Where are the
"Real Men"????
By, Moshe Burt
To write a review of Moshe Feiglin's
book "Where There Are No Men" is, to me, a crucially important mission
-- an act of love for Kol Klal Yisroel, for Eretz Yisroel and yes, for Medinat
Yisroel -- the sovereignty of our Nationhood on ALL of its levels.
When considering Feiglin's choice of the title, my memory took a ride
back through time to the United States to a couple of books written in the '80s
called "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche" and "Real Men Sleep
Alone."
It's
about the few, the brave, The Men(and yes, the Women too) -- Religious and
Secular, the Chareidi, Dati, and Chiloni who, despite their differences, came
together and put it "on the line" for G'd and for the Land against the
wide array of weapons available to the Regime of the time.
They articulated what many thousands more felt in their hearts and in the
pits of their stomachs. These Zo
Artzeinu Activists galvanized tens of thousands, lo hundreds of thousands of
Jews to demonstrate, in a non-violent way, their assertiveness, self-pride,
self-worth and dignity against the defeatists -- those devoid of principles who
held (and still hold) positions of leadership and political power and who have
lost touch with what a Jewish State means (the fulfillment of what Jews have
prayed 3 times a day for nearly 2,000 years).
The union of groups such as Zo Artzeinu, Women-In-Green and others
stood/stand rock-solid against powerful political forces -- the morally bankrupt
Socialist/Post-Zionists who rush headlong towards both Middle East
Regionalization, present leadership which is afraid to lead and those who seek
detachment of the people Israel from their Jewish roots, history and historical
proofs.
Don't expect even-handedness from me in
analysis of Feiglin's work or its time-frame in our history -- there's been too
much water over the dam. When the
sovereignty, well-being and very survival of Klal Yisroel and Eretz Yisroel is
at stake, and I see these as being synonymous, even-handedness is akin to
indifference and, worse, condemnation.
One might ask; Zo Artzeinu, Moshe
Feiglin, Shmuel Sackett -- "What is that? Who are they?"
These are responses that I get from "Comfortable Jews"
-- those who live thousands of miles away in the United States and those
who live 70 kilometers away in Tel Aviv. But
to Nationalist Ideologues, those Religious or Secular "Ultra-Right Wing
Subversives", these names are household words -- part of our lexicon along
with other names like Women-In-Green, Nadia Matar, Rabbi Moshe Levinger, Adir
Zik, Elyakim Ha'Etzni, Mort Klein, etc.
When one reads the dedication page, one
sees Moshe's inscription to his wife -- "What I have achieved and what you
have achieved -- all thanks to her" (quoted from Tractate Nedarim 50).
I find it fascinating that in modern history the adage still applies --
behind most good men, you will find an Aishet Chayil.
Moshe expresses early in the book that it was his wife Tzippy who
encouranged him to become active in the communal affairs of the Karnei Shomron
Community of Neve Aliza in the late 1980's.
It was Tzippy's desire to do
chessed that started Moshe on the path that led him to assert his Jewish pride
by driving his car through Arab villages and towns with an Israeli flag mounted
prominently on his car during the intifada of the time.
His lead encouraged others in Neve Aliza to emulate. I would be remiss if I did not note here that Moshe's logic
in displaying the Israeli flag on his and other cars worked to perfection and
that no one was ever harmed in anyway by Arabs for flying the flag from their
cars.
This path ultimately led to an
operation known as "Settlement doubling" or the development of
successive settlement outposts and to the famous day when Zo Artzeinu blocked
every vital intersection in Israel leading to a police-riot. Two years later, Moshe was tried for Sedition together with
Zo Artzeinu co-director Shmuel Sackett. This
path led to the hilarious story of the day that sheep were let loose on the
streets of Jerusalem and to the day when tens of thousands of people from all
over Israel came together in Jerusalem to show the way for Prime Minister Rabin
to "go to the President" and resign.
And this path led Moshe to the Kidron
Valley one year ago to rummage through the dirt for artifacts arising from the
Arab desecration of OUR Holiest place, the Temple Mount. The Arabs dug out the area referred to as "Solomon's
stables" as the previous Government of Ehud Barak turned the blind-eye and
deaf-ear of complicity to the proceedings.
.
"Where There Are No Men"
explains, through numerous witnesses and from the vantage point of testimony
from the Feiglin/Sackett Sedition Trial, about how each action was meticulously
thought out. Central to the planned
strategy was the use of principle,
doctrine and precedent learned from observation of American Civil Non-Violent
Demonstrations (such as tactics employed by Martin Luther King Jr. & the
U.S. Civil Rights Movement and by the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry).
Zo Artzeinu's Leadership anticipated the reactions of the Israeli in the
Street, the Arabs (as with the autos adorned with Israeli flags), the government
of the period and the police.
The plans for Zo Artzeinu Operations
took shape against a background of the personalities and events which shaped the
time in history. There were
personalities who tried to undermine and/or slow the operations down and, there
were the police and Government, who tried to subvert and shut them down totally.
Feiglin goes
into great detail in laying out the
total historical picture.
I am writing this review to publicize
the book, not for any reward, but because what happened at that time and what
Moshe writes must be studied, relearned and remembered. I only made Aliya in March, 1999, so I was not around to see,
day-by-day, the happenings of the period although I've read extensively about
it. "Where There Are No
Men" is THE definitive book on the period.
"Where There Are No Men" is a
MUST READ for all Jews -- for those here in Israel who need a refresher course
on recent history in order to confront the machinations of our current and
recent governments and for the Jews in Chutz L'Aretz to fully understand the
issues and to understand why it is essential that they join in and take an
active role in the crucial battle about to be joined for the survival and
well-being of Klal Yisroel.
