Israel is the Only Option

"And if the woman will not desire to follow you, and you will be absolved of my oath - just do not return my son to there." (From this week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah, Genesis 24:8)

Abraham is already old and has lived out most of his days. Yitzchak is the only link in the chain that will forge ahead with his world-wide faith revolution. Under the circumstances, it would seem that for a good wife from a distinguished family - it would be worthwhile to leave Israel for a few years.

But Abraham says an emphatic "no". "Just do not return my son to there."

Abraham understands something that we have forgotten. A sizeable portion of Israel's citizens hold foreign citizenship in addition to their Israeli ID cards. Former Speaker of the Knesset and Chairman of the Jewish Agency Avrum Burg proudly waves his French citizenship for all to see, explaining why he publicly did what other Israeli leaders have done quietly: For them, the Land of Israel is an option - not a final destination. If things are not working out here as planned, thank you very much and goodbye. Look for us in Europe or the US.

But the Land of Israel is not merely a privilege. It is not optional. There is simply no other place for a Jew. The Exile is finished and we are rapidly progressing to a time when the majority of Jews will live in Israel.

Lamentably, many Jews still retain their exile mentality. The wandering Jew is alive and well in the worldview of Israel's leaders and the stratum of Israeli society that believes that it can arrange itself a more comfortable option, if need be.

If Israel's leaders would assert that for the Jews, Israel is the only option, nobody in the UN would dare question the necessity of a Jewish State in the world and the Iranian tyrant would not dare threaten our existence. He would understand that when a country with nuclear capabilities faces an existential threat and has its back to the wall, it will make use of its weapons. But "existential threat" is not in the lexicon of Israel's leadership and part of its citizenry. Worse comes to worse, they can always hop the first plane to Europe, Canada or the USA.

The world clearly senses that we have not internalized the fact that the Land of Israel is our final destination; the last, blessed stop on our 2000 year journey. But the moment when every Jew will have to make the fateful choice is rapidly approaching.

This is our Land!: By Moshe Feiglin

The destruction of Jewish homes in the Land of Israel continues, as if there is no way to prevent the State of Israel from self-destructing; no way to prevent it from sending the riot police to carry out the goals of Peace Now.

But to judge by the amount of people who showed up at last week's prayer gathering at Giv'at Asaf, another settlement slated for demolition, it looks like the faith- based public has despaired of its ability to stop the destruction. The common excuse is that people are tired of demonstrations or that they have lost faith in their effectiveness, but that is not correct. The public is willing to rally around ideals and vision. It is simply tired of a rearguard war.

The process of collapse and destruction that we have witnessed over the years is not the trademark of any particular government. Actually, every government that has been in power in Israel in the last generation, from both Right and Left, has been dragged in one way or another into the same modus operandi. The disintegration stems from the fact that Israelis today feel morally inferior to the Arabs.

The era in which the legitimacy for our presence in this Land could be drawn from an ideology that denies the existence of the Creator is finished. The elites that fashion the Israeli mindset no longer believe that this is our Land. They feel like uninvited guests here; they worship the "deep bond" between the Arab and the Land and are painfully careful not to "desecrate" it. Whether an Arab home is legal or illegal, its destruction is unthinkable. Even the Arab olive harvest has become a sanctified ritual and guarding it the supreme mission of the IDF. It makes no difference that the olive trees are in the settlement of Itamar, right under the home of the Fogel orphans. It also makes no difference that the harvesters are part of the murderers' family, whose smiles mock the Jewish residents of the town still reeling from the horrific massacre.

All of Israel's leaders of the past generation represent the mentality that prefers to buy temporary legitimacy in Tel Aviv by dividing the Land of Israel. That is why the terrorists are jailed in such comfortable conditions. After all, they are actually freedom fighters, recognized by the Israeli mindset as the just side in the struggle over the Land. That is why it is simply a matter of time until they are released.

So now what do we do?

Lately, a lot of people have been invoking the memory of 'Zo Artzeinu,' the successful protest movement from the Oslo era that eventually evolved into Manhigut Yehudit.

What was Zo Artzeinu's secret? How is it that under the direction of a small and largely unknown movement, tens of thousands of Israelis went out to protest in the streets and were willing to be arrested?

A lot of factors came together to bring the people out in the streets. There was leadership, independence of the 'establishment' and more. But the real, underlying reason that everybody remembers Zo Artzeinu is very simple: Its name means "This is our Land."

Sixteen years ago, the Israeli mindset was already sick with the moral inferiority flu. The audacity to declare that "This is our Land" was engraved on its intimidated consciousness and has remained there ever since.

The Land of Israel is ours. Not because a particular settlement was built on public land and not private land. Simply because G-d gave it to us. Whoever tries to live side-by-side with the Israeli mindset that sees this country as Arab land will always find himself on the wrong side of the law. But if our actions are guided by the conviction that this is our Land, we will always be right.

More Dangerous than a Nuclear Bomb: By Moshe Feiglin

Is Israel preparing to attack Iran? According to media reports, Netanyahu is trying to convince his ministers to go on the offensive. If that is true, Netanyahu will go down in history as the prime minister who saved the State of Israel from destruction – not necessarily nuclear.

There is no doubt that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities will bring swift retaliation on Israel, the results of which are unforeseeable. On the surface, as long as there is a chance to neutralize Iran's nuclear capabilities via other methods; diplomatic, electronic, economic and the like, it is not logical to prefer the military option. Presumably, the ministers who oppose the attack are considering the question through this very keyhole: Can we stop Iran in some other way or is the military option the only route available?

Clearly, the non-military options are like a finger in the dike. As long as the Moslem motivation continues to rise on the other side of the wall, it is just a matter of time until the dike breaks. Further, as time goes by, the mission becomes more difficult and complex. The reactor in Bushehr is already "hot." Until about two years ago, it could have been destroyed without much environmental damage. That is no longer the case.

The difference between now and two years ago is that Netanyahu's public approval rating is better now than it was then. And when it comes to a prime minister from the Right, a political window of opportunity is just as necessary as an operational window of opportunity. If the social protest movement had managed to curtail Netanyahu's popularity, there may not have been any government deliberations about attacking Iran. If we are in a political and operational window of opportunity right now, we must give the Prime Minister all the support that he needs on this existential issue.

Considering the attack strictly through the keyhole of cost and gain does not portray a true picture of the dismal reality. Nuclear weapons are not the greatest danger to the existence of the State of Israel. One third of our Nation was destroyed in Europe without them. The Germans' main weapon was the De-legitimization of our right to exist. Strategically, De-legitimization is much more dangerous than any nuclear weapon, for its practical application is only a matter of time – with or without nuclear capabilities.

When the Iranian leader declared his intent to destroy us, the world stood collectively held its breath in anticipation of Israel's retaliation. When that did not happen, the historical question mark that hangs over the right of the Jews to breathe the air on this planet reappeared.

Whether the Jews have a right to a state or whether they have a right to exist at all was not asked in important Western universities until the world realized that we are willing to live with Iran's intention to destroy us. The Iranian Amalek and the German Amalek work the same way as the Biblical Amalek. They declare an existential war against us, are willing to pay a price and negate our legitimacy in the eyes of the nations. The Holocaust did not begin with the outbreak of war but rather, in Hitler's hate-filled speeches and in the Der Sturmer propaganda.

The ministers who oppose an attack do not understand that the results of the attack are not what matters. Israel must attack Iran in order to restore the legitimacy for its very existence. Israel must restore the equation that says that whoever plans to destroy us automatically becomes a legitimate target for destruction- personally. Bushehr is not the only target, but every plane, car and building in which the heads of Iran's regime are to be found.