A few years back I read of a small group of orthodox jews who live in Israel. These people feel that the contemporary jewish state is an act of defiance against God, and actually delays the coming of the messiah!
My question: how widespread are such beliefs? Was it an act of hubris to have founded the modern state of israel? What do these folks propose should be done? ;j
I dont pretend to understand the theology behind it but they claim Israel is a heresy and true Jews cannot support it. Israel cannot be founded before the messiah or something like that, thus the contemporary state is an abomination in their eyes. They claim their position was the standard orthodox position prior to the founding of Israel and is still held by ‘hundreds of thousands’ of the orthodox.
They have various websites
What they claim should be done is Israel be abolished, the land shared and they live in peace with the arabs.
oops hit submit accidentally
They are descended from the pre-Zionist Jewish population of Palestine and arent happy that they were colonised by European intruders. By their own account they were quite happy before and got along with their neighbours and blame the Zionists for coming and starting the violence. They regard themselves as oppresed by the state of Israel and seek cabinet representation in any future Palestinian state.
There are several religious groups holding simlair beliefs (as these beliefes were the 19th century Jewish orthodoxy), but are infact in may ways diametrically opposed:
Ultra-Orthodox groups like ‘Jews Against Zionism’ (not to be confused with non-religous left-wing groups like ‘Jews Aganist Racism (and Zionsim)’) and ‘Rabbis Against Zionism’ are not Israel based and they believe that Jews should not live in the holy land full-stop (any Jew holding a contrary position according to them does not follow the Torah)and until the coming of the messiah. Because of these religous beliefs they display great animousity to Israel and are generally supportive of the Palestinian cause. These groups generally propose a bi-nationalist solution.
There are other Ultra-Orthodox religious groups witihin Israel and the occupied terriotries that refuse to recognise Israel (for simlair relgious reasons) and hence do not pay taxes or do national service (a major source of friction with the rest of Israel’s predominatly secular Jewish population), however they tend to represent the most extreme right-wing in Israeli politics (as opposed to the afforementioned groups who tend to find their views most in sympathy with the extreme left-wing of Israeli politics). These Orthodox groups vote for the most right-wing parties in Israel (Israel’s low-threshold voting system means that despite their small numbers they are still able to influence government policy on issues such as family law and the settlemnts), and whilst refusing to recognise Israel, support the policies of contiuned occupation and settlement.
Boths groups are quite small in number.