Liars or Impostors
There was a time when religious opposition to modern Zionism was principled, coherent, and came from a place of genuine love for the Jewish people. The great Torah authorities of Eastern Europe, who viewed the movement with suspicion, were not wrong to notice that early Zionism was frequently secular, aggressively modernist, and in many of its currents, openly contemptuous of religious tradition. Some of its most prominent architects were socialists and atheists who saw Judaism as a civilisation to be shed rather than a covenant to be honoured.
The rabbis who opposed them did so from within, through argument, through scholarship, through legitimate theological disagreement. They shared synagogues, cemeteries, and a common fate with the Jews they disputed. When the catastrophe came, they perished together. Their opposition was an internal Jewish conversation, conducted in love, however fierce. It deserves to be remembered with dignity.
What we are witnessing today is something categorically different. It has nothing to do with that tradition and everything to do with its desecration.
Let us be precise about what we are looking at.
Marginal figures in traditional Jewish dress have been plastered across the world’s screens as the authentic voice of Orthodox Judaism on Israel. They did not rise to prominence. They were manufactured into it by hostile governments, well-funded propaganda operations, and organisations with a long and documented record of hatred toward the Jewish state, and only just beneath the surface, the purest old-school antisemitism. The amplification is not organic. It is a production, and it has backers.
And the men used for this charade must be spineless, devoid of soul or conscience.
These are men whose entire religious life, every prayer, every fast, every ritual, is oriented toward a single destination: the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in Greater Israel, the ingathering of the exiles, the rebuilding of the Temple on Mount Moriah, precisely where the Dome of the Rock now stands. Not eventually. Not conceptually. Imminently, urgently, before nightfall if God wills it. That is not an interpretation. That is doctrine. That is what they would be asking for every single day.
Which means one of two things is true.
Either they do not believe what they pray, in which case they are impostors, wearing the garments of a faith they have privately discarded while trading on its aesthetic for money, attention, and the grotesque privilege of being applauded by people who despise them.
Or they do believe it, in which case we are asked to imagine a rather extraordinary conversation.
Scene: somewhere between a Tehran conference room and a London street protest. A man in a black coat, rabbit hat, and Palestinian shawl draped with remarkable conviction over his shoulders squints through thick glasses at his operator.
The Operator: So, same time next week? The big rally. Jews, Israel, you know the drill. We will of course, cover all expenses. First class, as always.
The Jew-Asset: Absolutely. I will bring the righteous indignation, you bring the megaphone. I have a new sign. Very powerful. I made it myself. It says, “Zionists are not Jews.” I am very proud of it.
The Operator: Magnificent. And you’ll say a few words about the Zionist entity? We are also prepared to offer the usual appearance fee. Plus expenses.
The Jew-Asset: Say a few words? I will deliver a sermon. Those filthy secular Zionists, those godless infidels, those brazen violators of the three oaths, (catches breath), forgive me, I get carried away. The point is, they disgust me. Personally. Deeply. (pauses) The fee, it is the same as last time?
The Operator: We added a bonus. The Tehran appearance went very well. Very well indeed.
The Jew-Asset: It did. I thought the bit where I embraced the President was particularly powerful.
The Operator: It was shared four million times.
The Jew-Asset: I know. I have it framed. (adjusts shawl proudly) We feel the same way about Zionists, your President and I. It is a beautiful thing when people find common ground.
The Operator: You are, as always, our most compelling speaker. The cameras love you.
The Jew-Asset: They do. I have a very expressive face. (tightens glasses) One small thing, however. A scheduling matter.
The Operator: Oh?
The Jew-Asset: If the Messiah arrives before Thursday, I’m afraid I’ll have to cancel.
The Operator: …I beg your pardon?
The Jew-Asset: Cancel. Everything. The rally, the panel, the interfaith dinner, the documentary your friends are making about me, the strongly worded letter to the UN, the book deal your people arranged. All of it, I’m afraid.
The Operator: But, why? We are prepared to increase the retainer. Significantly.
The Jew-Asset: It is not a question of money on this particular matter, I’m afraid. Because we will all be moving back. Every last one of us. Myself included. Those filthy secular Zionists I was just denouncing, their grandchildren will be my neighbours. From the River of Egypt to the Euphrates, from the Mediterranean coast to the eastern banks of Gilead. The full twelve provinces. I have been praying for this imminently, urgently, three times daily, since I was six years old.
The Operator: …Moving back where, exactly?
The Jew-Asset: (gestures broadly) There. All of it. The exiles, ingathered from every corner of the earth. A Jewish monarchy, established in the eternal city of David. The godless Zionist state replaced by a kingdom of God. And the Temple rebuilt, this may be slightly awkward , on the very ground your colleagues are currently dying to defend.
The Operator: (long pause) The Dome of the Rock?
The Jew-Asset: We try not to dwell on the logistics at this stage. G~d will provide. He always does. He is very reliable on these matters.
The Operator: And our movement? Our organisations? Our allies? The NGOs we fund? The academic chairs we endow?
The Jew-Asset: Dissolved, I’m afraid. Every last one. You will be expected to recognise the sovereignty of the Almighty over the entire land, lay down your flags, and march. Though not, I should clarify, in the direction you are currently marching.
The Operator: (visibly shaken) This seems like something you could have mentioned before our third joint press conference. Or before we wired the money.
The Jew-Asset: (waves hand dismissively) You never asked. You needed a Jew. I needed a pay cheque. We have both been extremely satisfied with the arrangement. The hotel in Vienna last month was particularly appreciated. Now, shall I bring my own shawl, or will one be provided? Only I find the ones you supply are rather itchy.
The Operator: (slowly rising panic) Wait. Let me understand this correctly. You are telling me that the faith you represent, the faith I have been platforming, funding, flying first class, and photographing for years, ultimately ends with Jewish sovereignty over this entire region, a Temple on Mount Moriah, and me personally marching in recognition of the G~d of Israel?
The Jew-Asset: (cheerfully) In a nutshell, yes. Imminently. Urgently. G~d willing, before the weekend. I would pack light if I were you.
The Operator: (stands, loosens collar) Then I’m afraid we can no longer …
The Jew-Asset: (already reaching for his black coat) Oh, do not worry. I completely understand. It has been a pleasure. Truly. And very financially rewarding.
The Operator: (pauses, clears throat) Actually, wait. Come back. Sit down.
The Jew-Asset: (turns)
The Operator: (quietly, with some difficulty) We would like to keep you on.
The Jew-Asset: Oh? (slowly hangs coat back up)
The Operator: (shifting uncomfortably) It turns out, and this is not something we publicise, given the resources we have committed, that finding Orthodox Jews willing to speak publicly against Israel is rather more difficult than we had anticipated. We have been looking. Extensively. Globally. We have spent, frankly, embarrassing amounts of money on this particular problem.
The Jew-Asset: And?
The Operator: There are perhaps two dozen of you. In the entire world. We have already got all of them. Every single one. You are, collectively, on every payroll we operate simultaneously.
The Jew-Asset: (straightens up slightly)
The Operator: Despite the budgets. Despite the first-class flights, the conference fees, the honours, the overwhelming, crushing, humiliating majority of Orthodox Jews across the entire world want absolutely nothing to do with us. They have made that extraordinarily clear. Repeatedly. And rather loudly.
The Jew-Asset: (nodding slowly, a faint smile)
The Operator: So. The Messiah situation. If we pay extra, will you ask him to wait?
The Jew-Asset: (long pause, removes glasses, polishes them thoughtfully)
The Jew-Asset: I will see what I can do.
The Operator nods. The Jew-Asset sits back down, smooths his shawl, and picks up his sign.
Outside, a protest is already forming. The cameras are ready. They are always ready.
No one is having that conversation. Because no one needs to. The fraud is mutually understood and mutually convenient.
They represent no one. They speak for nothing. They are a product, cheap, willing, and extraordinarily useful to those who have always known that the most effective weapon against Jews is another Jew, however counterfeit. They are the Jew-card pulled from the deck, the moment the hatred becomes impossible to deny, a thin, borrowed legitimacy draped over something very old and very ugly.
Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe, perhaps the most formidable theological opponent of political Zionism in the twentieth century, wept when he heard of Jewish casualties in Israel’s wars. He disagreed, profoundly and publicly, with the Zionist project. He never marched beside its enemies. He never lent his voice to those who sought Jewish blood. His opposition was an argument within a family. He remained, without question, a member of that family.
He loved the Jews he argued with. Fiercely, unconditionally, as only a man of genuine faith can love those he believes are making a catastrophic mistake.
The men you see on those platforms love no one but themselves. They are not dissidents, martyrs, or lonely prophets bearing difficult truths. They are vendors, peddling their Judaism to those who need a handful of Jews to hide the cannon pointed at us by people who would finish what Hitler started if given the chance.
Do not confuse them with the many genuinely pious Jews who oppose political Zionism and pray daily for the true return to Zion. Those Jews argue from love. Love for our people, love for our God, love for every letter of every covenant we were born into.
They would give their last breath before seeing a fellow Jew humiliated, hunted, or harmed by anyone, for any reason, under any flag.
