Well, here's a quick run-down of recent events in Israeli politics in brief (because I know most people will have been following them very intently anyway):
Sharon decides to leave Likud due to internal pressure, infighting and opposition to his increasingly Labour-like stance, and decides to form his own party "National Responsibility" (that name should get an award for "most ironic name ever given to to a political party"... and with some of the other Knesset parties such as the "National" Religious Party and "United" "Torah" "Judaism [yes, every word there is ironic], such an award would be no small feat!)
Labour, led by their new ultra-leftist leader - extreme socialist Amir Peretz - have decided to leave the government.
The supreme loser of Israeli politics - the one and only Shimon Peres - will most probably join his long-time freind and opportunistic ally Ariel Sharon in his new ideologically honest party... ideologically honest because unlike most other Knesset parties they do not pretend to have any kind of ideology.
And finally, we have confirmation of new elections in February-March.
So now: what does this mean to us as G-D-fearing Jews?
At the memorial service for our holy Rabbi and teacher Rabbi Meir Kahane z"tl h"yd this past Sunday, some interesting things came up that I think are neccessary to thrash out once and for all, namely: should the "Kahanist" public be voting? After all, this state and its Knesset have shown time and time again to be morally bankrupt and anti-Torah, so why have anything to do with it?
Personally, I think that this is a very strong arguement indeed, and my gut-reaction would be to support exactly that idea. However; after thinking about it, I feel that to take on such an attitude here and now would be a terrible mistake...
Instead I'm going to ask the opposite: why NOT vote?!
Now let me explain myself. During the Kahane memorial service, Baruch Marzel (a former head of Kach) was in attendance. Marzel is a determined and honest Torah Jew who is running for a seat in the Knesset under his new party the "Chayil" ("Valor") party, also know as the "Jewish National Front/National Jewish Front". Also in attendance were various other Kahane activists - among them another determined and honest Torah Jew, Baruch Ben Yoseph. Ben Yoseph came out very strongly against voting in the elections and was quoted by the Jerusalem post as saying: "I will not vote and am calling on people not to vote..." ( see article ) some fliers read: "The rabbi's [Kahane] real students understand that today's Knesset is a source of impurity that kosher Jews keep away from. It is clear that if the rabbi was alive today he wouldn't have run for the Knesset and would have forbidden us from doing so"
Baruch Marzel was quoted by the same article as saying: "The people's disenchantment is the exact reason why I need to run for the Knesset, if I don't run then these people will just not vote."
The issue at hand here is simple: pull away from the current hellenistic state, or try to change it by running for a seat in the Knesset, and perhaps taking it over from within. Both arguements are strong - but in my humble opinion, such an arguement is inherently flawed...
Why must it be one or the other?!
We must be honest with ourselves: beggars can't be choosers. HaShem is the King and every single other being in existence is in essence a beggar (those who do not realise this should read Or Hara'ayon for a start...). HaShem is the ultimate One Who directs history - but we are His servants and He gave us free-will - we CAN make a difference! G-D asks only one thing from us in this regard: hishtadlut - effort. If we make our own effort and use the tools He gives us in order to fulfil our Holy Task as His Chosen People, The Alm-ghty will do the rest for us.
But in essence we are mere mortals. As the great and wise King David taught us: our origins are dust, and to dust we shall eventually return. What are we doing here? Do we dare have the chutzpah to not utilise every possible avenue for the fulfillment of G-D's Word? Again, at the memorial service HaRav Yehuda Kroizer shlita of the "Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea" said: "Our goal is the establishment of a Jewish state with a Sanhedrin and Jewish institutions. We cannot give up!"
That is our goal. See it. Now we must go out and do what must be done to achieve that goal. Whether that is by protesting, showing up to prevent the police/IDF from uprooting yet another community of G-D-fearing Jews, running for Knesset, or anything else - all methods (that are within the realm of Halacha of course) must be utilised. For such tools are from G-D (as is everything we have), and in this case we need every last one of them.
And what is this hypocrisy? Rabbi Meir Kahane z"tl h"yd "ruled" that noone must ever run for Knesset? This is untrue! The Rav was thrown out of the Knesset and they banned him simply for what he stood for - and that is: the Torah. Therefore it follows that all those parties who did such a thing stand on the opposite side to Torah. They are our enemies and of course it is forbidden to vote for them! Be they Labour, Likud, Mafdal or whoever! But what follows is that were an individual who IS a Torah-true Jew and who IS G-D-fearing and who IS committed to the ideals of the Torah would be allowed to run, it would be a terrible misjudgement at best and a self-inflicted wound at worst not to use such a candidate as yet another avenue to fight against the current regime.
Of course, only a fool would say "our salvation will come from the Knesset", because at least for the foreseeable future that would be a laughable statement to make. But on the other hand, only a fool would say to not fight the hellenists in whatever way we can and with whatever weapon G-D puts in our hands.
And hey - why not bring the battle back to their own back-yard like in the days when the Rav would get up and not mince any words when telling those fat-cats, hellenists and arabs in the Knesset what he (and more importantly the Torah) thinks of such people!?
And anyway, compared to the other more painful battles, simply filling out a form and posting it in a ballot box is such a relatively easy way of sticking it to the government again!
But what of those who say "he doesn't stand a chance. We'll never get in!"? I say to them: who knows? But that's what they said about the Rav and that attitude may very well have been what got him banned in the end. For had those people who were predicted to vote Kach in to get 20 or so seats in the next elections (had they not been banned) voted in the first place, perhaps things now would be very different.
I'm not pretending that Baruch Marzel is Rabbi Meir Kahane - but noone else is either! It's time we realised that as Jews each and every one of us can do our part. This is not an endorsement of Baruch Marzel specifically: this is just a reminder that we have to fight this battle in every way we can because at the moment we do not have the luxury of choosing how and where we fight it all the time.
And even if, despite the votes, Baruch Marzel does not get in, at least we will have once again shouted loud and clear that we want the Torah - we want the Authentic Jewish Idea - instead of ducking our way out of it by simply not voting!
So let us humble ourselves before HaShem and come together. Enough with the infighting and enough with the indecisiveness! Yes the hellenists are rotten to the core and yes they are powerful but look at yet another opening HaShem has given us to exploit! They are now even more split than before! Check out the polls, see the statistics: this next Knesset could end up so split it will be near-impossible to govern! Shinui and Labour will never sit togethe (not whilst extreme-socialist Peretz is head of Labour, and staunch capitalist (and anti-Semite actually) Lapid is head of Shinui), and neither will Likud sit with Arik's new one-hit-wonder party (as it is sure to be). Likud most probably will not agree to sit with Labour so easily either.
Divide... and CONQUER! HaShem is doing the "dividing" for us, and we need to just open it up even more and irritate their wounds before they can heal by making it into their house of sin and giving it to them there on home turf for the first time since the 80s! Then we can do more from outside the Knesset... with a perfect public platform inside the Knesset!
Time is of the essence but we must still try! Either way we most certainly won't be losing out! We have to rally together and fight each and every single battle as one and with all our strength and with faith in the All-Powerful, Almighty G-D!
We must show them: Kahane Chai!!! In the end - B'Ezrat HaShem - we WILL succeed!
