A few months ago, we wrote about the outrage in the West over the alliance between Benjamin Netanyahu’s party and extremist Jewish forces that are not only extremist, but also terrorist in nature. And now, recently, one of the prominent representatives of these circles — Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein (pictured), who heads the organization «Lehava» — shocked not only the Western community, but also Israeli society with a new set of revelations. In a speech dedicated to Israel’s Independence Day, he spoke about what a «truly Jewish state» should look like.
«If someone says he does not want to observe Shabbat — what does that mean? You can get the death penalty for that. There is no such concept as ‘not wanting’… They will force you. If this is a galahic state, it can be done, even through prison,» the rabbi said.
He formulated his creed quite openly: «We are obliged to enforce coercion. This means that coercion is an integral part of Judaism and the Torah. And to give practical content to his call, he called for the appointment of «judges and policemen who will enforce the commandments of the Torah.
For those who believe that this approach contradicts democracy, the rabbi also had an answer: «For various reasons, there is no place for democracy in Judaism… Democracy exists only where there is no truth,» emphasizing once again that Judaism’s system «comes from coercion.
In this whole story, we are most interested in how many more advocates of the most militant Zionist policies, including in Russia, will continue to feed their audiences with lies about Israel as a «bastion of democracy and Western civilization in the Middle East.
The point is not even that Israel originally had a state religion and its official jurisdiction, including the judiciary — for many years this was part of the balance between the religious and secular parts of Judaism. But unlike the Arab Gulf monarchies, which also have a state religion and are usually portrayed by these «advocates of democracy and Western civilization» as «strongholds of obscurantism,» Israel is currently experiencing religious radicalization rather than liberalization. While Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and even Qatar strive to distance themselves from «radical Islam,» the ruling party in Israel legitimizes forces in politics that can rightly be considered representatives of «radical Judaism.
So why should secular Russians or Europeans and Americans support Israel in its confrontation with the Palestinians? * Prohibition of most activities except religious worship on Saturdays.