The Survival of Israel

Unfortunately, many readers of Kahane’s piece haven’t read all of Kahane’s writings. After the Arabs will come the Jews who don’t fit Kahane’s interpretation of who is a Jew and what is Judaism.

Within Israel itself, this battle is now raging. The leaders who want a theocracy, and not a democracy, have among them many of those who live in Jerusalem’s Meir Shearim. These ultra-orthodox don’t recognize the state’s being, as it wasn’t delivered by the Messiah, but by national, political means.

Founders of Zionism, inspired by Theodore Herzl, sought a democracy as Herzl’s book, “Judenstaat,” means “State for Jews,” and not Judische Staat , which means “Jewish state.”

In writing this, one should not believe I’m dealing just with semantics. The philosophical differences divide us not only in Israel, but also in the United States and throughout the world. But we are united in keeping Israel a democratic “State for Jews,” and in the survival of the Jewish people, wherever they may choose to live.

HYMAN H. HAVES

Pacific Palisades