Opinion: Zealotry and Arrogance: Our Historical Recipe for Self-Destruction Alive and Well

Proverbs 16:18” “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall”.

The Israel we see now isn’t new to our collective history. The forces of Zealotry and Arrogance
Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) warns us:

“Only that shall happen which has happened, only that occur which has occurred; There is nothing new beneath the sun!” “The earlier ones are not remembered; so too those that will occur later will no more be remembered than^– those that will occur at the very end.”

George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

We haven’t learned. We haven’t recognized the destructive force of zealotry and arrogance in our history either in biblical or recent times . Today these forces have morphed into a far more lethal and insidious force. They fuel the attacks against democracy in Israel, the conduct of the war in Gaza, the Occupation with the displacement of Palestinians in area C and Jerusalem, the attacks against Christians and the terrorist settlers who kill and destroy with impunity.

Contrary to the myths passed on by our rabbis for generations, the destruction of the Temples and the deaths of Rabbi Akiva’s students were not due to sinat chinam or baseless hatred (arguments without any reason), lack of respect, and the breakdown of civil discourse.  The divisiveness in Jewish society was over life and death issues regarding our survival as a people both physically and spiritually.

The destruction of the First Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE occurred because Israel continued to break the understandings between them and the Babylonians and sought help from Egypt to wage war. Jeremiah attempted to challenge their ill-conceived ideas without success; their arrogance prevailed. Jerusalem fell and a segment of the population were taken to Babylon.

The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE was a result of the actions of the Zealots (Kana’im), a term coined by Josephus, the Jewish historian. They believed in Israel’s election by God; therefore, only God could be their ruler. Other elements wanted to find a path of accommodation with the Romans because they feared the destruction that would follow.

The Zealots struck out against the Romans and even against other Jews. One group, the “Biryonim” were able to gain control of Jerusalem. They destroyed the food and firewood supplies forcing the Jews to fight, leading to their destruction.

The Bar Kochba revolt (132 to 136 CE) also divided the community. Remembering the fall of the Temple, one faction opposed him. Rabbi Akiva considered Bar Kochba to be the Messiah: Bar Kochba thought he was. His students who fought for Bar Kochba were killed by the Romans, not by a plague.

Then we have the dynamic of arrogance. In Hebrew Arrogance, zah-don, has the quality of being presumptuous, of not listening to others and pride. Proverbs give us the idea of “insolent pride” – a pride that is contemptuous …that looks down at others… that dismisses what others say. (Dismissing the words of Jeremiah.)  Insolent pride and honesty usually are not compatible. Instead, we have false narratives, denial, and suppression of information. (Palestine was an empty land. The Nakba did not happen (despite the presence of Israeli documents reporting the atrocities.))

How arrogance plays out.

In Israel (as well as other parts our Jewish world) arrogance is paired with the almost instinctive response of victimhood and a self-righteousness that views any criticism of its policy as hatred toward the Jews. The world is against the Jews; therefore, we don’t have to listen to what is said.

After 1967 Israel was confronted with a conundrum. She held onto all of Eretz Yisrael and faced a population that had no mechanism for a democratic election let alone to make peace.  Jordan did not allow statehood for the Palestinians despite the 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine.  Israel had a choice after 1967: hold onto the West Bank without settling it or settling it. The Fourth Geneva Convention does not permit displacement of an internationally recognized legal sovereign population or a transfer of population. The UN said that the Geneva Convention applied to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Israel said it didn’t because this area was not a state, therefore, the population was not a recognized legal sovereign population.

In Israel’s legal mind, she is right. The West Bank was not a state because of Jordan and the Arab world. But… if Israel’s goal was to find a way to build the conditions for peace, Israel could have said to the world: “We know that the Arab nations did not allow for statehood. We will honor the intent of the Partition Plan and wait until a state that does not threaten us militarily can be realized.”

But Israel couldn’t. Eretz Yisrael is ours. God gave it to us. The Palestinians do not exist as a people historically.  We don’t have to look at the dynamics that shaped their sense of peoplehood.  We don’t have to see the world through their eyes.

Israel’s arrogance has led to two disasters in recent history.  Because Israel believed that the Arab states would not wage a war they could not win, they dismissed reports including one from Jordan’s King Hussein about Arab intentions prior to the Yom Kippur War.

Sound familiar? The massacre on October 7^th did not have to happen. Israel’s own soldiers saw it coming. They were ignored. First, because they were women.  Second, the Arabs are not capable of pulling off such an enterprise. As an example, the IDF redeployed 100 commandos to safeguard the terrorist settlers in the West Bank. In addition, Israel kept letting Qatar give millions to Hamas knowing full well where the money was going.

Our leaders along with a sizeable percentage of our community, have not, do not want to and can’t look at what Israel has become. They want to focus on the hypocrisy of other nations and  antisemitism or anti-Israel rhetoric to avoid looking at Israel’s behavior. They are unable to see and come to terms with what Israel is now: a country driven by a messianic zealotry and an arrogance that rejects international law and any criticism of its actions, and an amoral government fueled by hatred for the Arabs (as well as contempt for non-orthodox Jewry) and a lust for power.

It was not baseless hatred that caused our destruction in the past. It was conflict over choosing a  course of action that threatened our physical existence. Just like now: Zealotry and arrogance that led to the massacre on October 7^th and has caused tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza, created a future of endless warfare on the West Bank, state supported Jewish terrorists killing and destroying at will with impunity, a looming civil war within Israel, and rising antisemitism across the globe.  This is our Israel.