T. Belman. Aside from some irritating remarks, the author has it right. The gauntlet has passed from the secular socialists to the religious nationalists. Only the latter can stand up to the Palestinian Nazis.
The secular socialists, otherwise known as Mapainiks and Communists made aliyah in 1900, give or take 20 years, with the intent of becoming new Jews who would work the land and eschew being middle men. In other words they wanted to be just like the goyim. Working the land became their highest value. While this served its purpose at the time, Israel has moved on. Labour is no longer venerated. Brains are. Ingenuity and innovation is our new ethos. The “new man” has become the “old man”. Rather than wishing to be ordinary, the Jews have shown themselves to be extraordinary.
Not only has Judaism experienced phenomenal growth in Israel, due in part to be living on the land, it has experienced strong growth in America. Whereas the secular socialists and the assimilationists and the Reformers considered Judaism a fossilized religion, it is they who are becoming fossils while Judaism has made a big comeback.
Secular Israelis will meet their end through extinction. They will gradually emigrate or change their worldview and become religious Zionists.
Wearing a knitted skullcap has survival value in today’s Israel. In the evolution of Israeli society, the religious Zionist is particularly adapted to the environment in which we must forever live by the sword. It’s obvious that the increase in the number of religious-Zionist Israelis, along with a decline in the number of secular Israelis, is shaping our existence in a way better adapted to the former.
But let’s set aside the chicken-and-egg question, because the dispute in Israeli society has already been decided. Due to various developments in Arab society, we are surrounded by Islamic extremists, and due to various developments in Israeli society, the power is growing of religious Zionists who aim to build the Third Temple on the Temple Mount. And they’re ready to live by the sword to the extent necessary, intifada after intifada, Gaza fighting after Gaza fighting, Lebanon war after Lebanon war.
But remember that it’s easier to live by the sword when you’re equipped with a religious-Zionist worldview. When you believe in God. When you believe that the meaning of life is to be a Jew in the Land of Israel, the land promised to the Jews, convinced that one day the Messiah will come. The knitted skullcap makes the Israeli reality rational, necessary and even welcome.
For secular Israelis, the country is a hostile environment. It’s harder for them to accept the binational aspect of apartheid, the occupation, whose existence the religious Zionist doesn’t recognize at all, the cyclical nature of the violence. In the absence of hope for peace, it’s hard for secular Israelis to shake the despair.
In their paradigm, Israel isn’t a country suited to their needs. If they look at things soberly, they have to leave the country and encourage their children to build their futures elsewhere.
Secular Israelis are going around Israel as if they were unclad during an ice age. They have no fur. They shiver from the cold and have a hard time finding food and shelter. It’s an era better suited for mammoths.
Secular Israelis will meet their end through extinction. They will gradually emigrate or change their worldview and become religious Zionists. They will don fur in order to survive here. From a Darwinist perspective, via natural selection, Israel is rewarding its religious Zionists. They have what we call around here a reason to be here.
Of course, secular Israelis who grew up here also have a reason to be here, but their loyalty is shaky. Hebrew is their language. Their memories are from here. They love Israel because it’s their home, but in the Israel of 2015 a home is not a reason, at least not a good enough reason. It’s not a good enough reason to die here, deprive another people of human rights, break under the tolerable financial strain or live in perpetual fear.
And when it comes to emigration, secular Israelis have a survival edge. It’s easier for them to leave, to be citizens of the world, to build a home elsewhere. So more secular Israelis are leaving, or plan to, while religious Zionists are growing in number and staying.
When secular Israelis hear that we will live forever by the sword, they think of countries better suited to their needs. They love Israel, but it doesn’t justify this. To the religious Zionist, the country requires this. Through natural selection, Israel is emptying itself of secular citizens. In Middle East terms, we’re Neanderthals.
@ woolymammoth:
I hear ya.
Ted, in the future, please do not equate leftist anti Israel Jews who can be religious or not, with the proud wooly mammoth, g-d bless their memories. What do leftist anti Israel Jews have in common with the WM, they do not have anything in common at all!
Right now, as we live and breathe, research at our most venerated centers of higher education are working very hard to one day bring back the humble WM, it is good for the environment. SEE ‘DE-EXTINCTION’ of the wooly mammoth: a step closer by Sarah Kaplan, in Washington Post.
On the other hand the other extinct entity, mis-identified in the Haaretz piece, will hopefully perish never to set foot on earth again.
wow, 3 truckloads of bullshiite in one sentence.
the only apartheid in the former mandate territory is where the Jews do not call all the shots: gaza, PA, Jordan
the Occupation??? if Jews do not beleong in YS then they also do not belong in tel aviv or Israel
the cycle of violence???? this is the greatest delusion… that a peace… or any deal… will end the “cycle of violence” The dummy rogeleh never noticed that they never stopped teaching their children that rogeleh is the son of apes and pigs
I think the shoah and the rest of Jewish history was left out of rogelehs education.
Most jews arrived in israel becuase they had no other place to go.
no, its hard for rogel to shake off his delusions… once the delusional mirage of a pal peace partner is shook off… then hope abounds based on reality that any “peace deal” at this time is as absurd as peace of the Jews with Hitler. Duh??? rogeleh, they teach their children that you are sons of apes and pigs…. duh???? nuff said.
where is that, france, uk, germany, US??????? all are growing increasingly more anti semitic partly due to alpher’s lefftist israeli associates libels of Israel. Perhaps like the Jews, who fled eastern europe for the liberal germany, they will find they will have to flee again soon.
LOL, Alpher lives in a bubble
Is this yossi alphers son, he must be disillusioned to see that his father has been soooooo wrong.
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2015/03/rogel-alpher-writes-what-may-be-dumbest.html#.VjZO6LerTIU
Bear Klein Said:
I beg to differ, if it was stuck in his ass although blinded by darkness the foul odor would convince him of the shitty reality of the “partners for peace”, I think like a regular ostrich his head is in the sand.
Bear Klein Said:
I completely agree. there are leftist zionists(NOT the zionist union who seeks to give away jewish land) secular zionists and religious zionists…. there are religious anti zionists like NK, satmar and even the chief rabbinate in their political views of the mount.
One of the regular mistakes made here is to assume that the religious are naturally the Zionists which is what I originally thought…. only to find out that those who dance with jew killers, those who beg the pals to “stab them not us” AND the Israeli left are for different reasons anti zionists and even anti semitic.
Judaism is no guarantee of zionism.
I know many leftists who really love the country. Not all the leftists do not practice Judiasm. These over reaching generalizations and labeling by Alpher reflect his pathetic worldview.
Judaism was practiced in many kibbutzim. Only a small amount practiced to Orthodox traditions completely.
Alpher is wrong he is not a Neanderthal but he is similar to an Ostrich who can not deal with reality because his is stuck in his ass (not the sand).
Rogel Alpher hates Israel.
He should quit whining and take his own advice and leave!
The country will be far better off without him and his defeatist leftist ilk.
Hopefully those not terminally infested by Peresites, will credibly return to the fold. The remaining, good by and not “lehitraot”.