The Worthlessness of Politics in Israel

By Prof. Paul Eidelberg

Political scientists are not wrong when they define politics as a struggle for power. Call it a lust for personal and partisan aggrandizement. True, this lust is often couched in the honorific language of some ideology. But ideology is not truth.
Consider, for example, "secular Zionism." It is a contradiction in terms. Zionism cannot be secular without violating the original meaning of the word “Zion,” which involves three interrelated ideas: (1) the People of Israel, (2) the Land of Israel, and most emphatically (3) the Torah of Israel.

If, some two thousand years ago, the Jews had had as their leaders secular "Zionists" like Ben-Gurion, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Ariel Sharon, our people would have disappeared long ago. No serious person will dispute the fact that it was only the Torah that has preserved the Jewish people during these past two millennia.

Nevertheless, the secular "Zionists" who founded the modern State of Israel thought they could dispense with the Torah. We see the results. In the specious name of “peace” or of “democracy,” most of these same people are prepared to abandon Judea, Samaria, and Gaza and the 230,000 Jews who live there—yes, and even nullify the Jewish character of what remains of Eretz Israel.

Clearly, secular "Zionism" is dead—replaced by the myth of “democracy” to legitimate the leaders of the so-called Jewish state. Which means that politics in Israel is intellectually and morally bankrupt. It serves only narrow, partisan or personal interests. When Prime Minister Sharon appointed St. Thomas Lapid—an anti-religious radio announcer—Minister of Justice, what more evidence does one need of Sharon’s own anti-religious intentions? But perhaps we should add his naming Avraham Poraz to head the all-important Interior Ministry—Poraz, another hater of religious Jews, hence of Judaism.

I see only decay in politics, necessarily so in the Holy Land. Thus, while Israeli politicians travel abroad seeking to bolster their prestige or power or to purchase a new wardrobe for their wives at Bloomingsdale, their country's medical services are deteriorating, the level of education continues to decline, crime is rampant, drugs have invaded the public schools, pornography abounds—in short, the country has been polluted by American pop culture—deliberately to undermine Judaism. The same subversion proceeds by the government’s importation of gentiles under the “grandfather clause” of the Law of Return—this, to weaken the voting power of the religious community.

And yet, this decay is providential, a logical consequence of the secular founding of the State, for which founding, however, we must be grateful. Were it not for its founders we would not have so much Torah learning in Israel, so many yeshivot, which, though now being deliberately undermined by the Sharon government and its finance minister, will nonetheless survive and even grow stronger. Yes, the Ben Gurionites and the Peresites were necessary for Israel's physical redemption; they can offer nothing for Israel's spiritual or intellectual-moral redemption. To the contrary, they are committed to the demise of Judaism in this country.

Nevertheless, the redemption is occurring, though without fanfare. Never have there been so many Jews returning to Torah. A veritable renaissance is taking place in the study of the Halacha, revealing its great rationality and relevance. Scientists and mathematicians are engaged in fundamental Torah research. Allow me to say that the present writer has just completed a book showing how developments in philosophy, science, and religion since the destruction of the First Temple are unwittingly carrying out the world-historical program of the Torah.

Meanwhile, more and more people in Israel realize that politics is worthless, therefore, that mere politicians cannot solve any of the country's basic problems. They see with every passing day that the government is incapable of bringing them peace. They are learning that Israel’s most serious problem is not Arab hatred of Jews but the Jewish hatred of Judaism that has invaded the leadership of the so-called Jewish state. Obviously this problem can’t be solved by mere politics.

One last word. It is not within the power of politics—and certainly not within the power of any Arabs or of any nation—to give Israel peace. Peace will come to Israel only when it is led by men dedicated to the Torah. Until then, politics can only lead Jews astray and afflict Israel with more suffering.