Where are the religious Zionists?

Zion is a spiritual ideal. It’s one of the world’s first ‘Great Concepts’. It links the physical to the spiritual. It connects Israel to G-d.

If you are a modern religious Zionist, you know that Zion starts with G-d. G-d created the Universe. G-d has Chosen a people to be His own. G-d has a Chosen a land for His Chosen people. That land, His land, is Israel. That people, His people, is the Jewish nation.

If you are a religious Zionist, you believe that G-d meant for the Jewish people to live in the land of Israel. You believe G-d meant for the Jewish people to rule the land of Israel.

For you, the religious Zionist, Zion celebrates the Jewishness of Israel. It links religion, nationhood and land.

For you, Zion is today what it was more than 3,000 years ago. It is the proof that G-d is real. It is proof that G-d manifests Himself in the real world.

It is proof that G-d fulfils His Promises.

For you, Zion unites Jews. It flavours Jewish prayer. It fosters Jewish pride. It inspires Jews to face the holy Jerusalem—to pray to Jerusalem and to dream of returning to Jerusalem.

For you, the religious Zionist, Zion is the focal-point for Jewish hope. It’s why you live in Israel—or yearn for the day you can live in Israel.

But if Zion is a focal point for Jewish hope, it is also the focal-point for Jew-hate. It is the image of the Jewish Zion that motivates many to a genocidal desire to kill Jews, to remove Jews, to exterminate Jews.

It is the hate of your Zion that lies at the heart of the ‘Palestinian Cause’. Look at the PLO and Hamas Charters. They don’t wax poetic over the benefits of self-rule or the universal desire to be free. These documents—which define the ‘Palestinian Cause’—don’t just speak about a  ‘Palestine’; they focus on the destruction of Zion. 

They articulate the supreme goal of the ‘Palestinian Cause’: to construct an Islamic Arab nation upon the ashes of your Zion.

The PLO Charter wants the ‘Zionist entity’ (the Jewish Israel) removed from the Middle East. The Hamas Charter wants Jews and Judaism removed from the Middle East.

Both Charters speak for the so-called ‘Palestinian people’. Both seek the same goal. Both describe a national dream built upon genocide--to make the Middle East Judenrein (Jew-Free).

For you, the religious Zionist, these Charters want your G-d to be replaced by their god (the Hamas Charter). They don’t want co-existence (both Charters). They want your Jewish dream dismantled and replaced by their Islamic dream.

They want to exterminate everything you believe in—your G-d, your land and your Jewish sovereignty over that land. They do not want independence. They want victory--over ‘Palestine’ and Jerusalem (““Hamas: We will liberate Palestine and Jerusalem”, YNET, December 27, 2014).

Many Jews don’t believe what you believe. Jews who are liberal, leftist and/or progressive reject your Zionism. They prefer a Zion that removes G-d and embraces instead a Christianized belief in ‘turning the other cheek’. They don’t ignore the hate of the ‘Palestinian Cause’. They want you to accept that hate.

But you are a religious Zionist. You believe in G-d, land and Jewish sovereignty. Of course you’ll stand up for Israel. Of course you’ll defend G-d.

But how do you do that? You have no national organization. You have no plan. You have no coordinated message.

You have no leader.

You are frozen. You are afraid of Israel’s civil administration. You are afraid of Israel’s court system. You are afraid to speak of G-d in public. You are afraid to call the public to G-d.

You have learned nothing from the Russian Refuseniks. You appear to understand nothing about ‘keeping your eye on the prize’—which for you is both Zion and G-d.

You can’t decide whom to support for national office. You can’t decide how to groom your next generation of leaders. You can’t decide who is your leader today.

Indeed, more often than not, you attack those who dare to speak of G-d and Zion.

You are leaderless. You are a body without a head.

You are not exempt from the laws of human anatomy: a body doesn’t survive without a head. You need a head.

You have none.

By contrast, the Palestinian Cause is strong because it is focused, organized and pro-active. It has a leader. It has a message. It promotes that message. It promotes that leader.  

The world listens.

You are not organized. You are not focused. You have no leader.

The world ignores you.

Zion needs you to be strong. Zion needs you in order to survive the ‘Palestinian Cause’. Zion needs you to bring G-d into the public arena. Zion needs you to fight for Israel and G-d.

Where are you?