The American Revolution

Israel Insider ^ | July 16, 2002 | Yehoshua Mizrachi

[WaterDragon]

The American Revolution has begun. On the jet plane heard around the world, 400 North American olim arrived in Israel this week through the good offices of Nafesh B'Nefesh - Jewish Souls United.

This planeload of olim heralds a revolutionary change in the moribund North American aliyah enterprise. Fifty years of effort have resulted in the planting of only 40,000 North American olim, less than 1% of the total Israeli population...(snip)

But there is more to this historic story. July 9th also marked another significant commemoration, though it was quieter in its own way and largely eclipsed by the Nefesh B'Nefesh arrival. Tammuz 29 marks the 62nd anniversary of the passing of Ze'ev Jabotinsky.

Many people don't know much about Jabotinsky, or his seminal contributions to Zionist life and thought. Through the Jewish Legion, the Haganah, and the Irgun, which he founded, he implanted in the timorous Jewish heart the concept of modern Jewish self-defense. In what may be his most enduring legacy, he fought bitterly with the Labor Zionists and their slow program of socialist, agrarian development of Israel, arguing instead for investment capital and private enterprise to rapidly build up the Land. While the fractious Zionist Organization capitulated to every British White Paper demand which chipped away at Jewish rights in Palestine, Jabotinsky's New Zionist Organization was working towards establishing 10 million Jews in Palestine in 10 years, by all available means, legal or illegal, hoping to thus prevent the conflagration forsaw looming in Europe. He went to the United States three times in his life to solicit support for his fiery brand of anti-socialist Zionism, and died in New York at the premature age of 59 in the summer of 1940.

This past weekend, Tommy Lapid, a secularist Israeli politician with a shrill voice and a shrinking constituency, publicly disparaged these idealist families in a major American newspaper, saying that Israel was better off without religious North American emigres.

Tommy couldn't be more wrong. Israel's future positively depends on them. They come because they are making a statement about the centrality of Israel in Jewish life. They come to support the Zionist enterprise. They want the priorities of their prayers to be in consonance with the direction of their daily lives. And, like my family six months ago, they come to make a contribution to our common future, to help fix what's broken in Israel.

They come to help restructure the Labor Zionists' moribund socialist economy that boasts one of the most onerous tax systems in any developed country. They come to grow the economy and create new jobs for our 250,000 unemployed. They come to help throw out the scoundrelsho have the chutzpah to raise taxes in the midst of a deep recession. They come to help reform a political system that is controlled by a socialist elite and is largely unresponsive to the will of the people. American Jews are uniquely suited to make these kinds of contributions to Jewish society, with our entrepreneurial skill, resourcefulness and strong tradition of representative democracy. These efforts, more than the handouts from American benefactors, will ensure a viable Israel into the future. This is the Peace Corps on the steroids; it is nothing less than the business of nation building.

So by coincidence, Tammuz 29 marks both an end and a beginning - and Jews don't believe in coincidence. The Nafesh B'Nefesh flight left from the place where Jabotinsky died, to arrive in Israel on the day he died. I can imagine no finer memorial to this great Jew. (snip)

For complete article, click here.

[Eala]

They come to help restructure the Labor Zionists' moribund socialist economy that boasts one of the most onerous tax systems in any developed country.

Please, please, please tell me how we can persuade all their fellow-travellers left behind here to join them???!

[WaterDragon]

Socialism is not wanted anywhere that it's pulling down economies, including the U.S. Look at the Democrats....their answer to a dip in the economy is to RAISE our taxes. And they think we shouldn't spend so much money on this war against terrorists. Instead, they want us to spend more on social programs where they are so good at buying votes!

I wish the Jews who went to Israel from America safety and every success, but they will be missed here.

The answer to socialism, wherever, is conservatives getting active politically, voting, and getting out the conservative vote. DUMP THE DEMOCRATS.