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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, AUGUST 10, 1984
PAGE 9
Not so very long ago the ideal picture of the Tora-observing and
believing Jew was of one who had great room in his heart for the
pursuit of peace. He took seriously the exhortation of the rab
bis to be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing
peace. Natural gentleness and piety would condition him to show
tolerance and love of his fellowman.
Today that picture has drastically changed. Today the Orthodox
Jew is frequently represented by a young man with full beard...
who totes a gun over his shoulder as he walks along the streets of
the West Bank. Certainly, this new image of modern Orthodoxy can
be favourably interpreted. It is possible to applaud it with joy
and declare, "Here is the new Jew, brave and unafraid in his de
termination to defend Jewish life and property wherever the Jew
chooses to settle--even in areas of the West Bank heavily popu
lated with Arabs."
On the other hand, the new picture may represent a screaming and
extreme militancy that proclaims, "The entire Land is mine, and
God help anyone who tries to put the slightest obstacle in my way
of keeping it." This interpretation, I believe, is closer to the
full facts and therefore raises critical questions about the£!!::
avoidable permanency of . � and about the place of religion in
Israel. It is no coincidence that the'"Teader of the Kach move
ment, who openly advocates clearing the country of Arabs, is an
ordained rabbi••..
The uncovering of an alleged Jewish underground, thought to have
carried out some abominable acts, including the attacks on Arab
mayors, killing of students at an Islamic college, and planting
of bombs under Arab buses, has rightly outraged most Israelis.
But with a few notable exceptions, the comments of religious
leaders have been ominously platitudinous and even ambiguous,
where they have been made at all•...
Is there any way we can begin to understand this freak union of
Tora and terror?••• First of all, there is the motivation of the
biblical record in which God's promise was made to the Children
of Israel that they would inherit the Land.... Many religious
Jews••.are passionately wedded to the belief that after the vic
tories of 1967, they would be sinning against God if they re
jected His promise and did not take all the land that they had un
der their control.
They believe that the great religious destiny of modern Jewry is
to regain all of biblical Eretz Israel. For� not insignificant
number among them the Moslem mosques on the Tem � le Mount are not
to be tolerated as� permanent feature of--rsrael s national life,
and there
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increasing talk of the possibility of the Third�
.E.!!•
The first motive is thus fundamentalistically religious and
pseudo-messianic...•
Secondly, there is the new political thought that developed in
the post-Holocaust age. The slogan "Never Again!" has taken root
in the minds and hearts of many people••.• One does not have to be
Orthodox to be a proponent of Jewish survival, and many secular-