How the cat became a tiger

Uri Avnery

translated from 14/Oct/98 Ma'ariv

One image came to my mind when I read the book: I am walking along a path

at night, content and happy. When dawn comes, I realize that I have been

walking on the edge of a precipice the entire time.

Sefi Rakhlevsky's book, "The Messiah's Donkey," is the most

important book published here in recent years. It is a must-read for

anyone who cares about the country's future.

For many years we have witnessed an unexplained phenomenon. How has a

sweet-natured house cat turned into a ferocious tiger? We knew the

founders of the National Religious Party (then "HaMizrakhi" and

"HaPoel HaMizrakhi"), men like Moshe Shapira and Yosef Burg who

supported within the cabinet the moderate Moshe Sharet

against David Ben-Gurion. Men who opposed military adventurism and

believed in compromise. Now, this party has become an extreme

nationalistic, messianic-fanatical party, the party of extremist

settlers.

The lunatic fringe of the religious camp has turned into a lunatic center.

It is where the likes of Baruch Goldstein, Yigal Amir and their disciples

came from. We see the children of settlers and their pupils turn over

fruit stands in the Arab market of Hebron, to their mothers' shouts

of glee. We see their adolescents kill Arabs as "a prank." We see

their grownups beat Arabs with chains. We see many respectable

rabbis take part in a conference for the construction of a temple on

the ruins of two of Islam's most holy shrines, knowing full

well that this is bound to lead to a war between us and a billion

Moslems -- and there is not a single rabbi who dares protest in

public! We see the "religious-nationalists" and the haredim -- who

until recently were sworn enemies -- close ranks under a common flag

of hatred of the goyim and of any peaceful solution. We see such

rabbis as Eliezer Shakh and Ovadia Yosef, who in the past justified

the return of the territories, now keep a deafening silence.

We see that the remnants of those religious moderates, Meimad and its

like, can't even come close to one percent of the vote. We

see that in the entire huge religious block, not a single prominent

individual remains who would have had the guts to speak out against

the "Din Mosser" (death penalty to perceived traitors) and similar

horrifying expressions. We see and do not comprehend.

There is no doubt about it: The Jewish religion in Israel has undergone a

mutation in the last generation. It has changed radically. We have been

seeing the facts, not the causes. What happened? How did it evolve?

>From where have these forces exploded? What spiritual roots nourish

them?

Now comes Rakhlevsky and explains the process in detail. He exposes the

sources of the process, the forces, the leaders, the secret code for the

message. He rips off the mask from the faces of the religious

missionaries, who anesthetize the secular public with their soothing

words. He reveals to us a whole world never before shown to us: Hundreds

of unknown facts, hundreds of quotes from the Talmud, the Book of Zohar,

the Rambam, Ha'Ari, the Maharal, Rav Kook, and many more.

It was obvious that such a provocative book would not remain unanswered.

But it is the the very "answers" that prove just how credible and

above-board the book is. None of the attackers could find a single

incorrect quote, a single false fact. Yes, the quotes are correct, say

the critics, but this is merely one part of Judaism. Judaism

has many faces, which the evil Rakhlevsky chooses to overlook.

Unfortunately, this argument is irrelevant. Certainly, every religion is

a vast sea in which many fish swim, from goldfish to sharks. Christianity

gave birth to St. Francis, who spoke to the birds and tried to bring peace

between Moslems and Christians, but it also gave birth to the infernal

inquisition. Judaism has a lot of magnificent elements. But the crucial

question is: Which of these elements has taken root here in

present-day Israel? What is the philosophy of those rabbis who

constitute the vast majority, to whom all the others defer, who

brought about the election of Netanyahu and his gang, and who are now

pushing for the undoing of the Oslo Accords and for war?

Rakhlevsky proves that a particular philosophical version of Rabbi Kook

has taken over to the exclusion of all others. So when those critics say

that here are other aspects to Rabbi Kook's philosophy as well, I say: So

what? I am not interested in the abstract philosophy of Rabbi Kook -- all

that interests me is the concrete version, forced on the country by his

disciples, his son, and by the settlers of Gush Emunim.

It is curious that the main attack on the book has come from

pseudoleftists -- those individuals masquerading as left-wingers. The

reason is quite simple: If there is, indeed, such an imminent danger to us

as proved by Rakhlevsky, then how could they explain to themselves and to

others their shameful avoidance of a struggle? It is much more pleasant

to speak of "meeting of the hearts", "mutual understanding" and

"dialogue." The lamb in dialogue with the wolf.

And this is the central lesson of the book: The settlers who are in

control of this government, the army, and the political structure, do

not see the Arabs as their chief enemy. The Arabs, as far as they are

concerned, are sub-human, lower than beasts. The prime

target of the settlers is us -- the state founded on our blood,

Israeli democracy, the liberal, secular, open-to-the-world,

peace-driven camp. Until now this camp has carried itself like a

donkey which carries the Messiah on its back. Rakhlevsky gives us,

for the first time, the ideological weapon to fight back without

which we will not be able to free ourselves --before we all plunge

into the abyss.

-- End --