Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision last week to postpone the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and four remote settlements in the West Bank highlighted just how high the stakes are for Israel. But it also showed the disconnect between many who live in the settlements and Israel's political and military establishment. Believe it or not, the official word from Israel's defense establishment is that the army and the politicians were unaware of the religious significance of their timing when they made the initial announcement to begin withdrawing on July 20. The planners were so focused on completing the process before the beginning of the school year, so that kids could get adjusted to new surroundings and to accommodating military needs, that they neglected to account for a holiday (and the three-week mourning period that precedes it). The holiday is obscure to many -- if not most -- Israelis and, presumably, to most American Jews. But it holds tremendous significance for the ultra-religious, especially those most wedded to the settlement engagement. For these Jews, the occupied land is holy land, and they live there by biblical tractate -- not political mandate.
July 29 to August 14 marks “Bein Hametzarim” (known as the three weeks), which recall the destruction of the First and Second Temples. The remnants of these temples are found in the most famous piece of biblical real estate still standing: Jerusalem's Western Wall and Temple Mount. The first Temple, built by the Jewish King Solomon, was destroyed in 586 BCE, when Jews were living under Babylonian rule. The Romans destroyed the Second Temple, which had been constructed on the same place as the first, in 70 CE. Ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that, when a Third Temple is constructed, the Messiah will arrive. (In Hebrew, Orthodox Jews are called “datim”; ultra-Orthodox, or Chassidic Jews, are called “ Haredim.” It is this latter group and their messianism that has increasingly influenced the religious hard core among the settlers, enhancing religious Zionism with a messianic strain that was largely absent before Israel captured the territories in 1967 and embarked on the settlement project.) Religious dictate demands, among other things, that during the three weeks of mourning, no Jews are forced from their homes -- a symbolism not lost on the Jewish settlers or on the Israeli military and political echelons, now that they've been reminded of it.
It's likely that Sharon wants to go this extra mile to try to avoid violent onslaughts between Israeli soldiers and settlers under the banner of the Temples' destruction, and it may even be a wise decision. After all, the first rule of politics is to let your enemies win something that you don't mind losing; in this case, it seems that the Israelis could make ample use of the extra time to complete the evacuation and resettlement plans. (The Israeli papers have been rife with rumors about how the government is not as prepared as it should be regarding resettlement of the evacuees inside Israel's pre-1967 borders.)
But it also points out a clear schism that has become amplified since Israel first captured the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. Religious messianism, only a blip on the Israeli scene prior to 1967, was fostered by those who became the hard-core leadership in the Settlement Movement. (Not all settlers are religious; many went to live in the West Bank and Gaza because Israeli government policy gave economic incentives to live there, and they will gladly return if given economic incentive.) Loyalty, for those Jews, is not to the modern state of Israel but, rather, to the biblical Kingdom of David. In this regard, the modern Israeli army, the Supreme Court, and even the Knesset and political leaders are not institutions that factor into the daily equation. A higher power heads the kingdom.
That's one reason that Israel's struggle to extricate itself from the deeply flawed settlement project is so critical to Israel's survival as a modern state. It's no accident that the Christian Right and their political supporters, such as Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX), flock to the Israeli settlement project. They, like the ultra-religious settlers, have their eyes on the building of the Third Temple that will evolve with a messianic rupture, and the contemporary state of Israel be damned -- literally.
The irony of all this is that even though Sharon was the patron of the settlement project, he is not a religious man. (Perhaps this is what caused the timing oversight in the first place.) Rather, Sharon's reverence for the settlements came out of his hawkish secular vision. The postponement followed a request from Israel's chief Sephardic rabbi. Ironically, in the midst of Sharon's decision-making, this same Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar found himself and his family in a bit of public trouble. The Amar family was displeased at their daughter's choice of a non-Haredi boyfriend. According to news reports, the couple's flirtation began on the Internet -- a grave embarrassment to the rabbi, because Haredim are not supposed to have access to the Internet or to any modern accoutrements. (The Rabbi told Israel media that he did permit cell phones for emergencies and blamed the romance on text messaging to obfuscate the Internet usage.) So Amar's secular son -- who previously has had problems with the law and occasionally lives in Tekoa (one of the hard-core ideological West Bank settlements) -- taught his sister's beau a lesson. Egged on by Mrs. Amar, the Amar son allegedly beat and kidnapped his sister's boyfriend in order to dissuade him from their kin. Indeed, the ultra-Orthodox experience a different kind of withdrawal every day: withdrawal from modern life -- a lifestyle that is constantly challenged by the vitality of contemporary Israeli life and is a constant challenge to the ethos and values of the state.
An incidental fall-out of the evacuation's new schedule was this weekend's announcement that an international gay pride festival, which travels to different cities and was slated to take place in Jerusalem in August, is being sent to an other city but will return to Jerusalem in August 2006. The army can't handle security for the mammoth parade when all of its resources will be deployed in Gaza. Why would a parade need such security? The parade has been opposed by a coalition of conservative religious groups, representing the Ultra-Orthodox Jews, Evangelical Christians, Conservative Muslims, and the Shas Party (which represents ultra-religious Jews of Sephardic or North African origin) -- all Chief Rabbi Amar's constituents. Even though a coalition of liberal religious leaders expressed support, there was fear in Israel that the anti-forces -- one of whom decried such a parade as a “spiritual rape of the city” -- would incite violence. The lone gay bar in Jerusalem (in contrast with the secular city of Tel Aviv, which maintains a vibrant gay community) had already been mysteriously torched a few weeks ago.
Much is at stake for Israel in ensuring a well-handled withdrawal, not the least of which is the commitment to a second round of withdrawal after the Gaza pullout; but high on the top-10 list is the need to preserve the preeminence of the institutions of the state itself and a firm commitment to a separation of church -- or synagogue -- and state that allows for religious pluralism in Israel, but in an Israel that is a modern state and not a biblical kingdom.
Jo-Ann Mort writes frequently about Israel and is the co-author of Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today's Israel? (Cornell University Press).
