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our Iranian enemy (unless they are destroyed from within, by a miracle of God).

However, when the prime minister attempts to alter, in one fell swoop, the foundational principles of the
Zionist Movement – without external pressure and with no real public discussion – by allowing the
permanent sale of national lands to the highest bidder, we do not hear a word from the rabbis. Most of
them perhaps do not yet know about this. Representatives of the National-Religious [Modern Orthodox]
Movement in the JNF and in the Zionist Movement have come out in support of this post-Zionist
revolution towards privatization of national lands – lands that were both purchased by Jews loyal to the JNF
over the course of 100 years, and lands that the Jewish State maintains due to its existence as a state for the
Jewish people.

And the promise the prime minister made to the JNF leadership: to trade the assets of the Jewish people in
the center of the country with lands in the periphery, most of which are military firing ranges with no real
foreseeable development possibilities, as well as funds to provide an immediate solution to the JNF’s
monetary problems – this promise is a mockery; and this time, the joke is on the Jewish people.

If the prime minister succeeds in his efforts, there won’t be much point in demanding of our enemies that
they recognize the State of Israel as a state for the Jewish people, since it will be possible to buy the land of
the Jewish people on the free market. He surely believes that the Jewish nation can hold onto its land, even
in the free real estate market, but he is terribly mistaken. If he succeeds in quickly passing legislation to this
effect, without a serious discussion about the loss of national supervision over the nation’s lands, we will be
hurled into an irreversible situation. And once hostile forces buy national lands in great quantities, it will
already be too late.

The Shas people did not explain to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef the dangers of transferring Israeli lands into foreign
hands in a precise or correct manner; in particular, they omitted the fact that it will not be possible to
control what happens in the real estate market after this irreversible privatization process. Therefore, the
honorable rabbi could not weigh the “lo tachanem” [“do not be gracious”] prohibitions properly
[prohibitions against land sale to goyim – trans].
The support of this process by Likud members will be recorded in history as decisive testimony that they
are leading the way towards post-Zionism, all the while hiding behind nationalist slogans.
The rabbis fighting for ‘the land of Israel for the people of Israel according to the laws of Israel’ will not
forgive this silence. Privatizing the land is worse than uprooting thousands of settler outposts. The
forefathers of the Zionist Movement embraced one iron principle from the Torah: “And the land shall not
be sold permanently, for it is mine” (Leviticus 25:23) – and they held this principle steadfastly, in order to
give us “a place under the sun.”* True, they also wanted to prevent the high-ranking Jews that controlled
the land from getting rich off of it. This principle is also stated clearly in the Torah, thus the left-wing
Zionists are fighting against this dangerous privatization led by the prime minister along with rabbis for
whom Zionism is not at the top of their agenda.

A Fundamental Decision without Discussion
The Orthodox rabbis and educators are silenced as they watch the left-wing Zionists fighting for Zionist
principles in accordance with the Torah. One of the prominent educators of the National-Religious Youth
Movement told me this week “you are correct on principle, but I cannot bring my chanichim [movement
participants] together with the leftist Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed Youth Movement [Working and Learning

* Translator’s note: this is a reference to Binyamin Netanyahu’s book – A Place Under the Sun: The Jewish
People’s Struggle for Independence, Security, and Peace, 1995