When in exile, occupy and massacre
Founding Israel ‘rebellion against God’: Orthodox Rabbi
By Reza Raadfar
Political analyst
Ever since its unholy inception in 1948, Israel has refused to be called theocratic, and that turned out to be for a good reason. There’s a lot of baggage that comes with being theocratic. The founders of Israel were well aware of that because if they hadn’t been, they wouldn’t have to jump through hoops to claim that they are not. In other words, claiming that it represents Jehovah (God) would have been a logical deduction that, at least in the beginning, wouldn’t have needed further explanation.
Instead, Israel was repeatedly claimed to be only a “Jewish state,” or a “state for Jews.” To be fair, Zionists have time and again proved that they don’t want their hands to be tied down by the Hebrew Bible and Jewish teachings. It seems that, at the beginning, there really was no motive for the creation of Israel and occupation of Palestine other than designating a land where Jews from around the world could gather and, for one thing, be “safe” from persecution, and for another, rule themselves. Certainly, we know now that the goal wasn’t to be able to enact the orders of Jehovah on Earth.
The fact that Zionists, who proposed and spearheaded Israel’s creation, chose the land of Palestine to occupy was an afterthought. Essentially, Zionists first identified the two aforementioned needs, then addressed those needs by proposing to grab a land where they can rule, and finally, looked to their holy book to find a place. Knowing that they would have more of an uphill battle if they were to choose just any old place, they chose the “Holy Land,” which was called “Palestine” even under the British Mandate at the time.
This choice of land was entirely justified for some Jews, while for others, not even the Holy Land could be where the Jews were destined for. You see, in the Hebrew Bible and the Holy Qur’an, it is rather explicitly said that the very early Jews broke too many of God’s instructions, and, as a result, He destined them to wander the world as perpetual exiles, never being allowed to settle somewhere for too long.
These times of national displacement are known in Hebrew as “galut” (exile). The four primary periods of exile are known as “arba galuyot” (the four exiles). Jews, who hailed from Egypt, found themselves in Babylon, Persia/Media, Greece, and finally, Rome. The fourth exile period is said to be ongoing since the Mashiakh (Messiah) has not arrived, many Jews live outside of Israel, and the Temple has not been rebuilt. Those living in Israel are considered to be a small fraction of the total People who will be reunited as a nation by the Messiah, who is from the Davidic line and will be the future king of Israel.
But is it up to the Jewish “Messiah” to unite the Jewish people in Israel, or should the Jews take matters into their own hands and “prepare” Israel for their Messiah? Zionism has been the biggest proponent of the second idea and has acted most strongly to make it happen, but they are criticized harshly for this specific interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. This is where Zionists deviate strongly from Jews of other sects, including Orthodox Jews.
Orthodox Rabbi Elhanan Beck described Zionism not only as non-religious but also a “rebellion against God,” as it sought to create a land for the Jewish people despite Jews’ belief that they are “in exile” by God. To be sure, choosing a land to settle goes against the definition of the word “exile.” If the land of Palestine was chosen as a “temporary home,” the definition could have been stretched enough to imply that Israelis will move to wherever their Messiah will reunite them, but Zionists have not stopped at just choosing a land. They have allied themselves with the most powerful states in the world to ensure their survival against all odds and despite everything they do. This doesn’t seem to be a home they are willing to leave behind to gather under the banner of the future king of Israel. One may even wonder how many Zionists will deny their Messiah once he perchance claims that Israel was always going to be founded elsewhere. Rabbi Beck noted as well that “Zionism is basically built upon mistrusting God.”
Almost all religions vow that you can’t go far by disobeying the orders of their respective god(s). Seeing that Zionism was from the onset in “total opposition” with the Jewish faith, Orthodox Jews were against the foundation of Israel and believe that it “will come to an end sooner or later”.
This eventual decline seems to have started a long time ago since the main aforementioned goal of Zionists seem to have always been challenged. Israelis have unsurprisingly never been safe in the land they occupied against the order of the God.
“Israel is the most dangerous place for Jewish people,” underlined the Rabbi. “I’ve lived in England for 36 years. I don’t know what an English soldier looks like. I never saw them. I don’t know the uniform, what it looks like … This means a safe country.”
Beck said that Jewish people live in peace in Muslim countries as well, contrary to “completely false” claims Zionists have made to justify the occupation of Palestine. “We were persecuted in many places in the world, and the Muslims saved us. They gave us a golden place to live, there,” he added.
“Seventy five years of killing. Still, Jews live in the Muslim world peacefully. Take the examples in Morocco, in Tunisia, in Algeria, in Iran, in Türkiye, in Yemen,” noted Beck, a leading Rabbi of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta movement.
Granted, Israel is not a theocratic country as not only its founders had no interest in representing Jehovah; such a commitment would have made it harder for Zionists to achieve their unholy plans. However, it is hard to imagine what their subjects, the Jewish people of Israel, will get out of this deal. If moving to Israel was for religious reasons, Jewish scholars think that founding Israel was an act of rebellion against God. If moving to Israel was to be safe, they would have been much safer anywhere else in the world. What is more, they are committing genocide in Gaza as we speak. Was this what Israeli Jews signed up for?