A Nation's Symbols
By Rabbi Berel Wein

(January 11) The difficulty in holding elections in such a time 
of crisis is now apparent to all. The drive for power is so 
strong that recklessness becomes the accepted method of behavior. 
There is no other word than recklessness to describe the current 
behavior of our prime minister and foreign minister. 

The rush to sign an agreement, any agreement, with Yasser Arafat 
and Bill Clinton would be laughable if our eyes were not so 
filled with tears and our hearts with sadness. The strength of 
the elixir of power is so great that those who pursue it are 
convinced that they are selfless and have only the public 
interest at heart. 

We are constantly told that the window of opportunity is closing 
and will never reopen. We are bombarded with threats that war, 
God forbid, is on the threshold if the Clinton plan is not signed. 
We are told that Israel will be blamed in the international arena 
for blocking the peace that the whole world is so anxiously 
waiting for if we do not surrender Jerusalem and bring back the 
Arab refugees. 

What reckless statements! 

Ehud Barak, Shlomo Ben-Ami, Yossi Beilin and the others who are 
pushing for the Clinton peace plan would have a much more 
receptive audience for their cause if they were not running for 
office. Barak's victory at the polls is essential for this group 
to stay in power. There is apparently nothing that will be 
allowed to stay in the way of this drive to stay in power. 
The fact that Clinton's plan not only divides Jerusalem but 
tears the Jewish people and Israeli public into bitterly feuding 
camps seems to be of no concern to the peacemakers. The people 
who are not running for office - Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz, 
Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein and others - have publicly 
warned against the Clinton Plan. No matter, though, because the 
drive for power blinds even otherwise sincere and intelligent 
people to the folly of their behavior. 

The damage being done to Israel and the Jewish cause worldwide 
by the recklessness of accepting the Clinton Plan is immeasurable. 
One only hopes that somehow it will be reversible. 

A NATION is united by symbols. A flag, an anthem, a common history, 
a sense of special pride are all symbols of national unity. The 
Jewish people, over its long centuries of exile when it had no 
flag or anthem, relied on other symbols to unite it. The Bible 
and the Talmud, Jewish values and tradition, became those symbols. 

More than that, Jerusalem, Rachel's Tomb, the Cave of the 
Patriarchs in Hebron, the Western Wall, were our flag and 
anthem. Zionism succeeded only because it promised Jerusalem 
and the reclaiming of Jewish history. 

In all of the bitter contentious infighting within the Jewish 
people over the past century, there still remained a thread of 
Jewish unity - Jerusalem and the Western Wall. All Jews felt an 
affinity to the Holy City and to the place of the Temple. 
And now that slim thread of Jewish unity has been torn by 
those who preach unity and practice divisiveness. 

One hundred and one "rabbis" in America signed a statement that 
waives our rights to the Temple Mount. Who authorized them? 
By what right do they possess the power to annul Jewish history 
and faith? Do they not care that they are ripping the Jewish 
people apart with their recklessness? The leader of the Masorti 
Movement in Israel writes an op-ed piece in this newspaper 
justifying abandoning the Temple Mount and Jewish sovereignty 
over much of Jerusalem. Is this an act of Jewish conscience? 
Will it further Jewish unity, a cause that he espouses? 

Let us leave the military, political and societal fallout of 
the abandonment of Jerusalem, tragic as that will undoubtedly be, 
aside for a moment. Look at the damage it will do to the 
Jewish people and how it will cripple its fragile hold on its 
survival as a faith community. No one will recite "Next year 
in Tel Aviv." Think of how reckless this behavior is. Who can 
estimate the historical effect of the near-certain dire 
consequences of such reckless behavior? 

Bill Clinton will be out of power soon. But he is desperately 
trying to play out a role in history, which is after all the 
greatest bestower of power. 

His presidential statement about the Middle East and the peace 
between Israel and the Arabs is a play to the power thrust 
within him. And our feckless leaders kowtow to this nonsense. 

But history is unforgiving, especially Jewish history. Those 
who wished to be remembered for bringing peace to Israel 
through the Oslo Accords have already seen their reputations 
and memories tarnished by the events of history. Those who now 
behave recklessly with the Jewish symbols of memory and unity 
and destiny will not be remembered as peacemakers. They will 
be remembered as those who needlessly divided the Jewish people 
and ripped out the heart of the people in the midst of a 
terrible moment of crisis. 

Jewish history will not be blinded by the desperate reach for 
power. Loyalty to Jerusalem remains our strongest bond remaining. 
It should not and will not be torn asunder.