I en artikkel i Haaretz 12. mars analyseres den ferske israelske finansminister Bezalel Smotrich.
(HELE artikkelen nederst under Kilde):
"Israel's 'Evangelical' Jewish Fundamentalist, Bezalel Smotrich, Comes to Washington"
Forfatteren betegner Smotrich som ""Evangelical", Jewish Fundamentalist".
Som baserer sin tro og gjerninger på tusener år gamle jødiske skrifter.
EDIT
30. mai 2023
Artikkel i Jerusalem Post , se Ny Info:
"What is Smotrich's frightening, suicidal plan for Israel's future? - opinion"
Artikkelen 30. mai 2023 bekrefter Smotrich sin plan som en "messianic settler vision".
Med den sentrale rolle Smotrich er gitt av Netanyahu i regjeringen må dette også være Netanyahu sin plan.
Skudeneshavn 13. mars 2023 / 30. mai 2023
Jan Marton Jensen
På Twitter:
16. mars 2023
https://twitter.com/janmarton/status/1636401487906582528
Ny Info:
30. mai 2023
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-744547
HELE artikkelen i Haaretz 12. mars 2023:
Israel's 'Evangelical' Jewish Fundamentalist, Bezalel Smotrich, Comes to Washington
Rightly facing a cold shoulder from many American Jews, Israel's finance minister advocates a brand of Jewish fundamentalism that not only resembles extreme Evangelical Christianity, but which poses a unique threat to Israel’s democracy – and to Palestinians' welfare
As Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich heads to Washington today, his statements in support of “erasing” the Palestinian village of Hawara still echo off the walls of the State Department and numerous Jewish organizations, all of whom have made it clear that they will not meet with him during his visit.
Even
the right-leaning AIPAC will not greet Israel’s finance minister. His
awkward and halfhearted attempts to backtrack only cemented that this
Israeli government is – and America's reception of it – is like none we
have ever seen.
Despite the coalition parties' differences, they have presented a monolithic eagerness to weaken Israel's judicial system,
dismantle the checks and balances on power and expand the role of
religion in the public sphere. More than half its seats are taken by
religiously observant Jews, and while most past Israeli governments had
ultra-Orthodox representation, none have had the religious Zionist
public represented solely by hardline fundamentalists, nor did any,
ever, have Kahanist ministers.
The particular brand of fundamentalist Judaism that the extremists
currently in power espouse is different from that of ultra-Orthodoxy.
Ultra-Orthodoxy’s piety is dedicated to community and continuity, that
is, to maintaining their cocoon of like-minded, meticulously observant
Jews, following what they believe is the path of their forefathers and
taking care that their children do the same. Theirs is a fundamentalism
interested less in theology and more in sociology, and thus also capable
of pragmatism, usually with an added wink and a Yiddish pun.
In contrast, Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir display a fundamentalism resembling that of extreme Evangelical Christianity. It involves a literal interpretation of the Bible, which its adherents use to transform the world around them, both politically and socially. This type of fundamentalism is committed to zealous authenticity in belief and practice, and, in maintaining a dogmatic understanding of tradition, shows little aptitude toward pragmatism.
This fundamentalism poses a unique threat to Israel’s democracy – and to the wellbeing of Palestinians.
In 2017, Smotrich presented what he called the "decisiveness plan"
– or the "subjugation plan"; the translation can go both ways. In it,
he proposed to offer the Palestinians – in Israel and in the occupied
territories alike – three options: surrender and agree to become
residents with reduced voting rights, emigrate, or resist and be
subjected to the full force of the Israeli military.
In an essay that year in the right-wing publication Hashiloach, Smotrich
admitted that this plan is “lacking in democratic characteristics,” but
claims it is the only realistic path that Israel can take. What he does
not mention, though, is that this plan and is not based on geopolitical
assessments, but on an ancient Talmudic text.
In a speech he delivered a year before he published his plan, Smotrich recounted a tale
in which the prophet Joshua, who came to conquer the Promised Land,
sent messages to the people living there offering them the same options.
Smotrich claimed that "There is one absolute and correct truth… This is
the basis for the approach of Joshua when he entered the Land, which I
seek to adopt even today. The foundation of our absolute truths is faith
in the Torah... The Torah of Moses is the only base on which we must
establish the belief in the righteousness of the way and the fighting
spirit of the Israel Defense Forces.”
Israel’s new finance minister displays the most basic characteristics of
fundamentalist religiosity: a perception of history by which what was
true thousands of years ago is also valid today; an ambition to shape
contemporary life according to ancient ways, to thrust the past into the
present; and a literalist understanding of scripture which reduces a
rich religious tradition into a rigid and simplistic framework. These
produce a one-dimensional submission to the authority of the Holy
Scriptures.
He has absolutely no qualms about his beliefs. Just six months ago, during the previous Israeli government, Smotrich shouted across the Knesset floor to the Arab MKs: “You’re only here by mistake, because Ben Gurion didn’t finish the job and throw you out in 1948.”
And he is not alone. Ben-Gvir is a longtime devotee of the teachings of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, a vile racist
whose Kach movement was designated a terrorist organization by both the
United States and Israel. Ben-Gvir himself was twice convicted for
supporting a terrorist organization due to his activities with the
group.
In his books, Kahane used the very same account of Joshua to justify the
future expulsion of Israeli Arabs, which he repeatedly claimed must be
implemented. The tale plays a part in the movement’s theology, which is
also grounded in a fundamentalist interpretation of Jewish tradition. In
the past, Ben-Gvir explicitly said that Jews must “Drive out the Arab
enemy,” and though he has recently insisted that he no longer thinks so,
he claimed just five years ago that “every word of Kahane's is relevant
to today’s reality.”
Just as Kahane insisted that non-Jews should not be able to vote in
Israel, Smotrich also plans to reduce Israeli Arabs to the status of
non-voting subjects. As he said in a private conversation in 2017,
Palestinians will be relegated to the status of “resident aliens,”
because, as he explained then, “according to Jewish law there must
always be some inferiority.”
This kind of dogmatic, selective interpretation of Jewish tradition, linked with the will – and now the power – to turn it into the law of the land, is something that Israeli citizens are encountering for the first time in the highest echelons of their government. The horror that has struck many of the Israelis who are witnessing it is a catalyst for the mass demonstrations that have engulfed the country over the last two months.
The hundreds of thousands of people are protesting what they conceive as a threat to Israeli democracy and the integrity of Jewish tradition alike. Hopefully, the cold shoulder that Smotrich is receiving from the United States is a sign that the international community is taking note as well.
Tomer Persico is a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute and a Rubinstein Fellow at Reichman University. Twitter: @TomerPersico
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