by Yehuda HaKohen “The Canaanite king of Arad, who dwelled in the south, heard that Israel had come by the route of the spies, and he warred against Israel and took a captive from it. Israel made a vow to HaShem and said, `If You will deliver this people into my hand, I will consecrate their cities.’ HaShem heard the voice of Israel, and He delivered the Canaanite, and it consecrated them and their cities. It named the place Hormah.” (BAMIDBAR 21:1-3)
Rashi teaches here that the captive abducted from Israel was actually a female slave taken from the Canaanites during a previous battle. That the entire Hebrew Nation mobilized to rescue the captive indicates the appropriate response to even the slightest provocation. By allowing an enemy to rob the Jewish people of even a slave girl, Israel would be displaying weakness and inviting further aggression. But by responding with maximum force, the Hebrews established a deterrence factor meant to discourage future attacks.
Rashi further teaches that the Canaanite king of Arad was in fact not an ethnic Canaanite at all. Rather, he and his soldiers were from the nation of Amalek – a people committed to eternal war against Israel. The Amalekites disguised themselves by speaking in a Canaanite language, revealing a central component of Amalekite propaganda.
While the Amalekite hatred of the Jewish people is an eternal ideological hatred that aspires to genocide and is not dependent on any external factor, Canaanite animosity towards Israel was different. Israel was coming to conquer a country that had at that time been ruled by a loose confederation of Canaanite warlords. Therefore, the Canaanite problem with Israel was based on a dispute over territory while the Amalekite problem with Israel was – and is – a compulsion to remove the Hebrew Nation from the world. By speaking in the language of Canaanites, Amalek hoped to give the impression that its war was based on a territorial dispute rather than on a desire to eradicate the Jewish people.
This phenomenon has repeated itself in modern history. Until the 1960s, Israel’s regional antagonists spoke openly about “driving the Jews into the sea” and “finishing what Hitler started.” It was a very clear message. Then the Soviet Union created what was called Zionology – a highly sophisticated school of propaganda aimed at distinguishing opposition to Jewish nationhood from a no-longer-politically-correct general hatred of Jews. The Soviets invented a way to be anti-Zionist without being labeled anti-Semitic.
Zionology was born a few years prior to the Six Day War but only gained heavy momentum following Israel’s victory. The Soviets trained their proxies in the Middle East to speak in the language of national liberation. Anti-Israel movements like Fatah – who had until then ideologically identified with German Nazism – suddenly began to present their genocidal aspirations as a third world anti-colonialist struggle. The Amalekites began to speak in a Canaanite language and with full Russian support they managed to convince much of the world that the Jewish Nation has no legitimate right to political independence in the ancestral Jewish homeland.
The most effective way to combat Zionology is to educate the world to the justice of Jewish rights. An ancient indigenous Middle Eastern people that – after being victimized by Western imperialism, broken, enslaved and scattered throughout the world – has against all odds succeeded in reuniting on its native soil, reviving its ancient language and liberating its homeland from British occupation should naturally enjoy the support of those who struggle for justice across the globe.
Like any other authentic indigenous people, the Jewish people has a legitimate right to self-determination in our entire homeland. But while we have every legal, moral and historic fact on our side, we have on the whole proven incapable of articulating these facts. The unfortunate paradox is that while Zionist activists who firmly believe in the justice of our rights have largely disdained advocating those rights to the outside world as a sign of inner weakness, those who understand the importance of advocacy are for the most part apprehensive about championing our national rights and instead opt for flimsy talking points aimed at branding Israel as a Western country willing to succumb to international pressure and surrender the cradle of Jewish civilization.
The Nation of Israel requires strong and articulate Zionist leaders who possess both an unbreakable faith in the justice of Jewish rights as well as an understanding of the necessity to present those rights in a clear and moral language that everyone can understand. To refrain from educating the outside world to the justice of our struggle is not only an irresponsible transgression against the Zionist Revolution but also unfair to all of the righteous gentiles who genuinely care about indigenous rights, support authentic liberation movements and would likely champion our cause if given the chance to understand the justice of our narrative.
A central goal of Israel’s Redemption is to bring all of Creation to the awareness of HaShem as the one and only absolute reality that creates, sustains and affectionately empowers all that exists. And an initial step of this lofty goal is connecting people to the story of the Hebrew Nation. As the heart of humanity and the national expression of G-D, Israel is the leading protagonist of world history and the more we succeed in connecting people to our story the more we are actually bringing them closer to HaShem. By helping mankind to recognize and identify with our national rights and with the challenges we still face on the road to liberation, we are actively participating in the goal of Creation by means of advancing the Redemption and bringing existence closer to perfection. Shabbat Shalom.
With love of Israel,
-Yehuda HaKohen
Am Segula
