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From Kaf-Tet to Shloshim
A Selection of Articles
Notes
Three of the contributors of the entire or excerpted articles below
are acting in their professional capacity as staff of the Jewish Agency
and World Zionist Organization, while they are also expressing their credo
as Israeli citizens.
Most of the articles below address what is happening in Israel as a
result of the Rabin assassination and how tragic crises - at least, further
polarization - might be avoided. Explore where their respectives fingers
are pointed: at groups of people, at themselves, at a code or interpretation,
or at a particular solution. Two articles, in particular, suggest a way
to bridge tensions and move forward, and are therefore suitable for concluding
any debate.
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by Dr. Motti Friedman, Director, Pedagogic Center, Joint Authority
for Jewish Zionist Education.
The Murder of the Prime Minister
is a difficult time for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
The fear of another destruction keeps rising from the depths of our
historical memory. The second Temple was destroyed, according to our
Sages of that time, because of the senseless hatred governing the
Jewish people at that time. From history we know that the civil war
which raged in those days was no less severe than the war with the
external enemy.
Are we returning to those days - to the final days of the first
Temple, when Gedalyah son of Ahikam, leader of the tiny surviving
Jewish remnant of Judah was murdered by a zealous assassin, Ishmael
son of Netanyah, causing the flight of the last Jews from the country?
It is difficult for us as a country, as individuals.
It is doubly difficult for us as Jews, members of the people who gave
the world the Ten Commandments and the absolute imperative, "Thou
shalt not Murder."
It is difficult for us, that a Jew from among us - and one who observes
the commandments - openly and declaredly chooses murder as a legitimate
political course, and arrogates to himself with horrifying audacity
the authority to be witness, judge, and executioner.
In absolute violation of the prohibition against murder.
In absolute violation of Jewish law.
In absolute violation of the tradition and way of behavior of the
Jewish people throughout its generations.
In absolute violation of all the refinements of Jewish character that
we wanted - and still want - to believe are an inseparable part of
us.
The thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands from
Israel and the Diaspora that streamed during the week of mourning
and are still streaming to Yitzhak Rabin's fresh gravesite in the
Heroes of Israel section of Mt. Herzl, to the site of the assassination
at Yitzhak Rabin Square in the heart of Tel Aviv, to the residential
street of the Rabin family in Tel Aviv, are wiping away, erasing with
their feet this terrible shame. The protest demonstrations and mourning
convocations in all circles and streams, the telephone calls, the
telegrams, the letters -- all of them emerge from a popular, all-encompassing
and ironclad commitment to the age-old Jewish norm of "Thou shalt
not kill," and to absolute condemnation of identification with or
support of murder.
The Jewish people in Israel, in the Diaspora, exists now in the
shadow of a deep and acrimonious debate over its social and ideological
identity and its political course and its ramifications. This is,
in fact, our concern and responsibility: to continue our existence
as one people, unique, bearing a tradition and values, looking towards
a better future for the Jews of the world.
Ideology has seventy faces, and each one has the right to be placed
on the discussion table--discussion, not murder!
I believe that from this shame, from this pain, from this mourning,
from the voice our common voice of protest, we will learn to understand
how to maintain one framework, one mutual culture of debate and decision.
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1. Article published in "Ha'aretz" Newspaper, November 1995;
Letter to staff of the Jewish Agency and WZO, 5 November 1995, abridged,
Avraham Burg, Chairman, World Zionist Executive and the Jewish Agency.
Avraham Burg
Yitzhak Rabin was the latest casualty of the Six Day War. That short,
sharp war that, in fact, has never ended. The IDF Chief of Staff,
the great conqueror-liberator, the man who was celebrated and idolized,
was trapped in the web that he - more than anyone else - created.
In that war, the cork was removed from the bottle that trapped the
messiah-genie. From distress to relief, from threat to opportunity,
from the threshold of destruction to the doorstop of redemption. Old-
new territories of the Land of Israel, gave rise to a feeling of limitless
power; a fulfillment of the task of the Warsaw Ghetto - revenge upon
all who would destroy our people. All these factors came together
to create a new image of Israel the powerful.
Almost everyone was swept along with that wave. From the school
of Rav Kook, strange seeds began to germinate, ripen, and build settlements.
What was previously but a secret dream was transformed into a national
enterprise - and strictly kosher.
Rabin and Peres of the seventies along with the "Arabists," (Alon
and Dayan, together with Golda [Meir], who never did understand what
peace is, were deceived by Alterman and Shamir into thinking that
the settlers were the natural heirs to Labor Zionism and utilizing
the same means.
A few more years passed, and it became clear that the genie was
truly monstrous. How many years can one play the role of occupier?
How long can one remain insensitive to the degradation at roadblocks,
to our homemade discrimination? Add a pinch of Kahane and a generous
smidgen of blood and terror, and the mixture is ready. Israeli society
was mortally wounded. Arabs were tortured and killed, and no one spoke
out. The leaders of the settlers continued to promote the delusion
of co-existence; the evil coalition between the horse and his rider.
True racist conceptions infiltrated an Israel persecuted by anti-Semitism
and there gained approval and acceptance. A few members of the rightwing
had the courage to recognize the phenomenon: Dan Meridor, Benny Begin,
Ronnie Milo, and sometimes Ehud Olmert. All the rest were simply silent.
Binyamin Netanyahu, and Uzi Landau, and Ariel Sharon, Refael Eitan,
Rehavam Ze'evi formed a pyramid of the silent, knowing how to enflame
but without the courage to draw the line.
Only true democrats appreciate that even a majority of one, irrespective
of that person's race, is a holy and absolute majority. Anything else
is simply the same, fertile ground in which the doctrine of Jewish
racism took root. From that camp emerged the underground that permitted
Arab blood to be shed.
Society shuddered for a short moment, and then millions signed petitions
for their pardon, [Ed: the convicted members of the Jewish underground]
and the President of Israel signed the surrender to their release.
Some have no regrets to this day.
During the intifada, we learned of tens of cases of unexplained
killings, of the pogroms led by Marzel and Levinger, and still no
one spoke up. Emil Greenzweig's murderer [Ed: Greenzweig was a peace
activist] has claimed for years that although it was his hand that
pulled the pin on the grenade, his mind was controlled by those who
incited him. But who cares about a murderer without a political lobby?
And now the ultimate murderer arises. Not crazy but sane. Sane and
cool. Not incited, but motivated by the doctrine of his teachers.
His finger pulled the trigger and suddenly all of us are guilty. Suddenly
everyone is beating my breast, hard, with fists.
What is the bottom line? There can be only one piercing question:
What is the source of the authority of the State of Israel? And there
are only two ways - the way of democracy or the way of theocracy.
The culture of debate, or decision by bullet. For one who stands for
democracy, it is clear that man and human society are the highest
source of authority. Others say: "Democracy yes - but only when it
serves our values". The man of religion willing to sacrifice his fellow
man on the altar of "Thou shalt murder" is a Jewish fundamentalist,
fundamentally no different from any of the Islamic Jihad.
The Jewish Jihad that shot Yitzhak Rabin tried to achieve three
things. First - "to perfect the world under the Kingship of God" in
the most perverted meaning of that exalted expression, to set the
God of Revenge and his extremist rabbis over an entire people yearning
for the God of Mercy. The second objective was to kill the morality
of peace. Their third objective was the liquidation of Yitzhak Rabin
himself in order to kill off the living symbol of the most profound
change ever to take place in Israeli society.
As a result of this event, a picture of the spirit of Israel is
clearly emerging. The "good old" brand of Religious Zionism has been
deposed and not yet recovered (the ultra-Orthodox never entered the
spiritual arena), while the Zionist ultra-Orthodox, lost what little
legitimacy they ever had.
Now, as this chapter of settlement Sabbateanism draws to a close,
Israeli-ness takes itself in hand and struggles for its identity.
The death of Yitzhak Rabin marks the end of one chapter and the beginning
of the next.
That is his legacy.
Letter to staff of the Jewish Agency and WZO,
5 November 1995, abridged, Avraham Burg, Chairman, World Zionist
Executive and the Jewish Agency., 12 Heshvan 5756, 5 November 1995
- abridged:
Shalom,
[...] Yitzhak Rabin, one of the great sons of this land, Prime Minister
and Minister of Defense, was murdered in Tel Aviv. We cried, all of
us, for Yitzhak Rabin, the leader and the man, for the family that
lost its head, and for the State of Israel that awoke a changed country.
Slowly, slowly, we are beginning to try to understand what happened
at the square in front of Tel Aviv City Hall, where the foul murderer
found the Prime Minister of Israel and killed him. Many memorial candles
were lit; many of us found no peace - and that is only right. The
murderer did not act in a vacuum; this was not an instance of temporary
insanity. For many months, a dark wave of hatred has been rising among
certain elements of Israeli society. The handwriting was on the wall,
and it was the hands of men created in the image of God who wrote
it.
We bow our heads to the memory of Yitzhak Rabin, and together with
our mourning and our grief, we send out a call for unity - a call
for understanding that what we have in common is greater than what
divides us - a call for understanding that all of us, even in the
midst of the bitterest argument and debate, are brothers.
[...]
May it be God's will that in the merit of Yitzhak Rabin we find true
peace with our neighbors and - before that - peace among ourselves.
May his memory be blessed.
Avraham Burg, Chairman of the World Zionist Organization and the
Jewish Agency
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Article Published in "Ha'aretz" Newspaper,
November 1995, Yossi Pnini, Syllabus Project Director for the CIS,
Unit for Education in the CIS, The Joint Authority for Jewish Zionist
Education.
Yossi Pnini
Ha'aretz 16 November 1995
Soul searching is not simply a matter of looking in the mirror.
Soul searching implies looking inward with a magnifying glass and
a scalpel. The more powerful the magnification, the finer and sharper
the scalpel's edge, the more effective the soul searching. But, in
soul searching - just as in surgery - the area of operation requires
definition. Allow me to define the parameters I wish to contribute.
I am a Jew committed to Jewish law; Judaism is the foundation of
my spiritual world. I am a Zionist who believes that Zionism means
the return of the Jewish people to its historical platform. I am an
Israeli committed to the constitution of the State of Israel. I am
a man who loves peace and pursues it. I am a father of children, one
of whom is serving at this moment on the front line in Lebanon.
The seven days of individual and collective mourning for the murder
of Yitzhak Rabin are behind us. And the further away we get, the clearer
the picture becomes, and the more are exposed, in the wake of the
assassination, not only that which is unique and beautiful within
us but also more than a few ills, and it is for these ills that I
beat my breast in contrition. [Ed: reference to custom of Jewish penitential
prayers.]
For the sin that I have sinned by silence. [Ed: style of penitential
prayers.] In my immediate surroundings, there burned, and still burns,
the fire of messianism.
"The beginning of the flowering of our redemption", became the magic
formula for the masses from all walks of religious life. I knew its
dangers - experienced them personally - and I remained silent.
I accepted the sufferings of "those who are wounded in the cause of
peace," [Ed: terror victims] and I forgave the declarations of those
around me for whom this "peace" threatened an entire Weltanshauung.
[Ed: the "settlers".]
For the sin I have sinned by silence, for not coming to the "peacemakers"
and obliging them to reassess the flippancy with which they spoke
to and of my brother whose world was destroyed. [Ed: the emotional
trauma of the "settlers".] "Propellers" * became a double-edged sword.
I should have warned them, but I didn't. I should have gotten involved,
but instead I said to myself "Fortunate is the man whose work is done
by others." And I sinned another great sin: for what did Rabin, and
the "beautiful people" surrounding him, know of the law of rodef [Ed:
hunter] and of Jewish law in general in the depths of the Jewish spirit?
For the sin I have sinned for confusion of the heart: The depth
of my belief in peace and my activity on its behalf, its fundamental
kernel of truth, my sincere aspiration for a Jewish state with a Jewish
majority, that would forge its own ways of life and give unique expression
in both private and public to its Jewishness.
Jewish history, the Jewish way of life, the treasures of Jewish
literature, Jewish creativity and their constructive encounter with
general culture and the era - these are were meant to serve as the
source of this new Jewish creation.
But I was caught in the middle: the very Jewish collective that lives
and breathes the historic Jewish culture to the depths of its soul,
is the same collective that spawns ideas, beliefs, opinions marginal
to Judaism and makes them central.
And the spiritual vacuum in the public squares, expressions so alien
to the world of Judaism. Yes, soul searching also means saying things
that hurt.
The "personality cult" growing and developing almost to the point
of blasphemy, because from a certain point it is also directed from
above. How alien and strange, and, needless to say, how dangerous!
"A great father. A grandfather to all of us." [Ed: recent quotes about
Yitzhak Rabin.] Almost foreign, strange, and dangerous - like the
awesome responsibility of those on the other side.
Have we ever known how to show respect to our leaders? Witness the
final days of Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharet, Pinhas Sapir, Moshe Dayan,
and Menahem Begin, all of blessed memory.
We are indeed a land that devours its leaders.
For the sin I have sinned in not raising my voice in protest.
It is true that not only one person sinned. A large community stood
behind the hand that pulled the trigger, but not the entire community,
not the entire congregation, but something keeps us from speaking.
Something internal, and without doubt, something external.
If we could speak, perhaps there would be room to ask, and to wonder
- these days of collective mourning, what was Jewish about them?
Crying in the public squares?
Yahrtzeit candles?
A son who mispronounces, again and again, the words of the Kaddish?
Memorial gatherings without a hint of Jewish culture - not one statement,
not one verse, suited to the moment.
Is this our Jewish, cultural intifada? The last and final escape?
And I, I and those like me, where shall we be left?
And for the sin I have sinned by naivete.
My son bound upon the altar of this people, [Ed: reference to the
binding of Isaac and to Yitzhak Rabin's public service] and all my
days and nights one prayer: only "send forth not Your hand to harm
this lad." And he, my son, whom I so dearly love, and all his comrades,
are forgotten, because of their shyness and modesty.
And who is there to lead us? the crown of our culture? - Aviv Gefen.
And for the sin I have sinned for weakness of hands.
Where, and when, and under what conditions will we meet, and my address,
and that of many, many like me is not on the "Teheran Line," and not
in the dining car, or the room of those who serve in holiness.
And it is not only for my brothers but for myself as well that I
search.
* Tr.: Yitzhak Rabin declared that once a peace agreement was forged
with Syria, the residents of the Golan Heights would "turn around
like a propeller".
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Article in "Ha'aretz"
Newspaper by Yaron London, journalist and TV personality known for
center-left views.
Yaron London Ma'ariv 14 November 1995
In his book, "The Origin of Totalitarian Democracy", historian Ya'akov
Talmon shows how the rational outlook of eighteenth century was transformed
into a messianic faith and how rational messianism culminated in Hitler's
concentration camps and Stalin's Gulag.
This is but one example of many of the treachery of exalted ideas,
which are so frequently the beginning of a long, winding road into
the abyss. Is Jean Jacques Rousseau to be held morally responsible,
then, for Hitler's and Stalin's atrocities?
The Torah is the basis of Western civilization. Zionism is a mixture
of Torah and the system of national rights that crystallized in Europe
over the last two centuries. Zionism redeemed us from degradation
and destruction, reigned tragedy down upon the Arabs of Palestine,
and spawned a murderer named Yigal Amir. Is Moses morally responsible,
then, for the murder of Yitzhak Rabin?
Precisely so, to judge by the remarks made after the assassination
in the condemnation of religion. "All religions are murderous," I
hear - even in my immediate surroundings - "Judaism included."
Nonsense! Even a cursory audit of the bloody figures reveals clearly
that rationalism has not been any kinder to humanity than religion.
Unfortunately, Man has yet to invent a serum to immunize himself against
his own murderous impulses.
Murderous zealotry has deep roots in the Bible and Talmud. I imagine
that the man who killed Yitzhak Rabin saw himself as a latter day
Phineas or Elijah. The first killed Zimri, and the second, in his
righteous anger, exterminated no fewer than four hundred prophets
of Ba'al.
But our Torah is a great storehouse, from whose hidden treasures
one can build palaces and assemble guns. In the Talmudic tractate,
Gittin, it is said, "Everything written in the Torah is meant to establish
peace." Maimonides, in his "Guide for the Perplexed", concludes that
the source of violence lies in man's drives, and that when we achieve
wisdom, we will know how to restrain our evil inclination.
The evil, then, is not in the storehouse, but rather in a few of
those use it. Empty the storehouse and discard all it contains, and
you destroy Jewish culture - but you won't bring peace to mankind.
The gathering of religious Zionists last week in Jerusalem, showed
that among their some are experiencing true agonies of conscience.
One need not beat the breast of one who is already beating his breast
himself.
Yitzhak Rabin was Prime Minister during the settlement of Sebastia,
the beginning of Jewish settlement in Samaria. Shimon Peres was Minister
of Defense. Both of them gave in to the settlers - Rabin against his
will, Peres voluntarily - and ultimately permitted them to establish
a settlement at Alon Moreh. Rabin detested the settlers, and declared
that he would not mind having to present his passport in order to
visit Gush Etzion. Peres has never made any such declaration.
Rabin was a man without pretense. His extraordinary honesty was
both a strength and a weakness. Peres knows how to adjust pronouncements
to the circumstances and the audience - an ability that is both a
weakness and a strength: a Jewish maxim has it that it is the soft
word that "breaketh the bone."
The settlers in Judea and Samaria are wounded, frightened, and resentful.
In their place, I would feel the same. They settled where they settled
with the support of the government of Israel, or at least with its
consent, and now they are threatened and abandoned. The religious
and men of conscience among them are now wounded sevenfold, and there
are those among them - I don't know how many, but I imagine they are
not few - who are burdened by true agonies of conscience.
Now is not the time for settling accounts. Now is the time for mercy.
Words can heal, and Shimon Peres knows how to speak. Don't abandon
your positions, Peres, but speak words of mercy.
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"To the Very Edge of the Abyss" : Article in the "Jerusalem Post",
synopsis with extracts, 17 November 1995, Mark A. Heller, Senior
research associate, Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv
University.
[We refer you to the entire article on the Jerusalem Post's Web site,
not reprinted here for copyright reasons.]
Synopsis
- The image Israelis see in their own reflection today is: "the
face of Israel distorted by hate and violence".
- After the euphoria of the victory of 1967, the new territorial
gains impacted on the "political discourse" which took on a "mystic"
tone. As all other issues in the democratic and economic development
of the state became "subordinate... to the future of the territories",
this perceived "blessing" became a "curse", see "The Cursed Blessing",
a book by Shabtai Tevet, published in the early 1970s.
- The argument over the territories is at "two levels": The first
is "rational-strategic", where "protagonists... have a common language,...
the same rules" and is conducted with "civility". The second is
about the "vision" - or lack of it - regarding the spiritual or
historical significance of the land; there is no commonality of
language or dialogue at this level.
- It is this second level which has transformed this into a "vicious"
argument and precludes any "national unity", unless the cause of
the argument - the territory - is removed. This was Rabin's goal.
Israel will remain at "the edge of the abyss" unless we "give up
the blessing of the land" to "be free ... of its curse".
Acknowledgement: Translations - Chaim Mayerson.
Created: January 2nd, 1996
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