This summer, 1,000 rockets a day are expected to land on the inhabitants of central Israel for an undetermined period of time, with thousands of casualties on the cards. This is the reality that emerges from the assessments of the minister for the homefront, the real front, Matan Vilnai and from the recent warnings voiced by newly retired Mossad chief Meir Dagan.
The future of the citizens of the center of the country is being determined in a more secure center. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to devote so-called "Jerusalem Reunification Day," marking the 44th anniversary of the capital, under its current status, in which Jews are citizens and non-Jews are not, to the country's real center - Mercaz Harav Kook, a yeshiva and the center of religious settler messianic ideology.
On his perceived-as-victorious return from Washington, the Rome of today, Netanyahu was welcomed at the messianic core like an anointed king. Taking their seats with all the proper respect and giving their blessings were the police investigation refuseniks, the anointers - Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the ethnic cleansing rabbi from Safed, and Rabbi Dov Lior, the senior messianic rabbi, the rabbi of the first Jewish underground, mass murderer Baruch Goldstein's rabbi, the rabbi of the rulings declaring Yitzhak Rabin a "pursuer" and a "betrayer," and the rabbi behind the book of incitement to murder of non-Jews, "Torat Hemlekh."
In turn, Netanyahu addressed his anointers and their followers, declaring them to be his source of strength in his dealings with U.S. President Barack Obama. "You are the elite special ops unit that leads the nation."
The travel advisory vis-a-vis the east voiced by Dagan is being heard at a critical moment. A historical drama is underway in the target country. A real battle for power is raging between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his sect on the one side, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the traditional regime on the other. The Revolutionary Guard is accusing the president and his followers of blatant messianism; Ahmadinejad is accused of having crowned himself the Mahdi - the Islamic Messiah.
He and his circle believe in apocalyptic messianism. Their connection to nuclear weaponry is dangerous. Despite their extremism, Khamenei and the Iranian establishment are a different story. In Pakistan, too, there are dozens of atomic bombs and Islamic extremists, but the pragmatism in the established system creates stability.
The fact that Ahmadinejad's messianism looks to be on the losing side is crucial. Even those, like myself, who believe in considering dramatic measures to strike at the messiahs of the bomb must know that an Israeli attack would thwart the moves to remove the messianic faction from power. Moreover, as is the case with every messianic movement, Rabbi Akiva, a spiritual leader, is a problem; but the real apocalypse comes only when a Ben Koziva, an apocalyptic messiah, takes over as an anointed Bar Kochba, who led the doomsday rebellion (in his personal case, against the Romans one that brought tragedy upon his people.)
The change in Iran is not fortuitous. In 2003, the Iranian leadership suspended its nuclear program for two years, after assessing that the United States constituted a threat following its invasion of Iraq. Today, the sanctions and, even more so, the regional ferment against oppressive regimes are causing the establishments in the region, as in Iran, to distance apocalyptic messianic elements from power.
Only in Jerusalem is messianism growing stronger. The "crime and punishment" principle has a mythical role in all cultures. In messianic cultures, the upheaval of principles is the essence. When a crime and its punishment are reversed, a messianic sign is born. Netanyahu's rise to power came under such a sign.
After the incitement demonstrations he orchestrated to chants of, "With blood and fire, we will expel Rabin," led to the assassination of a hero and prime minister, the religious right expected punishment - of Netanyahu and of the settlement world. Instead, seven months after the incitement and the murder, the anointed of the right was elected.
And the drama is repeating itself: The modern-day Ben Koziva, Netanyahu, travels to Washington, enters the lion's den and slaps the "black Muslim," aka "president," in the face, and walks away unscathed. Instead of being punished, he wins applause from the elected of the empire. Like Mordechai the Jew in the Purim story whose audacity led to his crowning, our Bar Kochba mounted the horse of public support.
The head-spinning from the messianic victory over the "crime and punishment" gave rise to Dagan's warning. In his opinion, the repeated transition in messianism from the manic to the depressive will end in disaster. From Netanyahu's current sense that he has the ability to ignore U.S. opposition to a strike against Iran, as well as its demand for peace talks based on the 1967 border lines, the leadership, when faced with the price of September, will get spooked and, in the service of messianism and the settlements, the strike on Iran will come to stop the peace on the basis of 1967.
When it was exposed, the Netanyahu propaganda machine swung into full gear again and transformed a right-wing general into a "traitor," "saboteur," "nutcase" and "gang leader" who is "trying to topple an elected prime minister." However, the real gang leader can be seen sitting in the Prime Minister's Residence. Every citizen and every friend of Israel must act to remove his hands from the steering wheel. Never have the words "a matter of life and death" been more accurate.
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