After Nakba Day: Arabs Preparing for 'Naksa Day'
by Elad Benari
May 19 '11, Iyar 15, 5771

Following the events of ‘Nakba Day’ (the day marking the ‘catastrophe’ of Israel’s establishment), Palestinian Authority Arabs are now preparing for ‘Naksa Day’, the anniversary of the liberation of Jerusalem by the IDF in the 1967 Six Day War. The so-called ‘Naksa Day’ takes place on June 7, according to the Gregorian calendar.

A website calling itself ‘The Third Palestinian Intifada’ calls on Arabs to pledge an oath of allegiance to Jerusalem on Naksa Day by marching into the city.

A statement on the website claimed that “the Nakba events have proven that Palestine can be liberated through a mass unarmed march, so long as the nation would be willing to pay any price, even a million martyrs. Our intifada continues, Israel will be gone soon, and we will pray in the mosques and churches of Jerusalem.”

Meanwhile, another Arab website called on Arabs to march towards Israel’s borders this coming Friday “in memory of the martyrs of Nakba Day.” Another website issued a call for a ‘day of rage’ on Friday near the Erez crossing.

The Nakba Day events this past week included riots by hundreds of Arabs throughout Israel. In some of the rallies Arabs only hooted at Israeli security forces, while in others the rioters hurled rocks and firebombs at Israeli forces.  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144182

One incident involved nearly 1,000 Syrian Arabs who infiltrated Israel. The Syrians gathered outside the Druze town of Majdal Shams and rioted there, as IDF forces attempted to push them back towards Syrian territory. About 100 of them broke through the border fence, and remained in Israel for several hours.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144177

Israel, van harte gefeliciteerd met je 63-jarige verjaardag !
10 mei 2011, Iyar 6, 5771
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raQq5TNEvvQ

Israel Celebrates 63rd Independence Day
by Gil Ronen
10 mei 2011, Iyar 6, 5771



It began as an effort to do the impossible: revive the Hebrew language and resettle the Jewish People in the Holy Land, almost two millennia after the Jewish capital of Jerusalem was occupied by Roman legions and the Holy Temple burnt down.

Over the centuries, the Jews had seemed to turn into a non-nation: a multicolored world tribe of wanderers, always weeping for their lost glory, always on the run, forever fearful of the wrath of the "normal" nations within whose borders they resided.

All nations recognized the Jews' unique talent, and realized the debt that civilization owed the ancient nation. Monotheism, the precepts of Western morality, the idea of nationality that transcends time and borders, even the seven-day week and the Sabbath were passed on to the world by this Semitic-Mediterranean tribe. 

As the world progressed from "Dark Ages" to modernity, all recognized the utterly disproportionate contribution that Jews made, as individuals and as a group, to the commercial, financial, scientific and political systems that defined the new world. Amazing breakthroughs in knowledge, bold artistic revolutions and earth-shaking world movements were formed and led by the progeny of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'akov. 

Yet no one believed that this nation could ever muster its old spirit and live again as it did in the times of David, Solomon and the dynasties that followed them. The movement toward Zion was seen as a lost cause, or a form of insanity.

Defying the mechanics of the human world

The settlers were Jews of all stripes: religious and non-religious, socialists and businessmen, Jews from Germany and Yemen, eastern Europe and North Africa. Light-skinned, anti-religious intellectuals from Vienna and London shared the land with devout darker-skinned Jews from Muslim-controlled lands. Other than the most basic Jewish tenets and customs like circumcision, the Pesach Seder and the fast of Yom Kippur, they seemed to have little in common. The dream seemed to defy the mechanics of the human world.

If all the difficulties of re-establishing national-territorial life on the ancient homeland were not enough, the Holocaust came. The German war against the Jews annihilated one-third of the Jewish nation with uncomprehensible cruelty. The Nazi armies were destroyed before they could reach the Land of Israel, but surrounding Arab armies were ready to pounce upon the state once it was declared.

Yet G-d was on the side of the Zionists, and in 1948, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, a secular Jew who had received a traditional Jewish education and was steeped in Torah, declared the state's independence. 

Miracle followed miracle: under a socialist government, Israel liberated the ancient capital of Yerushalayim -- Jerusalem. The Temple Mount, the very Seat of Sanctity which served as the connection between Divinity and the earth below it for centuries, the Jewish nation's uplink to G-d Himself, was again in Jewish hands. Yet the time was evidently not ripe yet for the rebuilding of the Temple, and the government of Israel allowed the local Muslims to continue to run the Mount, which they had captured 13 centuries earlier.

A time of hesitation

In the decades since, the Jewish nation has grown deeper roots into the soil of the Land. Torah study has never been as popular as it is, and the economy, amazingly, is considered one of the world's strongest. Religious Zionists are seen by many as the new social and ideological leadership of the nation, showing the way for the rest of the Jews in their idealistic settlement of the land and the family values that swell their numbers yearly. Every year, the dream of rebuilding the Temple is becoming more clearly defined and easier to imagine.

Sixty-three years down the line and many wars later, Israel is stronger than it ever was in terms of security, population and economy. Yet it faces new challenges - including an urgent need to redefine its goals and rekindle the fighting spirit that typified its early decades.

There is a confusion, too: a sense that the time has come for a political decision in the Holy Land, between the identity of the wandering Jew and that of the national Jew. The wandering Jew camp warns that insisting on the dream of full Jewish revival is suicidal. The national Jew camp says that only through true belief in the Torah promise and their divinely-ordained destiny can the Jews survive and triumph.

As the Muslim world turns increasingly to its religion, it appears to challenge the Jews to do the same. As the Muslims act upon their perceived destiny of world conquest, they seem to dare the Jews to realize their ordained fate of global leadership. Yet the Jews hesitate -- unsure if the time is right, afraid of what some see as irrationality and ill-fated "Messianism," unable to locate a leader who will inspire them sufficiently to take the plunge of faith.

Plagued by doubt, they retreat instead of conquering. They negotiate in good faith with child-murderers. They reward brutal criminals and arrest pioneers. The Jewish state appears to some to have turned upon itself, as if it is trying to hide from the world.

Another miracle is needed. 

Letter From a Friend to a Fallen Hero
by Hillel Fendel
9 mei 2011, Iyar 5, 5771

Noam Apter, 23, a student in Yeshivat Otniel on leave from the army, was murdered by Palestinian terrorists on a winter Sabbath night in late 2002, together with three of his friends. The four were caught in the kitchen of the yeshiva’s dining room on kitchen duty, and Noam heroically locked the dining room door in order to save his dozens of friends eating the Sabbath meal. The terrorists were unable to open the door separating them from the other students, though they kicked, banged, and shot at it. "I do not know how to explain that a person closes himself up inside [to save his friends], knowing that he will die," said one of the yeshiva staff afterwards.

In honor of Memorial Day, his friend Avishai Mizrachi wrote the following letter, published in Hebrew on the Kipa.co.il Judaism site.

Noam:
You would certainly be amused if you knew that I was writing about you. Your smile still appears to me from every direction; you had good-natured eyes, with a spark of mischievousness playing about them. If those accursed terrorists only knew how much innocence and softness they were taking… And the bullets that perforated your body and mercilessly splashed your blood to the ground – if they would have received a soul for just a moment, they would likely have turned themselves away from the range of your death.

…What did you think to yourself there? Tell me, what were you thinking when you locked the doors of the kitchen and closed yourself and your life up and exposed your body to the terrorist fire, and saved tens, tens of your friends? From where did you get the strength, the daring?

For we were together in the same room in Kfar HaRoeh [yeshiva high school], six of us, on three bunk-beds in a crowded room. We laughed so much together, and hiked, and talked about profound things deep into the night. You would always return from Shabbat in your parents’ home with new insights, with interesting thoughts. How did you suddenly turn into a hero? Into a photo in the newspaper? Into words engraved on a tombstone?

And that dark, stark night, the end of the holy Sabbath. Whispers of rumors were heard that there had been an attack in Otniel. I prayed so much that you were not there – but my prayers went unanswered. I traveled from Kiryat Shmonah [in the north] down to the cemetery in Shilo for your funeral, a long night with tears flooding my eyes. To see your friends in the army, with red berets, paratroopers’ wings, carrying your coffin in silence. I searched all around for your smile, I so much wanted to hear your rolling laughter. And your father humming next to you a last Sabbath song with tearing eyes, “He who keeps the Sabbath, the son and the daughter, will be pleasing to G-d like a [Holy Temple] skillet offering.”

…Noam, the world did not stop, even after your death. Its heart is still beating wildly, and did not stop even upon hearing your last dying gasps. People here, in this world, love life and repress the finality that awaits us, the death that is waiting to come upon us. And you, you are most certainly enjoying yourself there among the angels and seraphim in that other world, the eternal world, the one that is hidden from the eyes of all thinkers.

Yours, 

Avishai

Thoughts for Israel's Independence Day
by Hillel Fendel
May 6 '11, Iyar 2, 5771
A compendium of inspiration for Israel’s upcoming 63rd Independence Day - Part One

Rabbi Marc D. Angel, New York:

…Yes, Israel. This tiny country--surrounded by enemies, threatened constantly by terrorism and war, subject to an Arab economic boycott, frequently maligned by the media, torn within by ethnic and religious strife--is among the world's happiest countries [according to a Gallup World]!
Given its many problems, why is Israel so happy?  Why is it among the happiest, most thriving, most creative countries of the world?               

I believe the answer is: the grand human spirit of the people of Israel. Israelis--in spite of many differences among themselves--recognize that they are part of an incredible, dynamic adventure. Israel is the only example in the history of humanity of an ancient nation exiled from its land, forced to live (often under horrific conditions) as a minority group scattered throughout the world--who after nearly 2000 years returned to its ancestral land, revived its ancient language, and re-established its historic culture.  Israelis--and all members of the Jewish people--understand that we are living in a unique period of history.  Israelis are happy not only because they are thriving intellectually, culturally, scientifically, militarily; but because they understand that their lives mean something, that they are pioneers in restoring the honor and strength of the Jewish people after centuries of powerlessness and disgrace…

Rabbi Avraham Yisrael Sylvetsky, Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav Kook:

…But we are still in the midst of the process. He "Who gathers Israel from the four corners of the world" has not yet restored our "judges as of yore", and the [resulting] "sadness and sorrow" have not yet been removed [quotes based on the 11th and 12th blessings of the Amidah prayer - ed.]. The legal establishment, our shame, is still a patchwork of British law and Turkish law, while the true justice of Torah law is abandoned by the wayside… Corruption, too, has spread in various parts of the government, where there is no Torah and the heart is not directed heavenward.

It appears that precisely this low point that we have reached is leading the Nation of Israel to recognize the need to build a new foundation of government and justice according to Torah, ‘whose ways are pleasant and whose paths are wholly peace.’ …

The State has already been established – the Jewish body is recovering from its sickness, the wounds of the Exile are healing, the limbs are getting stronger – and it is well on its way, with G-d’s help, to reaching complete health.

Rabbi Shmuel Yaniv, Givat Shmuel:

The State of Israel was established in the year 5708 to the Creation of the World – and the 5,708th verse in the Torah reads, “And G-d will bring you to the Land inherited by your forefathers, and you will take possession of it, and He will do good to you…” (Deut. 30,5)
 
Rabbi Beryl Wein, Jerusalem:

The Prophet Ezekiel warned the Jewish people 2,500 years ago not to think that they are like other nations. Independence Day of the State of Israel is not like Bastille Day in France, Canada Day, or the 4th of July. If our Independence Day takes on the same status as other Independence Days around the world, it loses its spiritual and emotional significance.

Independence Day Thoughts, Part two
by Hillel Fendel
May 8 '11, Iyar 4, 5771

Part Two: A compendium of inspiration for Israel’s upcoming 63rd Independence Day 

The late Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira, Dean of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav Kook:

Israeli independence has two aspects. First, that we are able once again to fulfill the positive Torah commandment of living in and settling the Land, making Aliyah, and conquest, in accordance with Nachmanides, who added that when Moses told Joshua, ‘Ascend and inherit,’ he meant it for all generations, not just for that period… and this has returned to us all at once, after 2,000 years. The second thing is the very fact of the end of the Galut (Exile), that catastrophic period in which the Nation of Israel was missing its wholeness; the Torah is not complete in the Diaspora, and G-d rescinded His creation of the Galut.  We pray every day before Kriat Shma for several things that all belong together: Torah, the breaking of the yoke of Exile from off our necks, and our upright return to our Land. They all belong together…

Rabbi Chaim Druckman, head of the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva and Dean of Yeshivat Ohr Etzion:

What does the Psalmist mean by, "When G-d effects the return to Zion, we were like dreamers..."? There are several explanations, but I would like to offer another one, one that I have learned from my life experience:

Consider a teacher standing in front of his class, and he sees a student dreaming – not sleeping, but thinking about something else… The student is totally detached from the lesson. If you ask him afterwards what happened in the class, he won’t know, because he was dreaming. 

We, today, are like that student. After 2,000 terrible years of Exile and suffering and pogroms and rivers of blood, we merited to have G-d return us to Zion! – but we were dreaming, like that student. We were stuck in our problems, in our complexes, in our issues, detached from the greatness of what was going on, not noticing what Hashem gave us, not realizing what G-d has done for us... It is very important not only to say this, but to truly think about it. Independence Day is our chance to rise up above our daydreaming.

Rabbi Avraham Wasserman, Yeshivat Ramat Gan:

Of late, some among us have had difficulties rejoicing at the level we used to on this day. The members of the religious-Zionist public specifically are well aware of all the difficulties and pain [having directly to do with the institutions of the State of Israel]. 

But if we look deeply at the Hallel prayer [recited on this day], we see that it is not only a joyful prayer, but has its share of ‘tearful pleas’ as well. There is Hodu, ‘Give thanks to G-d, for He is good,’ 118,1, and Zeh hayom, 'This is the day… we will rejoice in it’ (118,24) - but there is also Min hameitzar, 'When in straits I called to G-d,' 118,5. In Psalm 116, we have ‘How can I repay G-d for all His goodness? – just two verses after ‘I am greatly afflicted’ … and Ana Hashem ’'Save us O G-d,' 118,25. In short, Hallel has lots of joy, but also much pain, prayer, and pleas…

It could be that this is the very solution. Even on great holidays, we must know that there is much left to improve.  This is even more true on Independence Day. We have a country that is still developing, that is full of challenges, failures, victories, and defeats. Hallel is very appropriate for this. It describes the situation as it is: We sometimes feel that we are in straits, and sometimes we are joyful. This is the complex reality in which we live. At various times we will identify with one aspect, and at times with another…

But despite all, we must take at least this one day a year to realize the great goodness that G-d has bestowed upon us…

Part 3: Independence Reflections Part Three: A compendium of inspiration for Israel’s upcoming 63rd Independence Day

Former Chief Rabbi of Israel Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv:

I feel we have not yet found the proper way of commemorating Independence Day. I therefore think that, in light of the tremendous success of the Passover Seder night throughout the Jewish world these thousands of years, there should be, together with the synagogue prayers on Independence Day even, a festive meal at night with the family, in which we tell and recount about that period, and about the transition from Holocaust to Revival, from Exile to Homeland. A meal of this nature wold enable the adult generation to pass on the stories of the miracles and wonders that happened to us, to the next generations...

Attempts have been made to formulate a "Haggadah," but they did not work; it could be left to each family to do according to its best understanding. The idea is to gather the family together, not in giant park cookouts, but in the home, in order that the youngsters should get to know what happened then... In general, we must strengthen the triple strand of The Nation of Israel in the Land of Israel according to the Torah of Israel.

Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin: We Felt the Redemption

I was born into World War II, when the Land raged betwen the Holocaust that was taking place in Europe and the desire to be freed from the British yoke... After the war, we "were as dreamers," knowing that with all the tribulations, our dream was to be fulfilled; there was all the suffering of the Holocaust, together with the strengthening of the Jewish population in the Land, with the illegal Aliyah between 1945 and 1948. We all felt that the dream of our fathers was being fulfilled.

I was son to a family that had arrived in the Holy Land back 100 years before political Zionism began, a descendant of the families of the students of the Gaon of Vilna who arrived in 1809, and I knew that we truly were facing redemption - the Redemption of the People and the Land.

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Effie Eitam, former head of the National Religious Party:

Standing Tall Despite the Tsunami

It should not be taken for granted that we exist as an independent nation - neither physically nor spiritually. Physically, it requires constant effort and sacrifice, and spiritually - we are renewing our national life, language and heritage, at a time when other cultures are becoming swamped and overtaken by the cultural and religious tsunami of either the West or radical Islam - yet we are maintaining and perpetuating our independence and uniqueness......

The late Rabbi Sha'ul Yisraeli, Rosh Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav Kook:

We Must Not Blame G-d for Our Abuse of His Good

[In answer to a question regarding the obligation to celebrate Independence Day in light of problems caused in and by the State of Israel, such as the many Sephardic Jews whose families were long observant in the Exile yet became not religious in the State of Israel.]

Jewish law states clearly that if one's father dies and leaves him a great inheritance, he must recite two blessings - one in sorrow over his father's passing, and one in joy for the fact of the inheritance... We see that even if joy is mixed with even greater sorrow, the joy is not lost, but rather requires a blessing of its own. This means that in our case, our joy at being saved and becoming free is not swallowed up by any sorrow, but rather requires us to express our thanks to G-d.

But more fundamentally, we must distinguish between our obligation to thank G-d for the goodness He has given us, and the way in which we utilize it... For instance, Israel sinned grievously with the Golden Calf, which they made out of the gold and silver they received just before the Exodus from Egypt. Yet we still thank G-d for those riches, even though they led to one of our greatest national sins... The same is true with our entry into the Land of Israel, which later brought about great sins that led to our exile - yet we still thank G-d for it, in the Blessing after Meals and elsewhere!... Blessings such as wealth are often a test for us - yet we thank G-d for riches, even though there is no guarantee that we will use them correctly...

Reflections on Israeli Independence - Part four
by Hillel Fendel
9 mei 2011, Iyar 7, 5771

Part Four: A compendium of inspiration for Israel’s upcoming 63rd Independence Day

IDF Chief Rabbi Brig.-Gen. Rafi Peretz (for Memorial Day):

There is no greater friendship than comrades in arms standing on Memorial Day at the graves of their friends and vowing in their hearts to continue, to continue to defend the Land, the State, the Nation…

Rabbi Zevulun Leib Barit, of Plunge, northwest Lithuania, 1890:

All our brethren of Israel know and recognize the greatness of the concept of settling the Land of Israel, for there is nothing as precious by which to save the exiles of Israel as this. Why, then, do they not all gather together to strengthen this matter to support the Jewish artisans and farmers in the Land of Israel?... It is only because whenever there is something positive and desirable in the eyes of G-d and man, the Satan comes and interferes…

And those who say they object [to the Zionist enterprise] on religious grounds in that it is “forcing the Redemption” - this is not even worthy of response, for who is fool enough to think that this is the future Redemption?  Even those who say this is the beginning of redemption, say only that it is a mitzvah [Torah commandment] to redeem our Land and to rebuild its ruins, and they consider this the redemption of the Land – but not the Redemption of Israel that will come when G-d has mercy on His nation and will reveal His holy strength to all the nations.  And in addition, I wonder: What type of “forcing the Redemption” can this be? We believe with perfect faith that if Israel will fulfill G-d’s will and do teshuvah (return to G-d), they will be immediately redeemed – can it then be claimed that if someone does teshuvah and fulfills G-d’s will, he is considered a sinner for ‘forcing the Redemption’?!

Rabbi Eliyahu Ki-Tov, author of Sefer HaTodaah (Book of Our Heritage), 1962:

After raising many questions about Independence Day and concluding that the day's religious significance of the day is still shrouded in uncertainty: )

…Therefore, if you see people of Israel who wish to thank [G-d] for the goodness He has shown, yet their hearts are still full of anxiety regarding all that is still missing, and they await and long for G-d’s complete salvation – join up with them! For the Messiah ben David has still not yet arrived, and the vision of the prophets is still far off. And we must never despair, for not even one iota of what they promised will go missing, and we will continue to demand the fulfillment of all they promised [as in Isaiah 49,51,54, and more].

But, if you see people of Israel whose heart is divided between good and bad and do not recognize the good and cannot thank G-d for it, and cannot distinguish between G-d’s work and that of the Satan – ask for mercy for yourself and for them, to be saved from this blindness and not to fall prey to the sin of ungratefulness, Heaven forbid. You should rather fill your mouth with song and praise to the G-d of Israel for all He has done, does, and will do for His nation, all of Israel, from now and forever… Offer praise in whatever words your heart hears and your soul feels excitement; who knows how much longer it will be until there will be a set wording for this praise that is acceptable to all of Israel…

Based on an article by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Dean of Yeshivat Har Brachah:

Independence Day is celebrated as a religious holiday for the following reasons:

• It is a positive commandment to thank G-d for His miracles and favors, and to enact holidays to this end.
• The establishment of the State, in the wake of centuries of pogroms that culminated with the Holocaust, saved many Jewish lives, and helped buttress the Jewish People's spiritual condition.
• The establishment of the State removed the shame of Exile and the accompanying desecration of G-d's Name, as in Ezekiel 36, verses 4, 20, and others.
• The establishment of the State of Israel facilitates, for both individuals and the nation as a whole, the fulfillment of the Torah commandment to settle the Land of Israel.

Part Five: Reflections on Israel Independence Day
by Hillel Fendel
10 mei 2011, Iyar 6, 5771

Part Five: A compendium of inspiration for Israel’s upcoming 63rd Independence Day 
 
The late Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel (died in 1935, 13 years before the establishment of the State of Israel):

The Land of Israel is not something external, an external national acquisition, a means for the purpose of general uniting together and sustaining the material - or even spiritual - existence of the nation. The Land of Israel is an independent entity that is linked via a bond of life with the nation...

A state (country) is not the supreme happiness of man. This is referring to a regular state, which is nothing more than a large society of mutual responsiblity, above which the crown-of-life concepts hover but do not touch it. This is not the case in a state whose very foundation is ideal, and in the essence of which is engraved the most supreme content of ideals, which truly are the supreme joy of the individual. Such a state truly is the highest joy, and this state is ours, the State of Israel, the foundation of G-d's throne in the world, whose entire desire is that G-d shall be One and His Name shall be One, which is the supreme joy in the world...

Rabbi Chaim Druckman, head of the Yeshivot Bnei Akiva:

The special prayers for Independence Day begin with Psalm 107, in which we say, "Hodu LaHashem - Give thanks to G-d, for He is good, His kindness is everlasting." The Psalm lists those who must give this thanks - "those who are redeemed by G-d, those whom He has redeemed from enemies, and gathered them from different lands, from east and west, north and south..."

And I ask: Do we realize that this Psalm is talking about us?! That this Psalm refers to us, that we are the ones who have been redeemed, that we are the ones who must give expression to our deepest thanks to Hashem for the kindnesses He has done for us?...

[He then cites the Meiri, a 13th-century commentator, who says that the Psalm was written in prophecy regarding the "redemption from our current long exile with its grave troubles... and when G-d redeems them and they will be saved from it all, they will thanks G-d and publicize His wonders and return to their desolate land and build cities and will be successful [as the Psalm states] and the land will be filled with knowledge..."]
 
Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, Rabbi of Ramat Gan (explaining in brief why we say the Hallel prayer of praise on Independence Day):

The very fact of the renewal of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel after 2,000 years of destruction and exile is a tremendous historic event, for which we must thank G-d. We also thank Him for having saved us from our enemies. The Jews who came here were saved from grave dangers hanging over their heads. Of course, the Jewish population in the Land of Israel was also save dfrom destruction, Heaven forbid. And in addition, for the Ingathering of the Exiles, the flowering of the desert, and the establishment of the largest Torah center in the world. Shlomo Fisher, Director of the Yesodot Center for Torah and State, One who [reads the Torah] cannot overlook the constant presence of non-Jews - often referred to as "your strangers within your gates" (gerei toshav, who accept the government of Israel] - in all situations of total religious actualization... When the Torah speaks of the Kingdom of Israel and a complete Jewish society in the Land of Israel, it reserves an equal place for civil rights and justice to the non-Jew as well... On this basis, I therefore propose that specifically in order to actualize the G-dly ideals, the State of Israel must deal with the presence of non-Jewish citizens... Our relationship to Jews is mostly regulated by the Torah's commandments [while] our relationship to non-Jews is regulated by natural ethics. We must relate to them with the fairness demanded by natural ethics, which of course also includes the way we relate to enemies of the State. Such that in order to establish the complete structure of G-d's kingdom, we must include everyone: religious and secular, right-wing and left-wing, and even Jews and non-Jews. This entireness is our State - the State of Israel.

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