“Beyond Words” is a seven
volume collection of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s writings from 1960 – 1990 that originally appeared in
The Jewish Press, other serial publications, and his privately-published works.
“Beyond Words” also includes a number of extra features:
Chronology of Rabbi Kahane's life.
“Beyond Words” now can be bought at Amazon.com. On the search line, type… Beyond Words Kahane.
Beyond Words
Selected Writings of Rabbi
Meir Kahane,
1960-1990
Volume 6
AN OYLEM GOYLEM
[Will Pres.Trump save
Israel? If you think so, read what Rabbi
Kahane has to say bg]
What Alexander Hamilton said in
his day (“the masses are asses”) was a mere echo of a famous Yiddish folk
saying, “der oylem iz a goylem”. The golem, one recalls, is that
brutish being, incapable of independent thought, and keyed to the will of its
master. Alas, the more things change, the less anything in the Jewish world
does. The oylem, the Jewish audience, remains a goylim…
I speak of the incredible
willingness of the Jew to want to believe any lie, fraud and cynical
manipulation – as long as that allows him to preserve his illusions of heroes.
I speak of the almost absolute ability of politicians to do and say anything,
in the knowledge that their idolatrous followers will see only divinity and
truth in them – despite the fact that if the same act would be done to by a
politician they despise, they would be crying for “the traitors scalp.” And I
write this, as the cult of Ariel Sharon spreads among the oylem that is a goylem,
the masses of asses.
There is an apparent need on
the part of human beings, and certainly Jews, for a hero. There is a need for
man to worship. Alas, G-d lacking enough charisma for the modern Jew, he seeks
something more exciting. And in every decade there is someone else to worship,
some other god with feet and mind and soul of clay. Now, it may be legitimate
to raise high the banner of a leader, but only the goylem refuses
to see his feet of clay and his nakedness of principle.
In the past it was Moshe Dayan,
he of the one eye and the lion heart of Judah. Jews of the Exile, humiliated for two
millennia, ached for a hero and here was the Jewish Samson who smote the
gentiles and gave every Jew in Levittown pride and self-respect. Little matter
that Dayan was a man of tiny faith and immense fear of the gentiles, who along
with Golda Meir (yet another Jewish winner), refused to allow the Israeli Army
to strike a preventive blow a day before they knew the Yom Kippur War was to
begin, out of fear of the American reaction.
No less than 4,000 Jewish boys
fell because of that criminal decision by Moshe the lion-hearted, who was
quoted in the first week of that war that seemed to be a debacle, “we are
seeing the destruction of the Third Temple”. And who recalled, or cared to,
that it was Dayan, who in the Six Day
War, opposed reaching the Suez Canal and capturing the Golan Heights lest
Israel get involved with the Soviets. (It was Divine Providence that saw the
Israeli Army outrun Dayan’s pathetic orders). And who recalls, or cares to,
that it was Dayan who refused to expel the Arabs in 1967, when the world stood
awe-struck, lest as he put it, “the world think that there is another wave of
Arab refugees.” Indeed, he ordered the army to return thousands of Arabs who
had fled on their own, and the tragedy of today is in such large measure the
doing of Moshe Dayan, hero of the Jewish people. And yet he continues,
incredibly, to dwell in the private Pantheon of millions of Jews. Indeed,
an oylem goylem.
And Golda, the architect of the
murder of 4,000 Jewish soldiers because of fear of the world. The architect,
too, of the saying that will surely enter the Hall of Fame of Insanity, as she
declared: “I can forgive the Arabs for having killed our soldiers but I can
never forgive them for making us kill theirs.” And yet, this person still
remains in the eyes of millions “the only gever (man) in the Israeli
cabinet…”
And Begin. What shall we say
about a man who will go down in history as the saddest and weakest of all Prime
Ministers, while, at the same time, continuing to reap the kudos and hurrahs of
millions who make up his oylem goylem. Had Peres given up the
Sinai, with its huge oil supplies and land area, knocked down Jewish
settlements and dragged out Jews; had Peres stopped the Israeli Army in Lebanon
from annihilating the PLO and its leadership and thus cause more than 650
Jewish soldiers to die for nothing; had Peres allowed his army officers to take
the blame for Sabra and Shatilla – Begin and his groupies would have taken to
the streets calling for the head of the “traitor”. But since it was Begin who
did it, the goylem accepts it as the decision “forced upon
him”. What an oylem! What a goylem!
Every decade, every year, the goylem
finds himself another hero. Shamir. He is better than Peres. Why? Only G-d
knows why a man who arrested and prosecuted the Jewish underground; who is
Prime Minister of the intifada; who lied on every issue (except money)
to the religious parties; who speaks loudly and carries a small twig –is
lionized by the oylem goylem. And
worst of all - is Sharon
Ariel Sharon. Latest hero of the masses He is the “hawk.” He is the no-nonsense
man. He is the salvation. Masses are. Asses, Oylem, Goylem.
It was a Saturday night and
Begin was on the verge of signing the infamous, insane Camp David Accords. The
sticking point was Sadat’s absolute refusal to allow Jews to remain, hence the
need to dismantle the settlements and remove the Jews. Begin feared one man.
Sharon. He called him from the U.S.
to ask if he would support the plan. What else was said we can only guess. But what is known is that Sharon agreed to
support it, voted for the Camp David accords in the Knesset (Shamir did not)
and then was appointed Minister of Defense.
And as Minister of Defense, it
was Ariel Sharon, hawk, hero, salvation, who hovered over the area in his
helicopter directing the knocking down of Jewish settlements (and creating a
precedent for Judea and Samaria) and bodily dragging out Jews from their homes.
If Peres had done that, what would the hawk have said? What would the hero have
shouted? What would the salvation have exclaimed? Masses. Asses. Oylem,
Goylem. I know of countless
cabinet ministers in the world, and even some in Israel, who resigned over
principle. If the handling of the “intifada” is so terrible (and it is!) and if
Israel is headed toward disaster (and it is!), why does not Sharon resign? And what can one say about a man who, in
November 1987 and then again in December of that year and again after that,
called for the drafting of Arabs into the army and who condemns Meir Kahane for
his proposal to expel them instead?
Donkeys, asses, are programmed
in their limitations. They cannot see; they cannot grasp reality.
Human donkeys are different. They can – but they are worse than the four-legged
brand because they refuse to see and admit truth and reality. The same
Ariel Sharon is a man whose word is suspect (and I attempt to be kind). In an
interview with the newspaper Ma’ariv on the eve of the 1973 elections, he told
the paper that he supported equal rights for all wings of Judaism – Reform,
Conservatism, as well as Orthodox, and was for public transportation on the
Sabbath. Today he goes to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for his blessings in his
battle against Shamir’s elections plan, and the oylem goylem goes
wild in ecstasy.
And Rabbi Levinger, who is a
good man, just as the Arab he thankfully shot was not, but the Gush Emunim,
which blasted any idea of expulsion of Arabs and instead raised high the lie of
coexistence with them (lest they be branded “racists”), is responsible in the
end for the intifada and for the Arabs who stoned his car. (The February
10, 1984 issue of the Jewish Press carries a long article on a
Levinger’s trip to America. In it he
says: “In Judea and Samaria, in general, there is no trouble. Arabs and Jews
work together, travel together . . . It is not only good to live in a
settlement near Arabs, it is good to live together . . .”
I could go on and on. But
hopefully the point is clear to that percentage of Jews what has risen above
the oylem goylem, who have achieved more than donkey status. Be
honest. Be truthful. And above all,
cease being idol worshipers. A
horror committed by Ariel Sharon is just as horrendous as one committed by
Yossi Sarid. The Likud is not better
than Labor, and neither in the end is Tchiya or Moledet, whose leader, Rechavam
Ze’evi, called for an Arab Vice-Speaker of Knesset and never tires of
disclaiming any attempt to force Arabs out of the country (“I only speak of
voluntary transfer . . . .”)
To go as allies with the best of the worst – of
course. But when the question is whom to
support and join and believe in – the answer is only those whose record is that
of consistency: who never changed and never wavered and never compromised. Anything less than that will never bring
salvation. Ever.
Written July 1989
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