations after Amona, reality is that many outpost have been removed since Amona.

 

We will lose because some of our children have been filled by growing hatred and anarchy, and the rift between us and the Israeli nation has merely expanded, without us showing any achievements.

 

We will lose because we are shooting ourselves in the foot. We disillusion our sons and daughters into thinking that force wins, yet then we find ourselves trying to shirk responsibility for the violence that follows and that is yet to follow – however, it will hit us with full force, and we shall be able to do nothing but apologize for the "rotten apples" in our midst.

 

Meanwhile, we are even finding ourselves losing a significant part of the religious Zionist camp unwilling to accept this modus operandi.

 

We are fortunate that in the State of Israel decisions are made at the polling stations, and not through street fights. The people of Israel will face a much graver disaster should we not have an institution that makes decisions in respect to disagreements, even if these decisions are biased against us.

 

Overall, with our willingness to break all the rules, we are convincing the world, without wishing to do so, that we are not fit for contending for the leadership of the people of Israel – indeed, those who shatter the frameworks society is managed through should not be complaining when nobody counts them.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.22.08, 16:52
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment