Summary
Rabbi Eleazar Waldman, head of the Kiryat Arba Yeshiva and a Tehiya Knesset member, a leading disciple of Tzvi Yehuda Kook whose statements in Lustick voice the movement’s doctrine that Arab hostility is metaphysical and that redemption cannot be completed except through war (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 4, lines 3625-4118).
Details
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Waldman was among the Gahelet graduates taught by Tzvi Yehuda Kook in the mid-1960s who became future leaders of Gush Emunim (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 2, lines 1765-1790).
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In 1984 he was the most prominent religious figure still associated with Tehiya and the only religious candidate elected to the Knesset on the Tehiya-Tzomet list that year (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 3150-3300).
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Lustick records that Waldman and other Gush leaders who appeared to have had prior knowledge of the March 1983 Temple Mount digging operation criticized its modus operandi but expressed support for the group’s objectives, and that leading figures including Waldman must, in most observers’ view, have given at least tacit approval to the Jewish Underground (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 3, lines 3250-3560).
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In Chapter 4 Waldman reassures fundamentalists troubled by the Lebanon War that by fighting the Arabs Israel serves as the heart of the world, and Arab hostility springs from the world’s recalcitrance in the face of Israel’s mission to save it; he holds that “It is impossible” “to complete the Redemption by any other means” than war (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 4, lines 3800-4050).
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In Chapter 5 Waldman and Yisrael Yaacov Yuval draw opposite lessons from the same Orot on war and redemption: Waldman quotes Rav Kook that “When war breaks out, the power of the Messiah is aroused” and comments that completion of Redemption is still impossible by any means other than war (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 4619-4850).
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Waldman opposes any formal agreement relinquishing the East Bank of the Jordan to non-Jewish rule, since it is clearly part of the Land of Israel, and holds that the truth must be declared publicly to non-Jews as well as Jews, out of responsibility to the gentiles (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5119-5618).
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Asked about the location of “evil” in the modern world after the Lebanon War, Waldman answered that “Today evil is exhibited by the entire world” and that the State of Israel “is the only state that considers justice and righteousness in the determination of its policies” (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5900-6118).
Related pages
For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Gush Emunim, Tehiya, Tzvi Yehuda Kook, Kiryat Arba, Jewish Underground