Livni’s oxymoron

I found this Thursday news piece confusing and yes, irritating as Hell. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking at an event hosted by the Bar Ilan University Law Department said, “This is the choice we have: if we want to protect the Jewish, democratic state – or the entire land of Israel, which will not be Jewish, and will not be democratic.”

The Arutz Sheva piece summarizes the thrust of Livni’s remarks as follows: “The only way to keep Israel both Jewish and democratic is through negotiations for the creation of an Arab state in Judea and Samaria, she said.”

Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni during a meeting at the Knesset on January 8, 2014 (photo credit: Flash90)

This upsets me, this nonsensical idea that the only way to keep Israel Jewish is by giving up Judea and Samaria. The voicing of such a thought in public proves to me that the left makes stuff up and serves it up to the public whole without any accompanying rationale whatsoever.

What could possibly be “Jewish” about giving away to a foreign intruder, something that belongs to every Jew that was, is, and will be? First of all, if the land belongs to my descendants, giving it away is either stealing it from said descendants or an out and out falsehood, since such an agreement can’t be honored according to God’s law. The land doesn’t belong only to the current generation; ergo it isn’t ours to give away.

Besides, what could possibly be more Jewish than settling the land of Israel? Kibush HaAretz (settling the land) is one of the 613 commandments given by God to the Jews.

God gave Israel to the Jews. Is it my right then, or Livni’s right, to give the land to someone else? Does she or John Kerry believe themselves to be mightier or more Jewish, perhaps, than God?

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to the press in Tel Aviv at the end of his trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories, December 13, 2013. (photo credit: Flash90/Matty Stern)

Judea and Jew come from the same root word. This is the historic heartland of the Jews—the mountain ridge that affords protection to the holy city of Jerusalem, which also appears to be on the table, as if it were a marketable commodity to be traded away at will.

It is not.

But let’s back up. Perhaps you will argue that she, Livni, said, “Jewish and democratic,” as opposed to simply, “Jewish.” Perhaps you will say this is something different than what I suggest in talking only about the future Jewish character of the state.

Not.

A Greek Idea

Democracy is a Greek, rather than a Jewish idea. Something cannot be both Jewish and democratic. That would be an oxymoron.

Judaism may have some (predated) tenets in common with democracy which may serve to confuse the public into thinking Judaism is democratic in nature. But a state cannot be both Jewish and democratic since one is at odds with the other.

Livni appears to make the same mistake as many other secular Jews—those ignorant of Torah precepts. She confuses liberal democratic values with Jewish values. She thinks “tikun olam” (repairing the world) is about dishing out soup at a soup kitchen.

It is not.

Tikun Olam

Nor is it about feeling sorry for foreign invaders who have their own, oil-rich brethren to help them, or about giving said foreign invaders the land that God gave you, your ancestors, and descendants. Tikun Olam is about adhering to Torah precepts. One of those precepts is settling the land. Kibush HaAretz.

Kibush HaAretz, settling the land, is a Jewish idea. Ceding land for peace is NOT. Building homes for Jews in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, the Negev, and the Golan is Jewish. It’s what God tells the Jews to do in His holy Torah.

And giving in to Secretary of State Kerry on behalf of the American president on this issue is also not Jewish. To be Jewish is to refuse these demands outright: to be proud to refuse to participate in the abrogation of a Torah tenet, a Jewish principle.

God’s Law

Tikun Olam, then, and remaining a Jewish, if not a democratic state, is all about telling Livni and President Obama to stuff it in favor of favoring God’s law and not the law of man.

It’s why I live where I live for the past three decades. Because it’s a mitzvah to live in Judea. It’s a mitzvah to settle the land. And I listen to God before I listen to human beings shooting their mouths off and forcing us into land deals.

They can tell me to leave. But when they do so, they will be neither Jewish nor democratic. If they don’t hearken to the voices of those like me—those who are faithful to God’s holy Torah— they are making up the law as they go along so that it has nothing to do with Judaism. Without taking our voices—vox populi—into consideration, their machinations also have nothing to do with democracy.