Raumer und Schwarz „Palästina“
Bibliographischer Hinweis
„Das Heilige Land, nach seiner ehemaligen und jetzigen geographischen Beschaffenheit, nebst kritischen Blicken in das Carl v. Raumer’sche "Palästina", von Joseph Schwarz; Deutsch bearbeitet von Israel Schwarz. Frankfurt: J. Kauffmann 1852.
Erwähnt von Rabbiner Samson Raphael HIRSCH in seinem Commentar zur Wochenabschnitt Reéh 11,29:
„…Siehe Raumer und Schwarz Palästina“.
Israel in Crisis: A Threat from Within
28.07.26 - Yakov M. Rabkin
This post is also available in: French
These are not the words of a left-wing anti-Israeli activist from an Ivy League campus. They were spoken on July 19, 2026, by the 96-year-old Rabbi Dov Lando, a senior member of the Council of Torah Sages in Israel. The Council represents Haredi Jews, or Haredim, strictly observant Jews who number one and a half million in Israel alone and are often referred to in the media as “ultra-Orthodox.” Haredi men are visually distinguishable by a two-color dress code, black and white. Constituting about one-sixth of Israel’s Jewish population, Haredim exhibit the highest demographic growth (4 percent). They are young, and nearly one-third of all Jewish school entrants in Israel are Haredim. They have their own independent school system and live largely apart from Israel’s mainstream.
It is this determination to live apart, rather than ideological pacifism, that explains their resistance to conscription. The few Haredim who did join the army in specially created segregated units have acted no less brutally than the average IDF soldier. In his denunciation, Rabbi Lando used the word retsah for murder, the same root as that uttered in the prohibition “Thou shalt not kill” in the Ten Commandments. This choice of language made his accusation particularly grievous.
Indeed, there is little new in his denunciation. Haredi rabbis have long disparaged the Zionist project, particularly its violent character. Unlike many Jewish and Christian Zionists, they do not view the Israeli state as a realization of a biblical prophecy, nor as implying the commandment to occupy the Holy Land. According to one Haredi parliamentarian:
The Zionists are wrong. There is no need to foster love of the land of Israel by political and military rule in the entire land. One can love Hebron even from Tel Aviv … even if it is under Palestinian rule. The state of Israel is not a value. Only matters of spirituality belong to the family of “values.”
Most Haredim reject Zionism, whether secular or religious, do not observe Independence Day or any other official holiday, and avoid contact with the secular majority. Their sons do not serve in the Israeli army, and their daughters do not perform the obligatory alternative service at all; many do not come to a standstill when, every year, sirens summon the population to observe two minutes of silence in commemoration of the soldiers who died for the state of Israel. The chronic violence that the Zionist settlement has engendered for more than a century would, in their view, be ongoing punishment for the violation of the Talmudic oaths prohibiting forceful conquest of the Holy Land.
The context of Rabbi Lando’s vehement denunciation speaks as strongly as his words. The Haredim have been fighting for years to maintain the privilege of being exempt from military service, which is obligatory for both men and women in Israel. This privilege was accorded in order to appease the Haredi opposition to the unilateral declaration of the Zionist state, which occurred in May 1948.
That deal has long been invalidated by Israel’s Supreme Court. A long legislative battle over the issue is on, accompanied by vigorous, sometimes violent, street protests by thousands of Haredi Jews. They break into military facilities and, on at least one occasion, besieged the home of a Supreme Court judge.
As a result of coalition politics, the Knesset passed earlier this month a Basic Law declaring Torah study a “foundational value” of the Jewish people. This enshrines a traditional Jewish value as a law of the country. Israel does not have a constitution—another concession to the Haredi community—and Basic Laws have a quasi-constitutional status.
Another law, passed earlier in the summer of 2026, grants tens of thousands of Haredi draft dodgers temporary immunity from arrest. It also suspends ongoing criminal proceedings against those already facing enforcement measures. The High Court froze implementation of that law a day later and scheduled a hearing on the matter. The battle continues.
Another news item concerning the Haredim sheds light on their alienation. The state mobilized Haredi influencers and rabbis to warn Haredi Jews against collaboration with Iran’s intelligence. Israel and the United States have repeatedly attacked Iran since summer 2025, and there have been reports of Haredi Jews among the scores of Israelis arrested for espionage in favour of Iran.
All this explains growing animosity towards the Haredim in the Israeli mainstream. Many secular Israelis feel squeezed between two growing threats—the Palestinians on the one hand and the Haredim on the other. Israel keeps fighting on seven fronts, and military leaders deplore a dire scarcity of soldiers. While obligatory military service has been prolonged to nearly three years, over 80,000 Haredim refuse even to register at the recruitment offices. Many mainstream Israelis have long experienced the loss of sons and daughters, and they naturally resent the exemption for the Haredim.
The current cycle of violence has pushed tens of thousands of Israelis, tired of regular bouts of reserve duty, to emigrate to Europe and the United States. These are usually younger and better educated, precisely those who ensure Israel’s technological dominance in the region. The Haredim also threaten to leave if the state drafts them into the military. But even if they remain, their low level of scientific and technological education cannot meet the needs of Israel’s high-tech industries. The Haredim’s principled alienation is one of the most serious internal problems undermining the Zionist state as it faces growing hostility from the outside. Israelis would do well to ponder the words of the Roman historian Livy (Titus Livius):“We can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.”
Yakov M. Rabkin is the author of hundreds of articles and several books on the subject, including What is Modern Israel?,Israel in Palestine, and Zionism Decoded in 101 Quotes. He is a founding member of the Independent Jewish Voices.
Yakov M. Rabkin
Yakov M. Rabkin is Professor Emeritus of History at the Université of Montréal
and a founding member of Independent Jewish Voices (Canada). His publications
include over 300 articles and a few books: Zionism Decoded in 101 Quotes, Israel in Palestine: Jewish
Rejection of Zionism, What is Modern Israel?, A Threat from Within: a Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism, Demodernization: A Future in the Past, Science between
the Superpowers and Judaïsme, islam et modernité. He did consulting work for,
inter alia, OECD, NATO, UNESCO and the World Bank. E-mail: yakov.rabkin@umontreal.ca. Website: www.yakovrabkin.ca
From the First Zionist Congress in 1897 to the present — the chronology of Torah leaders who rejected the project, in their own time, from within their own tradition.
1897
The First Zionist Congress, Basel
Orthodox rabbis across Europe — Galicia, Hungary, Lithuania — publicly reject the political program from its first day.
1917
The Balfour Declaration
Britain promises a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine — but not a Jewish state.
1924
The Eidah Chareidis is founded
Established to unite the Orthodox Jews of the Holy Land against the Zionists and their Chief Rabbinate.
1937
The Peel Commission proposes a Jewish state
At the Agudath Israel convention, Rabbi Aaron Kotler and Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman declare that any such state would be a denial of the Jewish belief in the messiah.
Agudath Israel convention
1946
The Anglo-American Committee reports
Recommending that Palestine be neither a Jewish nor an Arab state, Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl urges Zionists to accept the compromise.
R’ Michael Ber Weissmandl
1947
The UN votes for partition
As the conflict escalates, the Brisker Rav works to prevent the declaration of a state.
R’ Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, the Brisker Rav
1948
Zionists declare independence
The declaration triggers a war in which thousands of Jews and Arabs lose their lives.
1959
Vayoel Moshe is published
The Satmar Rebbe’s three-treatise work becomes the classic text on the Torah approach to Zionism.
R’ Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe
1967
After the Six-Day War
The Satmar Rebbe answers claims of divine redemption with his book Al HaGeulah V’Al HaTemurah.
R’ Yoel Teitelbaum, the Satmar Rebbe
1977
The state offers its support
Under Menachem Begin, the Israeli government begins offering tempting funding to religious schools — even non-Zionist ones that teach only Torah.
1979
Keren Hatzoloh is founded
Anti-Zionist communities establish a rescue fund to sustain the schools that refuse government money.
2003
Torah Jews is established
The Satmar community asks Rabbi Moshe Dovid Katz to carry the Rebbe’s voice into the age of mass media.
Natruna · Torah Jews
We said this before the state existed. We are saying it today: Not in our name — not now, not ever.
Fasttage תשעה באב und weitere
CHAUREW
חורבVersuche über Jissroéls Pfichten in der Zerstreuung. 4. Auflage Frankfurt a.M. 1909
Samson Raphael HIRSCH Chaurew S. 124-127
Raumer und Schwarz „Palästina“ Bibliographischer Hinweis „Das Heilige Land, nach seiner ehemaligen und jetzigen geographis...
