Explaining The Disengagement Plan

Sharon's disengagement plan makes no sense at all. No reasonable explanation has been offered by its proponents. Here is an article by Rabbi Baruch Kahane that attempts to explain what has so many of us scratching our heads:

What Do They Want?

By Rabbi Baruch Kahane

We are in the midst of a bitter struggle against the disengagement plan. And sometimes you just stand flabbergasted at the attacks by the government and media against the nationalist camp, and wonder: what is their obsession? Is the government stupid enough to think that expelling the Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria will bring some kind of benefit to the country? Everyone knows the truth: it won't solve the demographic problem (there are hardly any Arabs in the areas they want to evacuate); it won't bring a reduction in terror (the terrorists see the evacuation as a victory for them); it won't take pressure off the IDF (they will have to return to those areas in reaction to missiles being launched on Israeli cities); it won't ease the international pressure (from countries who will only expect more concessions); etc, etc.

The real answer is: The need to rule. The Israeli elite hold all major focal points of power in this country - media, education, judiciary, economy - and they have grown accustomed to this power, seeing it as their natural birthright. As they sense the rise of the religious population in Israel, they feel their seat of power shaking beneath them, and do all in their power to fight it. Their way of fighting it now comes in the form of disengagement from Gaza and northern Samaria, which they hope will lead to the full evacuation of Judea and Samaria. Their plan is to break the spirit of the religious sector so they do not reach power.

This is the way the Israeli elite have always operated, ever since the establishment of the state. In consistent fashion, they have always done everything possible to remain in power, even if it came at the expense of what was good for the state. As our teacher Rabbi Kahane explained several times, the founding fathers of the state spiritually destroyed the Sephardic Jews, because they were worried that if these Jews would remain religious, they would not vote for the secular and leftist parties. This is the same reason they opposed Rabbi Kahane's initiative to pay Israeli Arabs to leave the country, for the Arab vote is what gives them electoral strength. After all, no Arab will vote for a religious or right-wing party. And it is also the reason they allow huge numbers of gentiles from Russia to enter the country today - they, too, will certainly vote for non-religious parties. To remain in power, everything is permitted!

More than this: the world view of the elite is a cosmopolitan one: "a country of all its citizens" - something that totally negates anything Jewish. One may ask: why, then, do they remain in the country? Why suffer the terror attacks, army reserve duty, high taxes? Can't they find some "enlightened" European country to live in? The reason they remain in Israel is the same reason we have mentioned all along: the lust for power. Nobody in Europe will let them be judges, ministers, CEO's, etc. And so, they remain in Israel, trying to create us in their image. Everything in order to rule.

And so, never say: "we musn't channel all of our energies on the struggle over Eretz Yisrael, because the most important thing is unity." Because if we give in to them, they will find another way to stomp on us. If the Torah-based population would, for example, take up the cause of "social justice", the judiciary would criminalize civilian interference in the justice system. If they would campaign for social equality, the media would lambaste this attack on the status quo. If we tried to champion the cause of a "clean environment", they would excoriate us, claiming that this hurts the economy, the judges giving strict fines to those who clean the streets too meticulously. All this out of a fear that the public at large will support the religious sector, bringing it to power.

And so, the problem is not the Arab enemy, but rather how to put ourselves in position to lead the country. It is either us or them. This is what should be guiding us in our struggle.