There Is No Zionism Without G-d

9/20/2020 There Is No Zionism Without G-d | Andy Blumenthal | The Blogs
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THE BLOGS
Andy Blumenthal
There Is No Zionism Without
G-d
Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal
For two thousand years, the Jewish people exiled from their land, widely dispersed, and
inhumanly persecuted among the nations developed passivity and learned helplessness. They
eagerly awaited, year after year, G-d’s salvation and redemption.
As a tiny minority attempting to hold firm to their religious beliefs amongst the world’s powerful
majorities, the Jews found themselves a convenient scapegoat, suffering landlessness and
joblessness, taxation to the point of near-starvation, conscription of their Jewish children for

military service of 25-years, forced conversion on pain of torture and death, horrible violent
pogroms that sparred no one, and expulsions from country after country. During these times, the
Jewish people learned passivity in the hope of not inflaming the hate and anger of the goyim that
would make things “even worse!”
The famous Jewish author, Haim Nahman Bialik wrote in “In The City of Slaughter” about the
Kishinev pogrom of 1903 and the Jewish state of helplessness and passivity, noting that the
husband and brothers hid behind barrels while the women were raped and murdered. At this
incredibly low, sunken point of our history, and as the blood flowed all around them, they could
make no move anymore even to defend themselves from the worst butchery and depravity
inflicted upon them and their families.
Unfortunately, this incredibly painful and very deadly persecution of the Jews was being fed at the
same time by yet another dynamic, that of mistaken religious belief: one that held that G-d would
do whatever he wanted to His people, including punish them, and would redeem them by His
hand when He was ready, and aside from Torah study, prayer, and the following of the
Commandments, the Jews were not to take any active stance or do anything themselves to, in
effect, change the tide, because it was “all in G-d’s hands” anyway. Unfortunately, our genuine
attempt at being religiously faithful led to a personal sense of helplessness in life and loss of our
own earthly accountability. Somewhere, we forget the noble and absolute creed that “G-d helps
those who help themselves!”
But around the turn of the 20th century, the Zionist movement arose with fresh thinking from
those of Theodor Herzl, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, David Ben-Gurion, and others that came to a new
conclusion about the fate of the Jews, which was that the answer to anti-Semitism was that the
Jews must once again have their own state, and that this needed to be actively pursued–both
politically, but also by force, if necessary. This notion was hammered home then by the murder of
6,000,000 Jews in the Holocaust, and the bursting feeling inside the survivors that we will no
longer go like sheep to the slaughter–“Never again!”
The early Zionists therefore anchored their efforts in the labor of their own hands –working the
barren land and in the malarial swamps to once again make the deserts bloom, building a strong
army from Holocaust survivors with tattooed arms of Nazi identification numbers, and innovating
in science, medicine, technology, the arts, and more. The early founders of Israel settled on
Kibbutzim and the image of muscular, sun-tanned Jews working to survive and thrive became the
new normal or almost a “Super Jew.”
However, even the mighty Samson in Judges 16:28 recognized that G-d was behind his strength
and success at defeating the Philistines, as he said:

Nazarite or super Jew, the hard work and bravery needed to be coupled with an understanding that
G-d was the ultimate source of Samson’s strength and ours!
Nevertheless, after we won the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, when Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and
Golan Heights once again became ours, further restoring the borders of the Promised Land, the
multiple personality disorder of the Jews continued. On one hand, some politicians urged
restraint so as not to incite international condemnation, along with many on the ultra-orthodox
Haredim and even traditional orthodox Jews that continued to view faithfulness as passively
waiting for G-d’s divine intervention and Mashiach. On the other hand now, the religious settler
movement arose under Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah Kook and the Gush Emmunim (“Bloc of the Faithful”)
that rejected Jewish passivity and instead saw the return to the Jewish homeland and the
ingathering of our exiles as a sign from G-d, and they in turn sought to actively do their part and
resettle the Biblical lands that were again, miraculously, in Jewish hands.
In modern day Israel, it is common to hear about Israelis fighting for the State of Israel to actively
defend themselves, but there is seemingly little mention of G-d, and this is a spillover of the early
Zionists belief that we, ourselves, must take responsibility to work hard and fight hard to
safeguard our nation that was spared from near-extinction. Unfortunately though, I believe that
this has gone too far in the other direction, where institutionally in Israel (e.g. in the IDF and
from the politicians) we don’t rightfully and regularly hear an acknowledgement of G-d in
bringing us back to the Promised Land, helping us to make it flourish, and to thrive in every way
almost as the reinstatement of the Garden of Eden itself. Even this week, at the Abraham Accords
peace deal between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain in Washington, D.C., I was pleased to hear
Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is also a real hero, say that Israel was “very strong” and that this
had helped to create an atmosphere for achieving peace. But what I would have also liked to hear
him say publicly, is a big thank you to G-d Almighty for yet another miracle wrought for Israel and
the Jewish People in advancing peace and right before the Jewish New Year!
Certainly, there is no mitzvah to being passive and helpless, and this was undoubtedly in large
measure a result of being homeless and suffering under the weight of relentless and brutal anti-
Semitism for 2,000 years. Yet, as we each roll up our sleeves to actively work and fight for the
modern State of Israel, our independence, and our right to practice our religion freely, we must do
so with full knowledge and thanksgiving to G-d, our creator and sustainer! Whether King David
against the giant Goliath, Samson against the mighty Philistines, or our modern-day strong and
brave soldiers in the IDF defending the borders of Israel from historical enemies’ roundabout,
they stand strong against all the natural odds, because G-d stands right there with them and us.
O L-rd G-d, please remember me, and please strengthen me only this once more; O G-d that I
may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”
“

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andy Blumenthal is a business and technology leader who writes frequently about Jewish life, culture, and security. All
opinions are his own.

There Is No Zionism Without G-d

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