Our Views
 

Telling the Unpopular Truth
by: Moshe Feiglin
Founder and President, Manhigut Yehudit
Av, 5766 (August, '06)
 

The Arabs have already won this round. Even if the IDF marches all the way into Beirut, even if all the rocket launchers are destroyed and all the Hizbollah terrorists and their leaders are killed -- they still won. They won because they achieved their goal -- to mar Israel's deterrence. This war is just the preview of the real horror show, and the Hizbollah is just testing the waters for the rest of the Arab world. Just like the Biblical Amalek who attacked the Israelites from the rear and  tarnished their invincible image, the Hizbollah has already done its job. It has shown that it is possible to attack Israel's cities, to condemn a third of its citizens to weeks in the bomb shelters, to wreak havoc on its countryside, farms and businesses and to come out of it as heroes.  

Israel's government does not understand who it is fighting and what it is fighting about. That is why Israel cannot win. The root of the problem is at the Temple Mount and the enemy that Israel is really fighting is Iran. But only a belief-based Israeli government would have what it takes to deal with those two major issues. After Israel has restored its sovereignty on the Temple Mount and neutralized Iran, it won't have to chase the Hizbollah in Lebanon. 

At this point, the IDF War Reserve Store Units are still intact and uncontaminated by chemical attack. Israel's metropolitan center has not yet been destroyed by nuclear missiles and hordes of Palestinian fighters (there are already tens of thousands of Palestinian fighters who have been armed with Israeli weapons) are not yet streaming into Israel's cities from the hills that Olmert is planning to give them as part of the Convergence plan. That is the real horror show. All that we have seen until now is just the preview. 

Who has the tools to identify the catastrophe that is about to happen and to prepare for it? What sector has the faith needed to call in the Name of the G-d of Israel in answer to the Arab calls in the name of their deity? Who can remove the Islamic presence from the Temple Mount and stand firmly behind the basic truths of the Nation of Israel? Who can then wage a true war against Iran and be prepared to use unconventional weapons if necessary? Who is prepared to liberate the Biblical territory of the tribe of Asher in Lebanon's mountains -- to expel the Arabs living there, to annex it and settle it with Jews as Israel did in the Golan Heights? Can Olmert do it? Bibi? Leiberman? Remember, the alternative is Israel's destruction! 

The seeds of the solution are sprouting within us. Only the Orange public -- those people who have remained faithful to their Jewish heritage, country and nation -- can provide Israel with the leadership it needs to save itself. But the Orange public is irrelevant, not on an equal footing with the other citizens of the state. It is o.k. to destroy their homes, settlements and livelihood and throw them into the streets.  Just like a battered wife, the Orange public will always submit and remain faithful to its violent husband. This is the public that is the first on the front lines -- out of true love for Israel and an implacable urge to show its loyalty. But as long as the Orange public remains "loyal" no matter how much it is derided and destroyed, it will also remain irrelevant. We must understand that our unwillingness to stand up and say "NO!" endangers more than our own homes and settlements. It also makes it impossible for us to truly defend our country. As long as we go along with the government's destructive bent, we are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

So we have to say the truth. Even though we know that the truth is extremely unpopular. Even though we know that the absolute majority of the Orange public will continue to fight in this war. We have to call for our soldiers to refuse to fight today so that our message will begin to filter into the public consciousness tomorrow -- before the real horror show begins. We have to call on our soldiers to refuse now so that in the intermission between the preview and the onset of the horror show we will be relevant, so that by then someone will be willing to listen to us, so that maybe we can reach the steering wheel and steer our national bus clear of the abyss toward which it is dangerously careening. Israel's citizens will not be able to take us seriously if we remain part of the problem.

The next -- horrific -- act of this movie will soon begin to unfold. Our ability to save Israel from its leaders depends on the willingness of the Orange public to assert itself -- to shake off the chains of blind loyalty at any price which have always kept it irrelevant and non-threatening to the ruling elites. Our call for refusal today is the beginning of that change in consciousness. With G-d's help, it will make people uncomfortable enough to open their eyes, face the difficult reality and rise to the challenge of turning the horror show into the true redemption for Israel and the entire world.