Some thoughts about Zion (and Zionism)

6 Elul 5782 | ו' אלול ה'תשפ"ב

Someday (soon, we pray) the part inside the light green outline will all come to us...Beresheet (Genesis) 15:18

Further edited for clarification.

Let me start out on a positive note even though, I must warn you, dear reader, this post is not primarily positive. I do love living in Israel. It is my homeland, and at home one does the best one can, especially if one is a Jew, for whom most of the world still denies a homeland. Unlike a lot of people I know from before I came here, I have a grandparent who was born and raised here, even before the British Mandate. Yes, it is true: My mother's own mother, who was from a Mizrahi (as opposed to Ashkenazi or Sefaradi) Cohen family from Haifa according to a document I found on the Ellis Island website. Only, it was spelled Caifa, and the country identified was Syria. (The officials at Ellis Island, or maybe it was the people who took information for her manifest on the boat she arrived on, didn't know how to transliterate the 'het' that starts off חיפה.) 

It shocked me to see this at first, back in 2005 after I went back after visiting for the first time. But then, I realized that it was part of what was called "southern Syria" at the time she was there, between 1900, when she was born, and 1920, when she arrived at Ellis Island, still single. She was the only Cohen in the database in 2005 with her first name, and she still is, as I type this.

My grandfather's history isn't so clear. There are two with names, locations and birth years close to what I think might be his. He, as far as I know, was from Syria proper, and they would have been married and had their first child in approximately 1922. I know he was 10 years older than my mom, who was born in 1932. My Safta could have married either of them in time to do that, if she got married right after she arrived in New York.

I never met them, unfortunately. I was born on the west coast of the US, and by the time we went east two years later, both of my grandparents had passed away during the previous year.

However. Back to Zionism. The behavior of this iteration of the governance of the State of Israel (i.e., this government) has me thinking a lot more about the nature of what is called "Zionism" in the medinah and whether we should stop basing the meaning of the word on only the modern iteration. I realized when I came home that the term Zionism had a meaning thousands of years old which was cut off by the modern Zionists. 

When I first heard the terms "dati le'umi" (translated as "national religious") in the early 2000s and Zionist ("tzioni") much earlier, probably in the late 1960s to early 1970s, my impression was that these people wanted to plant the Jewish nation almost literally into the soil of Eretz Yisrael. Building, establishing vibrant communities with large families to make up for all the Jews that were murdered over the centuries — and in the name of all those whose families we will never see — making Judaism livable, practical and beautiful, with a special relationship with the Creator of the universe.

During last summer, this interesting article was written about why we need to detach from the deceptive terminology people use on a regular basis in Israel, brought to us by people whose purpose for being here is not exactly to bring true Jewish sovereignty to Israel (which includes redemption and Mashiah, and doesn't include keeping our blood enemies in our midst just to keep us terrified for lifetimes on end), and along with it, real self-government. 

(Just for clarification, Mashiah will be one hundred percent man and not G-d at all, so he is included in Jewish self-government. People who get their ideas from other religions will need to learn about Judaism on its own terms — according to Torah, Prophets and Writings — the Tanach — and their explanations in other books holding those discussions — to be able to understand what kind of being the Go'el Tzedek is.)

And then the government that came into power when I first started writing this article, including the Arab party Ra'am and a prime minister with only 6 seats, was not so much voted in, as bargained into office through the process among the parties that occurs after the election, with the prime minister's chair to be shared. We are now in the second half of that agreement, and our current prime minister's party had 17 seats when the bargain was made. Not much closer to the majority than his partner's. 

We have elections again in November...WIGOH? (pronounced "we go" — "what is going on here?")

It seems to me that these Zionists are here to be a replacement of our hopes and dreams, to drag us along with them while they seek favor from the rest of the world. They already take orders from the United States; if this goes on long enough, lo' aleynu, we will see them taking orders from the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization, rachmana litzlan.

They never succeed in getting that favor, and they don't realize that they never will. Ever. And we will get the brunt of the punishment for their having tried until our redemption arrives, may it do so immediately.

Recent events have, more than anything else, brought to the fore the misrepresentation the whole thing has been to, and of, the Jewish People. Since the focus is on how the nations see us, we cannot ever insist on our duties, our rights, and our privileges (there goes that word, bet it gets misinterpreted) here in the Land of our Fathers and Mothers.

A real Zionist country-in-the-making wouldn't have let Zion be divided, as it has been since the land now called Jordan was taken from the land to be given to the Jewish People — by Great Britain.

 A real Zionist country wouldn't have kicked Jews out of Gaza in 2005 because real Zionist leaders would give heed to the fact that Yitzhak Avinu (Isaac) had lived in Gerar, which is in present-day Gaza. Isaac, as he is known in English, wasn't allowed to leave the Land that G-d gave to his father Abraham, much less live anywhere else. And even Arabs in 2005 knew that.

Nor would a real Zionist country have kicked Jews out of the Sinai Desert in 1972. 

Nor would it allow illegal building on any "side." The government under the current system rushes to prevent Jewish building in Yehuda and Shomron, but runs to protect illegal Arab building in these areas. 

That's why we, the people of Israel, have an organization called Regavim, which means lumps or clods of earth. Regavim's very name points to its practical purpose. They brought our attention to the following link:

Palestinian Authority's Stealth Steal of Judea and Samaria (originally from HERE)

And a real Zionist country wouldn't bend over backwards to please the nations after all we've been through. 

They would know that they have a special obligation to the JEWISH PEOPLE that no other country has, and they would run as fast as they can to fulfill it. This would encourage more Jews to make aliyah...

Zion means Jerusalem, after all. And Jerusalem (Yerushalayim in Hebrew) refers to JEWS. See below.

Here's just one example of many: A convicted and jailed terrorist has applied to get a nose job at the expense of the Zionist State. But the police officer who stopped her won't get compensated for surgeries HE needs as a result of her crime! This case is from 2015, and she has gone through many medical treatments at the Prisons Service's expense (i.e., taxpayers' money). 

Also, you heard about a female Israeli soldier who was handed over to an Arab felon in prison so she could be raped. There was more than one of these, too. What kind of Zionist would do this to his, or her, sister-in-Israel???

I wrote about Amiram Ben Uliel recently, a "settler" (a religious Jew who lives on long-established historic Jewish homeland territory...and if you don't accept that, you should throw out your Bible and your Quran! Both affirm this...) is still in jail while the Zionist court takes their time declaring him innocent of all charges. See the latest HERE; some links to other articles are in the comments. Please continue to pray for Amiram ben Nurit | עמירם בן נורית.

If this is Zionism, then I can't be a Zionist. But this bill, reversing what is translated as the Disengagement Law of 2005, would be more like it, even though the immediate benefit is small compared to the damage done. (I had this post in editing for a year, and I haven't heard that it has passed as of now.)

Since before the declaration of the state, war, murder, attempts to wipe out the state and the Jews that make up the majority of its people have been ongoing.

(As if being a majority of a small country with no guts to defy all "mandates" and make its own decisions is anything to be proud of.)

One would think that the Jews of Israel want to be victimized, to submit to dhimmitude, to give up the tiny land we were handed, after the larger part was chopped off before we even had a chance to have a country again.

If there weren't the many believers in the G-d of our fathers living among those who thought they wouldn't have to share our land with us, there would be practically no one to cling to the land after each attempt at genocide. 

We want to stay BECAUSE IT IS OUR LAND AND WE BELIEVE WHAT THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE SAID ABOUT IT. Period.

But we have to understand first things first. I know, it took me a long time to get here...sorry about that.

In the book of Tehillim (Psalm 137 has two references to Zion, in verses 1 and 3, and three to Jerusalem in verses 5, 6 and 7 in a manner that leaves no doubt), we learn that ZION refers to JERUSALEM. And JERUSALEM refers to ISRAEL. The name we call our nation was the name Ya'aqov Avinu (Jacob) was given by the angel he wrestled with...and it turns out that just as London refers to England, Moscow refers to Russia and Washington refers to the United States, Jerusalem refers to Israel. Especially in the political arena.  

We need to retain this meaning of Zion, and not some strange change of concept that people with Jewish names and outsider attitudes handed to those who came back home!

Before I continue, I'd like to say that it saddens me very much that we are not further along than we are with regard to being courageous enough to step away from the form of government we have now, in favor of a governance more suitable to the Jewish People. Other peoples who live here have other places to go. If we think that we do, too, the time is coming soon when we will find out otherwise.

The problem we have is that we have not yet called out the group of people, many of whom have Jewish names and possibly Jewish mothers (but maybe not) as well, that has been behind a lot of this misrepresentation of the Jews as a people. They've given us a bad name and put us in a corner where if we don't do what they say, we're putting our nation in a bad light and justifying everything bad that is being said about the entire people...and so, 

• why not let us be overwhelmed by people, whether with Jewish mothers or not, who don't value Eretz Yisrael for its own purpose; 
• why not bring in lots of non-Jews here to overwhelm the Jewish population here; 
• why not let lots of Jewish Israeli citizens be killed, and in gory ways to boot (see the 2022 Elad axe-murders, and 2021's Meron disaster-by-direct-energy-weapon as recent examples).
  

A short list of countries that use direct-energy  weapons (laser, microwave, particle beam and sound beam, in different combinations) are at the top of this page (I doubt it's complete). In addition, Australian police has used DEW weapons on its own citizens in Canberra, the nation's capital, for protesting against COVID-19 mandates.

Getting back to Israel. Binyamin Netanyahu, former prime minister and current opposition leader, as well as candidate for prime minister yet again, recently said, 

Only our national strength can ensure our future. This weak and fraudulent government is incapable of leading the country[...]Israeli citizens from Tel Aviv to Tekoa are living in fear[...]The present government isn’t capable of ensuring safety for its people.” 

How sure are we that we have the national strength? 

What did the governments of Israel do, and how have they been doing it all these years?

Israeli citizens were put under emergency measures in 1948, and succeeding governments have left them there for the past 74 years. I don't know how this happened. But all our governments, and all our politicians, even our best ones, have left us hefker, meaning, ripe for the picking by any passerby — and it seems there is nothing we can do about it. We have too many enemies roaming around, scouting out chances to harm and kill us. 

One would think that these measures would actually protect citizens from being left open to harm. But we are not protected as we should be. We are: Open to being arrested because of things other "democratic" countries wouldn't bat an eyelash at. Open to being unable to buy property within the country, even when proof that it was owned by someone else (from another people putting forth claims to the land in question) didn't exist. Open to being slashed to pieces by people murderers trying to take the state over and make it part of a different country and culture. Open to being expelled from lands that we were given by the state originally, with the excuse that the government didn't know whose land it was.

And who pays for these egregious missteps? The people who are now fired at from lands taken away from us and given to people who are STILL our enemies...

A Ceasefire Line Is Not a Border for a Palestinian State: Debunking the Green Line Myth —Honest Reporting (lots of related reading there...)

No, it doesn't seem that way. I don't suppose that the leadership here really cares whether Israel continues to exist as a state. They'd better prove it if they do!

And if not, it seems to me that we need to give the concept people refer to as Zionism another name, that puts the spotlight on them and their system. A new lexicon is needed for the many things and concepts that we need to take back.

To start off with: For "Zionism" and "Zionist," I suggest Erev-ravism and Erev-ravist. These refer to people who follow the methodology of the converted Egyptians in the desert that followed Moshe Rabbenu who in Hebrew were called the erev rav. These are the ones who led the way to golden-calf idolatry right on Mount Sinai, in deliberate rebellion against G-d's first commandment; even worse, there was the rejection of Eretz Yisrael in the episode known as "the Sin of the Spies." Today, they advocate keeping stores open and buses running on Shabbat, and want to confuse our understanding of kashruth and shmittah as well as keeping some of the more observant Jews from being able to blend their observant life with their ability to make a living.

The insult to the name Zion (not to mention Jerusalem, King David's Capital!) by usurping it for the exact opposite of what it stands for, is too much to bear. It makes Zion, Israel, and many other names that are properly used by Jews who wish to follow the ways and paths of HaQadosh Baruch Hu disgusting in their eyes.

For the religious people who haven't thought this through, we need to know that when people misuse the name Zion, they insult Jerusalem too! Let's take these terms back and demand that they be used properly. It would help us to respect our own nomenclature, and we would stop this shooting ourselves in the foot that we've been doing for decades by rejecting it.

Alternative denotations are needed for the many things that have been hidden in stolen Jewish terminology by the followers of the Erev Rav. 

I also have other sobriquets I could call their system, but I'll leave it like this for now, just to see how well it is received.

The people who call themselves Zionists but have no backbone when it comes to holding on to our land and our national identity, really believe in Erev-ravism.

However we word it, Zion's reputation has been severely savaged by those who misappropriated her name for nefarious purposes. It needs to stop.

(And there are more stolen terms I would like to write about in the future, be"H.)

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Jonathan Pollard, don't wait for the man, it could be you're the man! (Do you remember this? Has a "memo" perchance reached you from Shamayim?)

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Did Joe Biden give medical sovereignty of the UN's 193 nations to the WHO as a result of the Davos meeting in the week of 22-28 May?

We had better be aware, either way, and make sure our leadership knows we won't take it lying down. We have until November to make a final decision on the matter. It's coming fast now.

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Rav David Bar-Hayim is shown praying with a minyan on Har haBayit without repercussions! (Here's the article.) Be inspired by it...and do what you can.

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More reading: 

Is Zionism a modern day term? | Xinjiang is also Eretz Yisrael | Stuck and getting unstuck | Jewish prayer has finally returned on the Temple Mount (includes VIDEO) | Israel's examination reform: Not good for the Jews | Arab Israeli MK calls to eliminate Israeli flag, Jewish statehood, national anthem and Law of Return (how did our government let it come to this?) | Blood money: The Sbarro terrorists and how it's working out for them | Managing the unmanageable | Leah's Blog: Parashat Shoftim: The way we judge | Where is the justice in Israel's High Court of Justice? | in 2024: No, we shouldn't retire the word 'Zionism.' We should take it back. | In the merit of the martyrs and soldiers who were killed this week of Parashat Lech Lecha 5785, may we be given, inherit or enabled to take the land above (and even more; since Iran is responsible for all the bad actors in what I'm calling the Simchat Torah Massacre War, they deserve to lose land too.). The martyrs include Arvin Netanel Ghahremani, and the soldiers include Sgt. Ariel Sosnov Sasonov.