Religious Zionism must rise to speak for Israel

Arabs step up their campaign to demonize Israel. Arab hate splashes across Israel’s headlines. The Arab means to conquer Israel. His Jew-hate burns white-hot.

You see it in the headlines. The Palestinian Authority (PA) peddles hate. It continues to push the anti-Jewish medieval blood libel into our collective face. It has no shame.

First, in July, 2014, it used the actual blood libel—that Jews kill children to harvest blood for Jewish Matzah (“Mahmoud Abbas's TV Says Israel Poisoned Gaza Wells”, Arutz Sheva, October 19, 2014). Now, it pushes a variation: PA TV now claims that Israel poisoned water wells in Gaza during the recent Gaza-Israel war (ibid).

Muslims desecrate The Temple Mount (“Shocking: Muslims Daub Swastika on Temple Mount”, Arutz Sheva, October 19, 2014). PA leader Mahmoud Abbas encourages violence against Jews on the Mount. He calls for Arabs to ‘resist’ Jews on the Mount ‘by all means necessary’ (“Abbas Calls to Stop Jews Visiting Temple Mount Using 'All Means'”, Arutz Sheva, October, 18, 2014). Abbas dehumanizes Jews by calling those who ascend to Judaism’s holiest site, ‘a herd of cattle’ (“Abbas Calls Jews Visiting Temple Mount 'Herd of Cattle'”, Arutz Sheva, October 18, 2014).

Who will stand up for Israel? Who will resist this onslaught?  Jewish national leadership won’t. Our leaders say nothing. Why?

Do they agree with Abbas?

Israel will never hold on to the Temple Mount if the only voice that speaks of it says, ‘The Temple Mount is Muslim. Jews are forbidden there’.

Israel will never hold on to Joseph’s Tomb if the only words spoken about it are, ‘This is a mosque. Jews are forbidden here’.

Israel is besieged. It’s surrounded. It doesn’t just retreat before the nations at the UN or the EU. It retreats from its own land. It retreats from its own holy sites. It retreats before every Arab slur.

Who will stand up for Israel? The Left won’t. It hates Israel almost as much as the Arab. The Center won’t. It thinks it can compromise with the Arab. The Right can’t. They can’t convince anyone that Israel has a right to exist.

The only voice that can defend Jewish Israel is the voice that calls to G-d. Only through G-d will we claim sovereignty here. We have no other argument. The nations won’t stand for any other argument.

Of course, they won’t stand for this argument, either. But as we learn from the first Rashi in the Torah—which we have just read--the comment that we are here because G-d gave this place to us isn’t meant for the nations. It’s not meant for the Arabs who attack us. It’s meant for us; for until we stand up to make that declaration, we will not have the courage to fight. Until we call out G-d’s name, we will not be able to resist the onslaught of the Crusade that gathers to bury us.

Without G-d, we will surrender to those who lust to destroy us. Without a link to G-d, we cannot hold the land. It will disappear.

The only people in Israel who have the faith to stand up for G-d and Israel are the Religious Zionists who have committed to both G-d and Israel. No one else will stand up. No one else seems to believe what our Torah tells us.

In the past, religious Jews have been reluctant to act in so public a manner. Such aggressiveness wasn’t part of our upbringing.

That has to change. HaShem is testing us. Read the headlines. We are savaged. We are demonized. We are dehumanized. We are criminalized.

Do we hold onto what is ours by retreating? Do we keep what G-d gave us by yielding?

We do not. We will not.

But we can succeed when we stand up. We can certainly succeed when we stand up for G-d, who gave us this precious land as a gift.

So far, we have failed this test. We haven’t stood up. Therefore, our hold upon the land grows weaker.

We haven’t spoken of G-d. We haven’t spoken of His gift. We haven’t spoken loudly enough about the land. As a result, the Arab grows stronger. He grows bolder. He becomes increasingly hostile, increasingly demanding: Jerusalem is his, he says. He wants it. He lusts for it.  

We must stand up. We must speak up. We must declare, ‘This is our land. This is our capital city. This is our Temple Mount. This is our Tomb of Joseph’. We must speak up for G-d. We must say, ‘This is our land because G-d gave it to us, not you’.

Where are the Religious Zionists? They are the ones who love G-d and the land. They are the Jews who truly understand the link between G-d, the land and us.

Religious Zionists: stand up now!