The good news: "Zionism has already won!"

Hebrew article Loosely Translated into English

by Menachem Rahat

 1. "Zionism will not win." These words, in perfect Hebrew, was written by the Hamas beasts on the podium on which the official ceremony for the return of four Israeli abductees to the Red Cross was taking place, on their way home,.

 Hamas monsters sought to express the overarching goal of Hamas ideology – to wipe off the face of the earth the State of Israel, the product of Zionism, and to turn all of its territory into the State of Palestine (HILAT). There is no higher goal in Hamas' eyes than this.

And shockingly, this exact slogan, but with precise precision, .......stands – "lehavdil" between our own enemies and our stray brothers, between the impure and the pure – in its essence – of the ultra-Orthodox evasion. 

"Zionism will not win" is the engine that drives the ultra-Orthodox opposition to a series of disgusting behaviors:

 The lack of recognition of the miracle of miracles (which some compare to the miracle of the exodus from Egypt!) of the very establishment of the state, and the despicable refusal to take part in the festival:

 No praise and thanksgiving on the day of its founding; not standing still on Memorial Day (with the imaginary false claim that it is a non-Jewish custom – and it is not!); not to fly its flag 

 And there are even the "stringent" who scornfully trample on the flag and set it on fire, in order to express their disgust with the Zionist idea. 

Many still make sure to recite the Tachanun prayer on the day of the festival (and the zealots even fast when Independence Day falls on the days of the second day after Pesach). No recognition. Not even symbolic. Not even gratitude.

2. It is true that a significant portion of the ultra-Orthodox – let's say broadly, half of them – accept the existence of the state. But what about the other half?

Even in the synagogue of Rabbi Kanievsky zt"l, who in the eyes of most of the ultra-Orthodox public was the greatest and leader of the generation, and it is doubtful whether he can be compared to the Satmar zealots, still...there is no celebration on Independence Day. 

There is a Bnei Brakit legend that relates that if it happened that on Independence Day a bris was celebrated in his synagogue – an event on which by virtue of Halacha it is forbidden to recite Tachanun – this legend ruled that  the Halacha is torn on Independence Day and the tachnun prayer is recited, "in order to remove from the hearts of the doubters that Independence Day is celebrated here, G-d forbid."

And so why? – precisely because of the slogan that Hamas has adopted today, but the key to it has been held for about a century by the ultra-Orthodox – "lehavdil, tehavdil, lehavdil," of course.

3. In order to reach the meaning of the abysmal hatred of the Zionist idea of the ingathering of the exiles of Israel , we must go back to the end of the 19th century, the early years of the Zionist movement founded by the visionary of the state B.Z. Herzl (whom the "Yeted Ne'eman" mockingly call "הוזה המדינה," of course, for the reasons that "Zionism will not win").

When Zionism brought about a great revolution when it declared that the Jews also deserved a homeland and a homeland in their land, the Jewish people was divided into two, not necessarily equal:

 Zionists (who were contemptuously called Tzyoinim) and those hostile to Zionism: ultra-Orthodox, Bundists, Communists, Socialists, and more. Strange bedfellows, indeed!

Each circle had its own reasons, but today we will focus on the ultra-Orthodox "hashkofa."

The ultra-Orthodox, it turns out, were misled by some of the leaders of Zionism, that its goal was to replace Torah and mitzvot with a nationalism devoid of Yiddishkeit. 

Although one of its leaders did say that "Zionism has nothing to do with religion," he was from a minuscule minority!

Herzl himself, although he was an assimilated Jew because of his upbringing in an assimilated home, developed deep feelings toward Judaism, such as his statement in his speech at the First Zionist Congress in Basel (1897):

 "Zionism is our return to Judaism even before our return to the land of the Jews." 

And before that, he wrote in The State of the Jews (1896):

 "Only our ancient faith was to make us one people." 

In a speech in Vienna (1896), he emphasized the national unifying power of Judaism: 

"A generation that grows up distant from Judaism is deprived of this unity, and is incapable of considering our past, just as it is incapable of looking forward to the future." 

They the ultra-orthodox refused to acknowledge that the ideological basis of the Zionist project was based on Jewish foundations.

No one has revealed to the ultra-Orthodox activists, who are hostile to Zionism, that the opposite of their understanding is true. 

They preferred to invest in turning Zionism into a demon – perhaps out of fear that the victory of Zionism would mean the exodus of their flocks, their captive community, from their grip in the accursed Galut – to the new-old homeland, where they would be independent of them...

4. The Jewish Orthodoxy of Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was also divided into two parts: 

Shoimrei Torah Umitzvot Jews who rejoiced and welcomed the Zionist idea and saw it as the beginning of redemption, the Hischalteh DeGeulah and the fulfillment of the Creator's promises through His prophetic servants; 

And against them stood  ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic and Lithuanian circles, who disapproved at best, or outright condemned at worst, and turned Zionism into a symbol of heresy, the creation of Satan, as it were. 

Among them were the Satmar courts, Munkács (which was more extreme than Satmar and was lost in the Holocaust), as well as moderate courts such as Lubavitch-Chabad, Gur, Belz and many others. 

The enemies of Zionism in the Orthodox public are the first to wave the slogan "Zionism will not win" (and woe to us that Hamas, the greatest hater of Israel since the accursed Nazis, adopted it!).

In this framework, we will not be able to present the depth of the hostility to the redemptive Zionism, and we will make do with two short ones. 

The Rebbe of Satmar, for example, argued that even if all the ministers of Israel were wearing shtreimels and wearing bekeshis, the establishment of the state would still be an act of raising one's hand to Heaven. 

The Rebbe Rashab of Chabad claimed that "if, God forbid, they succeed in holding on to the land as they imagine, they will defile and defile them with their tricks and evil deeds, thereby prolonging the length of the exile," and this claim was also made by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Rashab even argues that since only God has brought us into exile, only God Himself is permitted to bring us back to the land! "We are not permitted to leave the exile by force."

5. But the good news is that Zionism has already won. 

To recognize this, one only needs to open the window and look outwards: 

the state, despite all the difficulties, is prospering, flourishing, maintaining a biblical ingathering of 8 million Jews; A record number that even in the days of the huge kingdom of Solomon was not here.

 And despite of their cry that  "we will die and not enlist," more and more ultra-Orthodox are realizing, little by little, that there is no choice but to go under the stretcher. The Chabadniks, for example, have long served in the IDF, as have many others.

Even statistics confirm that Zionism has already won:

An in-depth study by the Israel Democracy Institute, conducted by Tamar Herman and others, determined as early as 2012 that 62% of the ultra-Orthodox already define themselves as "very Zionist" or "quite Zionist."

The dispute is over: Zionism, gentlemen, has won!