Summary
Eliyakim Haetzni, an attorney in Kiryat Arba, a founding member of the Yesha Council and one of the most articulate spokesmen of the vanguardist camp within Gush Emunim; in Lustick’s Chapter 5 his writings in Nekuda — more frequent than any other author’s — warn of civil war if a government cedes territory and deny that any majority, however large, can legitimate separation from the Land of Israel (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5400-6118).
Details
- In 1985 Haetzni founded Elisha (Citizens for Judea, Samaria, and Gaza) to mobilise political opposition to the Hussein-Peres peace initiatives then under way, and in his book The Shock of Withdrawal from the Land of Israel he argues that Jews faithful to the Land of Israel have the right to resist and even overthrow the State of Israel if it betrays Zionism by relinquishing portions of the homeland to Arab rule (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5400-5618).
- An October 1985 Yesha Council resolution reflected his views, warning that a regime implementing Prime Minister Peres’s proposals would be related to “as an illegal regime as General de Gaulle treated the Vichy regime of Marshal Petain” (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5400-5618).
- Haetzni portrays Peres as the “second Reheboam”, whose policies triggered a civil war and the secession of ten tribes from ancient Judea, and insists that a government ceding territory would negate its own claim to legitimate authority: if a government tried to evacuate 100,000 Jews from their homes by force, “a civil war will break out” (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5900-6118).
- From a biblical, historicist, nonreligious perspective, Haetzni denies majoritarianism any validity on the Land: “Even if 100% of the Jewish inhabitants of Israel should vote for its separation from the Land of Israel” (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5900-6118).
- Reacting to the Reagan initiative, Haetzni suggested that Israel consider joining the Soviet bloc; with Yoel Ben-Nun, from the opposite pole of the movement, he agrees that linking Israel’s fate with gentile political actors should be avoided except for short-term expediency (For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, Chapter 5, lines 5900-6118).
- Haetzni and others have suggested that Yehuda Amital, Ben-Nun and Aharon Lichtenstein, for their concern for the people’s safety and unity, may no longer qualify to be counted within the “camp of those faithful to the Land of Israel” (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, Yesha, Kiryat Arba, Yoel Ben-Nun, Yehuda Amital