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I used to think that if Binyamin Netanyahu or Ariel Sharon were to become prime minister, all of Israel's problems with the Arabs would disappear. I was surprised therefore, when, once elected to office, they became Rabin and Peres clones and the problems remained. Like many others, I couldn't understand what happened. 

To solve this enigma, people claim prime ministers are under intense pressure. However, this claim is problematic. First, what's so hard about saying no, especially when the country's security is at stake? Second, pressure can only explain so much. Immediately after 9/11, when no pressure existed, Sharon still failed to act. 

In fact, Israeli history features many grave errors made by its leaders that pressure simply cannot explain. In 1948, with no one pressuring her, Israel invited the Arabs to participate in the building of the country. After the Six Day War in 1967, with no one pressuring her, Israel begged fleeing Arabs to stay in the country. And immediately after that very same war, with no one pressuring him, Moshe Dayan ceded control of the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to the Arabs. Indeed, he boasts about it in his autobiography.

No pressure.  And yet, Israel's leaders still made wrong and stupid decisions.  Why?

Only after discovering Manhigut Yehudit, did I understand the answer to this question. I learned that the source of Israel's problems lie with the very first Zionist leader, Theodore Herzl. Herzl conceived the founding of a Jewish state in response to the discrimination Jews faced in Europe. He felt that if Jews had a country, the world would accept them as a nation among equals and would treat a Jew in the Diaspora just like it treats a Frenchman who happens to live outside of France. Essentially, Herzl's goal (which was really just a reincarnation of the secular Jew's goal to assimilate) was for Jews to be a nation like all other nations and thereby become "normal" and accepted. 

The idea to create a state did not arise out of a desire to fulfill G-d's will or to build a Jewish country. His vision was completely reactionary in nature, a reaction to the gentile's attitude towards the Jewish people. In short, his dream did not arise because of positive reasons from within but because of negative perceptions from without. 

Virtually all subsequent Zionist leaders after Herzl adopted this reactionary mindset as well. It colored their thinking and shaped their actions. This mindset explains why Israel made the historic mistakes after the 1948 and 1967 wars. They were efforts to please gentiles (which includes Arabs). It also explains why in 1978, Israelis welcomed Answer Sadat with such tremendous euphoria. After all, their enemy appeared to accept their existence! (Can anyone imagine Americans greeting Stalin with a ticket tape parade if he had visited the United States during the Cold War?).

Israel's leaders today also share this passive reactionary mindset. They don't think, "What, as Jews, should we do?" (mainly because they don't have a strong enough Jewish identity to answer that question).  Instead, they think, "What will the world and the Arabs think about…? Will they like it? Will they not like it?" Israel's refusal to annex Yesha (because of the problem of denying Arabs political rights), the Oslo "Peace Process," and Sharon's Disengagement Plan are all direct consequences of such a mindset. The only event that would mollify the current Israeli leadership would be a joint announcement by the UN, EU, and Arab League declaring their love and acceptance of Israel. Even then, Israeli leaders would ask, "Are you sure?" and would offer some more land as a goodwill gesture just in case.

For Israel to extricate itself from this mess, it has to change its outlook, its focus, and its dreams. Israel cannot survive if its goal is reactionary and passive, to be a nation like all others. It must possess active and positive reasons for existing. And a positive and active goal for the state of Israel is, precisely, what Manhigut Yehudit offers. Manhigut Yehudit, composed of people with strong Jewish identities, desires to build a distinctly Jewish country whose dream is, in the words of the Aleinu prayer:

To perfect the world in the kingdom of the Almighty

The leaders of Manhigut Yehudit are proud Jews. To such Jews, the thought of inviting a terrorist from Tunisia so that the Arabs will like the Jews doesn't even arise.

Such Jews have no problem standing up to pressure. In fact, they feel no pressure for whether the United States likes them or not is irrelevant to them.  What is relevant is whether G-d likes them.

Such Jews have no problem annexing Yesha since they knows it belongs to the Jewish People as a gift from G-d. Such Jews don't abandon Pollard as Israel did and continues to do. And unlike Sharon, such Jews never say, "We can't say no to our big brother, the United States."

And so, I love Manhigut Yehudit, the only movement in Israel that clearly understands the core of the problem and offers a solution to fix it. Furthermore, for two reasons, I believe Manhigut Yehudit will succeed. First, its message is true and truth really does tend to prevail. Second, Manhigut Yehudit's message resonates with the G-dly spark that all Jews possess deep inside. Once this spark is kindled, the Israeli public will elect a Manhigut Yehudit candidate just like it elected the unelectable Sharon.

 

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