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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">‘The Hitleryugend’ or ISIS Israel: The Two Kooks who Nationalized Judaism<br></h1>January 2, 2024</div>
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<img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Pappe_Cooks_pC.png" alt="" title="Pappe_Cooks_pC" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="417" height="280" style="margin-right: 25px;">
(Image: Palestine Chronicle)
<p><strong>By <a href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/ilan-pappe" title="Display all articles for Ilan Pappe - The Palestine Chronicle">Ilan Pappe – The Palestine Chronicle</a></strong> </p>
<blockquote>
<h3><span>The phenomenon of religious Zionism originates in the teaching
of two of the most respected Zionist rabbis, a father and son,
belonging to the Kook family.</span></h3>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Mainstream media and governments in the Global North insist
that we should equate between Hamas and ISIS. This position is modeled
around Israel’s insistence on such a reference. </span></p>
<p><span>Apart from the fact that this is a spurious comparison, it is
particularly important to note that there is a much better case study
that demonstrates the fusion of dogmatic messianism and violence. This
comparison, however, is not a Palestinian phenomenon but an Israeli one.</span></p>
<p><span>This phenomenon originates in the teaching of two of the most
respected Zionist rabbis, a father and son, belonging to the Kook
family.</span></p>
<p><span>Let us first talk about the father, Avraham Itzhak Kook
(1865-1935). He was born in Latvia, in a region that used to be Russian,
and eventually became the father of religious Zionism. </span></p>
<p><span>This messianic, racist, and fundamentalist ideological stream
is now growing in terms of presence and influence among Israeli
political elites, who are trying to follow religiously the teachings and
visions of Rabbi Kook and his son, Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook (1891-1982).</span></p>
<p><b>Kook, the Father</b></p>
<p><span>But first, let’s talk about Kook, the father. </span></p>
<p><span>Avraham Kook arrived in Palestine in 1904 to become the most
important rabbinical authority who challenged the Orthodox Jewish view,
which is still being held today by many Orthodox Jews.</span> <span>This view maintains that Zionism is a secular attempt to tamper with God’s will and, therefore, should not be supported. </span></p>
<p><span>As a chief Rabbi of the Zionist community in Mandatory
Palestine – British colonialism in Palestine from 1918 to 1948 – Kook
gave the religious blessing to the Zionist project.</span></p>
<p><span>From this authoritative position, Kook preached that the right
of the Jewish people to Palestine is God’s will and that rabbis should
do all they can to persuade Jews around the world to come and colonize
Palestine.</span></p>
<p><span>In the 1920s, Kook was very active in demanding the expansion
of the area around the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem through the eviction of
its Muslim inhabitants. He even suggested compensating them, a program
that Israel will, indeed, try to implement after the June 1967 war.</span></p>
<p><span>Kook’s main legacy was a place of learning called </span><i><span>Merkaz Harav</span></i><span>, “the Rabbi’s Center”. </span></p>
<p><span>This institution became an important place in the history of
religious Zionism, because of the massive influence of Kook’s son, Rabbi
Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook. </span></p>
<p><b>Kook, the Son</b></p>
<p><span>Now, let’s talk about Kook, the son. </span></p>
<p><span>Zvi Kook was the true ideological father of the messianic movement </span><i><span>Gush Emunim</span></i><span>, which carried out the Judaization of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip after the war of 1967. </span></p>
<p><span>As the years went by, this movement moved from the margins of
the Israeli political system to the center. In fact, some of its members
became important ministers in various Israeli governments.</span></p>
<p><span>Until his death in 1982, Zvi Kook was far more committed than
his father to the colonization of historical Palestine as a religious
imperative, and as a necessary act needed to hasten the redemption of
the Jewish people. </span></p>
<p><span>Kook’s voice was somewhat drowned when the Labour Party was in
power between 1967 and 1977. During these years, the government was
directly involved in the Judaization process of the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip through ethnic cleansing, and sometimes massacres; but on the
basis of a different ideology: that of secular socialist Zionism.</span></p>
<p><span>Once the Likud came to power in 1977, Zvi Kook rose to
prominence as the spiritual leader of settlers who were colonizing large
parts of the Palestinian West Bank, building their outposts at the
heart of densely populated Palestinian areas. </span></p>
<p><span>The idea was that such an aggressive colonization would
accelerate the de-Arabization of the West Bank. This process was meant
to put Palestinians under pressure by taking over all of their
resources, such as land, water, and even access to the labor market.</span></p>
<p><span>With the help of the army, this ruthless methodology became a
daily practice of abuse, harassment and, in some cases, of directly
killing and wounding Palestinians in the vicinity of these mushrooming
illegal settlements. </span></p>
<p><span>It was convenient for all Israeli governments to pretend that
these expansionist plans were being implemented without their blessing.
But this is a lie. In fact, most of the settlers’ actions in the West
Bank were directly coordinated with the military commanders on the
ground to be later approved by successive governments.</span></p>
<p><span>These groups of vigilantes and vandals, mostly educated at the </span><i><span>Merkaz Harav</span></i><span>, were prodded by Zvi Kook’s religious rulings,</span> <span>edicts
that directed their actions against the Palestinians and preventing any
government from “giving up” even one square inch of so-called ‘Eretz
Israel’. </span></p>
<p><span>It is important to note that, for Zvi Kook and his disciples, ‘Eretz Israel’ includes Jordan as well. </span></p>
<p><span>Additionally, quite a few secular Jews in Israel were admirers
of this brutal form of colonization, seeing it as a continuation of the
‘glorious’ early colonization of Palestine during the mandatory period.</span></p>
<p><b>‘Youth of the Hills’</b><span> </span></p>
<p><span>The most extreme manifestation of Kookism is the </span><i><span>Noar Ha-Gevaot</span></i><span>, the ‘Youth of the Hills’. </span></p>
<p><span>This group, constituted of hundreds of youths, was encouraged
by late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 1998 to “occupy every
free hill in the West Bank and settle there”. This strategy was aimed at
establishing irreversible ‘facts on the ground’, a path towards a full
Judaization of the West Bank.</span></p>
<p><span>The main modus operandi of the </span><i><span>Noar Ha-Gevaot</span></i><span> is known as </span><i><span>Tag Mehir</span></i><span>, or Price Tag. These are particularly unprovoked vicious attacks on Palestinian farms, cars, businesses and fields. </span></p>
<p><span>Occasionally, the members of the group would burn a mosque or a
church in these assaults. Sometimes, it is more than that. They try,
and sometimes succeed, in </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN22U0L2/">burning people alive</a><span> in their houses or killing them during these pogroms. </span></p>
<p><span>During these violent episodes, the Israeli army would stand by and allow the extremists to carry out their attacks unhindered.</span></p>
<p><span>In recent years, this messianic group has entered in a
systematic way into the Palestinian neighborhoods of mixed towns inside
Israel such as Akka, Haifa, Jaffa, Al-Lid and Al-Ramleh. </span></p>
<p><span>They built “learning centers” in the midst of the Palestinian
areas and are constantly harassing the population. These settlers played
an important role in instigating the riots against Palestinian
communities, the ‘48 Arabs, in May 2021.</span></p>
<p><span>The Youth of the Hills added yet another component to their
violent repertoire in recent years, the raiding of Al-Haram Al-Sharif,
the most sacred Palestinian Muslim holy site. Their aim is to instigate a
regional reaction, which, in their minds, would facilitate the building
of the so-called third temple on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque, with the
ultimate hope of precipitating the coming of the Jewish messiah.</span></p>
<p><b>Jewish Power, Religious Zionism</b></p>
<p><span>The Youth of the Hills became even more of a menace after the
November 2022 elections as the two political parties that fully support
them, </span><i><span>Ozma Yehudit</span></i><span> (Jewish Power) and </span><i><span>Haziyonut Hadatit</span></i><span>
(Religious Zionism) significantly increased their representation in the
Knesset. This new-found power allowed right-wing Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to establish his government.</span></p>
<p><span>The representatives of these extremist parties are now
ministers in the current cabinet, with Bezalel Smotrich becoming the
finance minister and Itamar Ben Gvir – who used to be the defense lawyer
of these vigilantes – becoming the national security minister.</span></p>
<p><span>Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, along with other ministers of their
parties, are not part of the small war cabinet created after the events
of October 7. Consequently, they have little impact on the ongoing
genocidal policies carried out by the Israeli army in Gaza. </span></p>
<p><span>However, they will be crucial in determining Israel’s next move, which aims at bringing Jewish settlers back to the Strip. </span></p>
<p><span>Moreover, these extremist politicians are already playing a
part in the intensification of the horrific assaults on the Palestinian
community of the occupied West Bank. Additionally, they are the leaders
of the new campaign of terror and racism targeting the ‘48 Palestinian
Arabs.</span></p>
<p><span>These extremists have already succeeded once, namely, in their
relentless attacks on the villages in Masafer Yatta, in the southern
Hebron Hills. They have done so with the tacit help of the Israeli army,
leading to the eviction of thousands of Palestinians. Successive
Israeli governments have been wanting to de-Arabize that area for
years, in order for Israel to create territorial integrity for Jews from
the Negev (the Naqab) to the Jordan River.</span></p>
<p><span>Quite a few of these religious Zionist representatives are now
making their way into the upper echelons of the Israeli security
services and army. </span></p>
<p><span>Their final goal is to close a circle, which began with a rabbi
who decided to nationalize Judaism as a settler colonial project in the
early 20</span><span>th</span><span> century, and ultimately build a
theocracy that would try and finish what secular Zionism failed to do:
the very destruction of the Palestinian people.</span></p>
<p><span>Moshe Zimmerman, Israel’s leading historian of modern Germany,
had, as early as 1995, compared Kook’s disciples to another group, which
terrorized Jews during the dark days of Nazism. This is what he said in
an interview with the Israeli newspaper </span><i><span>Yedioth Ahronot:</span></i></p>
<blockquote><p><span>“There is a whole sector in Israeli society that I
contend without hesitation that it is a copycat of the Nazis. Look at
the children of (the Jewish settlers in) Hebron, they are exactly like
the </span><i><span>Hitleryugend</span></i><span>…They are indoctrinated
from the cradle about the bad Arabs, antisemitism, how everyone is
against us. They become the paranoid supremacists, precisely like the </span><i><span>Hitleryugend.”</span></i></p></blockquote>
<p><span>Enough said.</span></p><p><span>___________________________<br></span></p>
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<p><img src="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Pappe.png" width="180" height="180" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"></p>
<p><em>– Ilan Pappé is a professor at the University of Exeter. He was
formerly a senior lecturer in political science at the University of
Haifa. He is the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The Modern
Middle East, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples, and
Ten Myths about Israel. He is the co-editor, with Ramzy Baroud of ‘<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Our-Vision-Liberation-Palestinian-Intellectuals/dp/1949762440">Our Vision</a>
for Liberation.’ Pappé is described as one of Israel’s ‘New Historians’
who, since the release of pertinent British and Israeli government
documents in the early 1980s, have been rewriting the history of
Israel’s creation in 1948. He contributed this article to The Palestine
Chronicle. </em></p>
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