Replace the Losers



The Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha) Council heads who failed in the struggle for Gush Katif must not be allowed to continue in their positions. Its unconscionable that people who have been proven incompetent will be allowed to bring about a second tragedy.



People who are not willing to pay a personal price to defend the Land of Israel do not deserve to represent us. In truth, people who receive their salaries from the government cannot be expected to fight against it. Only those who were willing to sit in jail to protect the Land of Israel deserve to lead the struggle.



Following the capitulation of the Yesha leadership at Kfar Maimon, the Yesha Council took out full-page ads in the religious press quoting leftist journalists praising the national religious community for its "self-control". See? Even though we lost, the Left loves us. We must stop obsessing about what others think of us and simply do the right thing.



Elect Leaders Who Understand the Media



Without a basic understanding of modern media techniques and sloganeering, it is impossible to win this fight. Unfortunately, the number of people in the national religious camp who understand communications can be counted on the fingers of one hand.



Its time the national-religious camp stopped mumbling and started demanding. We can start by appropriating the language of our enemies and put them on the defense for once, instead of always apologizing or defending ourselves. Instead of trying to prove our rights to the land under international law:
We must demand an End to the Arab Occupation of Israel.



We must demand the Right of Return of Jews to all their land.



We must tell the government to stop surrendering to terror.



We must tell Ehud Olmert to stop supporting the terrorists.
Until these basic phrases can be employed in the struggle there is no chance whatsoever of winning.



Embarrass the Post-Zionist Government



Instead of always reacting to Left's programs, it is time the national-religious politicians took the initiative for once. Three examples:
1. Propose a law calling for the immediate annexation of Maaleh Adumim to the State of Israel. This will highlight Olmert's lies concerning his intention to annex the city.



2. Propose a law calling for the incarceration of people who transfer public funds to terrorist organizations such as the Hamas. This will highlight the government's recent transfer of NIS 50 million to the Hamas and its complicity with Arab terror.



3. Propose a law calling for the immediate destruction of all illegal Arab construction. This will highlight the government's double standard on Jewish and Arab building.
Depose the Government Rabbis



Rabbis who allow Jews to contravene the Torah and expel Jews from their land must be removed from positions of authority. The national-religious community cannot win this battle if its actions are being undermined from within. Rabbis who put secular law above the Torah should simply be ignored.



Any rabbi who cannot say explicitly that racist expulsion orders must be refused is complicit with the crime of expulsion. And certainly no money should be donated to their yeshivas. As of now, of the 40 or so Hesder and pre-army yeshivas, only about three or four yeshiva heads have had the bravery to call upon their soldiers to refuse immoral orders of expulsion.



The government rabbis tell us that if we refuse orders to expel Jews from their homes and their land, then the army will fall apart. The concept that to love the Jewish people, you must hate yourself is twisted and is explicitly contradicted by our sages. Rabbi Hillel says in Pirkei Avot, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I?" To love others we must first love ourselves, otherwise our love is simply empty pandering.



The Rambam says explicitly that a Jewish king who demands Torah law be contravened is ignored. Are the government rabbis smarter than the Rambam?



A friend of mine recently showed me a book of the leading government rabbi. It quotes at length an old Hatzofe newspaper article about Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, z.t.l., regarding the importance of defending the Land of Israel. The entire article was quoted. Only one line was left out: the line in which Rabbi Kook says that in the battle for Judea and Samaria, we must be ready for civil war. Of course, the peace-loving rabbi who taught his entire life that loving your fellow Jew is supreme did not mean physical war. But he certainly did not intend that Jews should expel Jews from their land, or that we should capitulate in a non-violent struggle.



We must love our fellow Jew and oppose our fellow Jew (who supports surrender). Most people, unfortunately, find this dichotomy too complex. They either love their fellow Jew and support him in his sin, or they oppose their fellow Jew and hate him in their heart. Neither of these two extremes will work in the age of redemption. We must love our fellow Jews with all our hearts, and oppose them with all non-violent means at our disposal. Only this balanced, centrist approach has a chance of succeeding. We must remove the practice of "Christian love" and replace it with "Jewish love".



Media, Media and More Media



All financial resources should be aimed at expanding and establishing pro-Zionist media outlets; not demonstrations, not new settlements and not new schools. Hebron Council Head Noam Arnon, who has spent his life fundraising for Yesha, recently wrote a powerful article in Makor Rishon newspaper lamenting the fact that national-religious Jews are willing to donate millions for new buildings and school buses, but when it comes to establishing media outlets that have a chance of influencing public opinion, they simply refuse to give.



Newspapers, magazines, television stations, movies and plays - all must be generously supported. While they're at it, residents of Yesha may want to consider they stop purchasing the anti-Zionist rags Maariv and Yediot Acharonot, which are sold by the thousands in the very communities they support destroying.



G-d willing, we will do and we will succeed.