Political Islam, political Judaism

On 19 June, several hundred Israeli reserve officers and soldiers gathered in Tel Aviv. They had rented a space in the city's exhibition halls for the meeting. The event was billed "Decision Time". Invitations were issued by the "Forum of Reserve Commanders and Fighters", an association of high-ranking officers and regular soldiers from the Israeli army, rather loose in terms of organisation, but all the more resolute in terms of ideology.    

A small pamphlet was distributed at the conference, apparently authored by Brigadier General Oren Solomon, a member of the "Forum". The manifesto carries the title "Key points of the necessary strategy in the Gaza Strip". On the cover, the current campaign is described as a "war for Israel's existence". 

The attacker intended to destroy Israel. For that, he must pay with the loss of land and houses. The Arabs must be instilled with the following narrative: "From the Nakba in 1948 to the Naksa in 1967 to the Karitha (catastrophe) in 2023". All inhabitants of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, up to the point where the army has divided the Palestinian territory, must be immediately "expelled", the text reads. 

Radical religious nationalists in uniform

Then, consideration could be given to the same approach in the southern parts of the Gaza Strip. These expulsions would send a message to Arabs in the West Bank and Lebanon, telling them: "Look, this is the price of the war". 

At the same time, a plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip is also necessary, the details of which have not been set out "in this document", writes the reserve Brigadier General Solomon. His manifesto also criticises the army's warfare thus far as insufficiently decisive and sustainable. 

Any captured territory must also be held by the Israeli soldiers, Solomon demands. Strikes should be "more sustained" and come "from several directions at the same time". Hamas must not be given the chance to recover, he continues. The campaign against all parts of the Gaza Strip should begin anew, with increased firepower and fresh combat units, says Solomon.

The "Forum of Commanders and Fighters" is part of the Israeli army ("Flesh of their flesh", as they describe themselves), but at the same time, the group regards itself as the force's intellectual and political elite. Its members are radical nationalists in uniform. 

They are striving for power and influence within the state. They represent what is happening in Israel's military, political sphere and society. It is the result of a decades-long development that began after the June war of 1967 and the conquest of Sinai, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem.

Redefining the state of Israel

From 10 June 1967, the state of Israel ruled over areas in the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem where pioneers of the religious nationalist movement identified the cradle of Judaism: Skem (Nablus in Arabic), Jericho, Hebron and Temple Mount. 

The first tangible organisation of the new movement, Gush Emunim, campaigned for the establishment of Jewish settlements, with increasing success after the first Likud prime minister, Menachem Begin, took office in 1977. Today, almost one million Jewish settlers live in the occupied territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

This development had less to do, however, with the military victory of 1967 itself and more to do with the interpretation of the conquests at the time. The religious nationalist pioneers saw these as a sign of approaching redemption. They felt inspired by God. They took their sense of mission so far that they reinterpreted the meaning and purpose of the state of Israel.

Religious nationalist reinterpretation

The state had been conceived by its founders as secular and democratic. A place where Jews should be able to live – especially in the wake of the horrors of mass murder at the hands of the Germans – safely, self-determined and free from persecution. 

Although the political leadership of the country's Arab inhabitants, i.e. the Palestinians, and their allied neighbours rejected a Jewish state and fought against it – in other words – despite the bitter war of 1947-48, Israel wasn't originally supposed to be locked in an eternal, internal and external struggle with its Arab neighbours. 

Rather, the new State of Israel inherently represented an opportunity for coexistence. The biggest obstacle proved to be the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians from 1948 who wanted to "go home". Their path remained blocked. Instead, hundreds of thousands of Jews from the Arab states – from Morocco to Iraq – migrated to Israel.

The religious nationalist reinterpretation following the conquests of 1967 elevated what was the rather earthly state of Israel to the level of an instrument in the hands of the Almighty. The young movement saw itself as the executor of God's will when it argued that only Jews had a right to the land between the Mediterranean and Jordan. 

From the outset, the religious nationalists didn't just pursue the physical occupation of captured territory. They also wanted to change the internal character of the state, moving it away from a secular state to a theocracy defined by Jewish religious law (their interpretation!). The secular Zionists were regarded as useful donkeys who had unwittingly prepared the work of God, but whose time was now up.

Similarities with political Islam

The great French sociologist and contemporary historian Gilles Kepel spoke of a "rejudaisation par le haut" (literally: 'rejudaisation from above'). Kepel was the first European researcher to evocatively describe the beginnings of this transformation back in 1991. His book bore the striking title "La Revanche de Dieu" (English edition: 'The Revenge of God'). 

It displays parallels between the return to religion in the Jewish and Islamic world (not forgetting the Christian world too), which was fuelled by political ambitions. For example, Kepel found similarities between the supporters of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and Israel's religious nationalists. Everyone has been talking about political Islam ever since. But no one's talking about political Judaism.

As history has taken its course over the past 30 years, Kepel's early analysis of Israeli society and politics has been validated. It could even be said that reality has surpassed the tendencies identified by Kepel and the conflicts associated with those trends. 

Netanyahu hostage to the religious nationalists

Israel's religious nationalist camp has grown enormously, both from a demographic perspective and in terms of political expansion. Not only do its representatives sit in the cabinet, they determine lines of policy, primarily since the formation of the current government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 29 December 2022. Today, he is their political hostage. 

Should this government topple in the current war situation and a new election be necessary, then as the journalist Amos Harel from the secular-oriented and anti-government newspaper Haaretz warns, we will be dealing with the most radical caretaker government in Israeli history.  

In other words, many things could happen before any new elections, quite possibly the final abolition of Israel's very shaky democracy.

"Radical settlers", "religious nationalist parties", "ultra-orthodox people" – these are all terms used by German politicians and media to describe relevant actors and groups. Such phrases are cautious attempts to get close to reality. But ultimately, the buzzwords merely serve as a mask concealing essential information.

Celebrating violence

Because of the aggressive conduct of the religious nationalist movement in Israel, Judaism has entered a new and historic phase. A fanatical, numerically swelling and influential political sect has emerged that is affecting Judaism as a whole and jeopardising the existence of the state of Israel. 

Its protagonists claim they are returning to the religion's roots and realising its true purpose. In reality however, they despise Jewish tradition and trample it underfoot. They interpret their own history with an ideological inclination that not only justifies uninhibited violence, but celebrates it. They direct their hatred at democratically-minded Israelis, whom they dismiss with the insult "leftists" (smolanim), but above all at Arabs and Islam.

On 7 October 2023, armed members of the also religious nationalist Palestinian Hamas and its allies in Israel carried out a bloody and sadistic massacre of Jews. For Israeli society, this was a shock that roused the fearful spectre of the Shoah 80 years ago in Europe.

War, a "joyous celebration"

But how do Israeli religious nationalists feel about the murderous attack? October 7 fell on a Jewish holiday, simhat tora, the Torah celebration. This is why they call the resulting war "milḥemet simhat tora", or Torah celebration war.

That's how Brigadier General Hezi Nehama, for instance, a spokesman for the "Forum of Commanders and Fighters", puts it. What's the message here? That war is a joyous celebration. The Hamas attack was a gift from God, because it has facilitated a blessed leap forward in the history of salvation. Now, all that matters is understanding this sign and resolutely doing the right thing. 

And what that right thing is, according to this fanatical sect, is written on an unattributed flyer also handed out on 19 June at the "Decision Time" officers' conference in Tel Aviv. This flyer goes further than the previously mentioned manifesto pamphlet. "The war can only be ended where there are no more Arabs in the Gaza Strip", it reads. 

The flyer suggests two practical ways to achieve this war aim: firstly, Arab residents are driven from the east to the beaches of Gaza in the west. There, thousands of dinghies await. "We will then see the outcome at the harbour of Port Said [in Egypt] and in Europe", it reads. 

Secondly, the residents of Gaza are to film themselves standing outside their ruined homes and express their wish that Israel takes them to Europe in cruise ships. Israel would then distribute thousands of these videos worldwide. The intelligence service could organise this endeavour. Regardless of which of the two paths is taken, the flyer signs off with the clear goal: Transfer!

Fanatics subvert Israel

This calls to mind those despicable well-poisoning accusations from the European Middle Ages. But it is an expression of the ideological reality in Israel in the year 2024. German politicians, from Olaf Scholz to Annalena Baerbock, don't seem to have any inkling of what's going on. Instead, they rant and rave about the "only democracy in the Middle East". 

For German politicians, it is good form to stress how thoroughly they have learned from their own history. They translate this lesson into unconditional solidarity with the Israeli government, regardless of whom might be serving in it. 

A suspicion arises: these well-meaning German politicians don't know their own history that well after all. Who were the victims of the Shoah? Who were the murdered Jews? Those who don't know Judaism and its history can also not appreciate the monstrosity of the aberration into which Israel is being dragged by a fanatical sect.

A fascinating document survives from the Crusades era. It originates from Egypt and refers to Jews taken hostage by one of the warring parties. The document was authored by Moses ben Maimon (1135-1204, Arabic: Musa ibn Maymun, Greek-Latin: Maimonides), who was not only a scholar, but also a political authority within the world's Jewish communities at the time. 

Moses ben Maimon considered it a top priority to pay a ransom to secure the hostages' release and called on communities to collect money for this purpose. The document has gone down in Jewish history as a religious duty and an important tenet in Jewish law – pidyon shvuyim, or redemption of captives.

Instead of negotiating the release of the Israeli hostages being detained and tortured by Hamas in Gaza, it would be better to consider them dead. This would give the army greater room for manoeuvre in its Gaza campaigns. If more hostages were to be released, then only by violent means. This is a view commonly held today in Israeli religious nationalist circles. 

The author Irit Linur came out with this during a panel show on the well-known TV broadcaster Channel 14. Linur is not religious, but that doesn't matter to the sect. The main thing is: the ideology aligns. And such religious nationalism doesn't shrink from betraying the greatest scholar and role model of post-Biblical Jewish history.

Maimonides got wind of turmoil within the Jewish community in Yemen. People there were convinced of approaching redemption, the imminent appearance of the Messiah. At night, people would climb onto the rooftops to greet the Messiah. From his residence in Fustat south of Cairo, Maimonides sent a letter to his afflicted and apparently confused fellow believers in Yemen. 

In it, he warned against calculating and longing for the end of times and thinking that one's own actions would make things happen faster. This letter to the community in Yemen from the year 1172 is testimony to spiritual orientation and political leadership in difficult times. It is the ultimate warning against zealous end-times sectarianism.

Over the generations, Moses ben Maimon has remained a leading representative of a rationalist and philanthropic Judaism. He reconciled faith and reason. He fought the rebellion of superstition against reason. The biochemist, philosopher and peace activist Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994), who fled from Europe to Palestine/Israel to escape the Nazis, invoked him. Together with the Arabist Shlomo Dov Fritz Goitein (1900-1985), he saw himself as the intellectual custodian of Moses ben Maimon in the 20th century. Leibowitz foresaw the post-1967 sectarian aberration. He warned that tyranny over occupied territories would destroy Israeli society from within.

We've almost reached that point. The Zionist consensus on defence, derived from the catastrophic experience of the Shoah, has been transformed by the religious nationalists into an ideology of aggressive, religiously based violence. Political and geographical boundaries have lost their significance in the process.

This movement is no longer primarily concerned with a newly defined state of Israel including Gaza and the West Bank. It is about life as a battle and killing as many enemies as possible. Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, a spokesperson for the movement, speaks of "milhemet mitsva", the Jewish version of jihad. The dignitary recently called for Palestinian children to be killed because they would otherwise kill "us" in the future, and women because they would otherwise give birth to future enemy fighters.

This political sect of religious nationalists is being further bolstered by Israeli socio-political and demographic dynamics, especially as on the other side of the military front, there's an enemy who, although he may have less power at his disposal, is motivated by a similar desire to destroy. Alongside the threat from without, Judaism has always been threatened by sectarian machinations from within. This danger was never greater than now.

Stefan Buchen

© Qantara.de 2024 

Translated from the German by Nina Coon

The author works as a television journalist for NDR. He studied Arab language and literature at Tel Aviv University from 1993 to 1996.