Netanyahu The Marxist: How the Right's Obsession with Victimhood Destroyed Israel

It has been a year minus one week since I sought to debunk the thesis of Tal Kopel and Naaman Levavi regarding the "Hegemony" and the "Class System" in Israeli society within the pages of 'Olam Katan' in fewer than 750 words. Now to my regret I find myself required to revisit this thesis its origins and its destructiveness.

I must do so because at least one of its proponents persists in it acting as if in reality it is Israel that has applied sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and not the President of the United States who has applied his sovereignty over Israel.

Indeed precisely at a time when foreign occupation is entrenching itself the sociologist Tal Kopel has found it appropriate to continue disseminating his doctrine of "Elitism" and "Classes" via the web. Perhaps it is fitting that theories foreign to our people voiced from the Right should be accompanied by a rule foreign to our people establishing itself under the auspices of the Right.

It was a trivial exchange on Kopel’s private Facebook page where he responded to my call to cease dealing with "Elitism" and "Classes" while we are subject to foreign occupation. His words betrayed that he had never bothered to read the rebuttal article from last year: "I published a critique of the foreign occupation this week in 50000 copies of Olam Katan. You are reacting on Facebook."

Well then. With all due respect to quantity I must wonder if there is quality or influence in the articles being published for how is it possible that again two years into the 'War of Revival' (Milchemet HaTkuma) we are discussing elites while foreigners desecrate our land?

I confess: as a child from Kfar Saba raised in a traditional home by American immigrant parents I never imagined that as an adult I would be forced to waste precious time refuting Marxist theses voiced from the depths of Right wing circles and on the pages of a faith based publication exposed to the magnificent religious youth of our land.

But there is no choice. Although we did not utilize the momentum to annex or to decide and subdue any of the six fronts in the 'War of Revival' on the way to "Total Victory" or even to refresh the ranks of the bureaucracy the enemy from Kopel’s perspective remains as it was: "The Elite" "The Hegemony" "The Left" whose infinite folly is responsible for the situation.

A Little Background

For close to two years the sociologist Kopel has been calling on the children of Religious Zionism to rise and redeem "The Second Israel" from the rule of the "Hegemony" and the oppressive "Elite" and to hasten a Jewish faith based rule in the Land of Israel.

As someone named after Avraham 'Yair' Stern it does not sound like a bad idea. The problem is that I am also a thinking man and more than that the real problem is that Kopel’s thesis is completely baseless because in the State of Israel the "Class Gap" through which he views socio political reality simply does not hold water:

Yet Kopel calls to establish an Elite Consciousness among the Kippot Srugot (Knitted Kippahs) and frame them as the pioneers of the struggle against the values/institutions of "The Hegemony" because they are:

As a historian I must admit: there is justice in his words. Indeed Religious Zionism has suffered throughout its history and until today from establishment persecution. And indeed it is the legal heir of practical Zionism more than any other stream. Of course I do not dispute Kopel’s assumption that an Elite Consciousness must be developed within Religious Zionism (which already exists to a large extent) or the immediate need for judicial reform.

But as recalled I argued that a call for class struggle inherently involves a national danger. It necessitates the cultivation of resentment victimhood and an inferiority that sparks revolutionism. This leads to sectoral contrariness and systematically ignores the role of our historical partner the Likud in suppressing our national faith desires as a sector for over four decades.

To this Kopel had no answer. I ended my words then with a question: "Is the delusion of inter sectoral class war preferable to self criticism? [Regarding the sector's blind following of Likud? And regarding Likud voters themselves?]"

Since then a year has passed. Unfortunately my critique of "Class Sociology" met a reality where under the auspices of a Right wing government Religious Zionism is not necessarily closer to its ultimate goals building the Temple establishing the Sanhedrin or restoring the Kingdom.

On the contrary: The Israeli Right which granted the Supreme Court absolute rule over the Jewish people back in 1996 has since decided to grant rule over our land to foreigners.

Therefore the time is ripe to ask the real question.

If so much ink has been spilled on the Class/Sectoral thesis in its various forms by people like Kopel Avishai Ben Haim Erez Tadmor and to some extent Gadi Taub how is it that they fail to influence the conceptual or political reality on the Israeli Right?

The reason is that the "Class Recipe" and the revolutionary correction they proposed is not only a denial of Divine Providence but even on an academic research level and most importantly in reality is engineered for absolute failure.

A. The Micro Macro of Circular Helplessness

The world of these writers is built like this:

A. The Media Micro: They engage in distractions from Hadar Muchtar to Mordechai David to Guy Peleg and trivia. Sometimes they will dedicate a podcast a post or even a stinging article to it. But in practice this tracking of the media cycle (where the Right is always perceived as deprived) is intended to justify...

B. The "Intellectual" Macro: This is composed of their "innovations" which are also mainly composed of continuous Marxist victimhood whining about "The Leftist Elite" without whom our world would be a paradise.

This is of course a circular and victim based argument that marks an enemy (at the Macro level) whose purpose is to explain continuous failure (in Right wing policy) via media distractions (at the Micro level).

The source of this phenomenon lies in the thesis of the German philosopher Friedrich Hegel and his apostate student Karl Marx. The two focus on a specific element/factor/community in society claiming that it hinders the proper historical development of the social organism and prevents it from realizing its destiny. Therefore as long as that element holds 'Hegemony' the society will never realize its destiny.

Hence Kopel’s "Positive Call" is to turn the members of Religious Zionism into a new "Elite" which with the help of "The Second Israel" will gain the power to topple "The Elite" hasten the Hegemony and produce a class sociological redemption in Israel.

Anyone who has realized that Kopel is building a thesis on a foreign philosophical doctrine which inherently provides a built in excuse for the self failure of the oppressed side by "blaming the other side" already understands well why his critique of the Left and his revolutionary call are barren.

While the call to grant Religious Zionism a premier status is certainly brave correct and blessed in the hands of Kopel and the proponents of Right Wing Marxism in Israel it is lip service. These are men who do not wear a kippah turning the people of Torah and Labor who engage in holy work into inanimate objects within a secular class Hegelian fantasy which is entirely about strife not building.

And yet if it actually worked in the reality of our lives here in the Land why not?

But I think the Americans in Kiryat Gat and the Civil Administration personnel in Samaria will tell you just how well it’s working. On the ground.

By the way since the entire burden of the revolution in this 'Thesis' rests on the shoulders of Religious Zionism which must awaken the "simple folk" to class consciousness you know who will be blamed if these fairy tales turn out to be fiction right? Of course you.

Kopel has brought the conceptual distress of the Right to a peak that even Avishai Ben Haim would struggle to withstand. As someone who views Religious Zionism as clay in the hands of the potter for a reality he criticizes but never implements he bears no responsibility for its health or wholeness at least Ben Haim can claim to be part of the imagined community he created.

The deeper problem is that this call is made with a lack of self understanding: the media obsession with fleeting trivia from the web and TV as seen abundantly on the social media pages of "Right wing Influencers" is exactly the preoccupation that nullifies the intellectual struggle they believe they are waging in the Macro arena. They cry day and night (instead of being like Religious Zionism and simply doing).

Meaning not only are the Micro struggles superfluous they also distract from their Macro struggles which are also unfortunately imagined and empty.

One of the reasons for the emptiness of their struggle by the way is that these are people who mostly did not grow up in Religious Zionism. They grew up in the Revisionist/Traditional/Secular camp. In short the Likud of the 80s and 90s. The heirs of those whom Ben Gurion wisely termed 'Zionism of Words.'

Therefore network influencers need the Kippot Srugot like the way Begin needed Hanan Porat to show that even Likudniks (who in 120 years of Zionism built fewer than 45 settlements) are capable of establishing settlements. Similarly they know that only with the help of Religious Zionism can they suddenly step out of the screen and the paper and stop for a brief moment their cycle of critical negativity and "Right wing" Marxism. To take a break from their ping pong between the 'Media' and the 'Intellectual' and fantasize as if the victimhood rhetoric is somehow reaching via the actions of the 'Knitted' as an 'Elite Class' some revealed End of Days.

Thank you very much but we are an elite even without this unimpressive crown you have distributed to us.

Anyone who does not see that this is a continuation of the cynical use the Likud has made of Religious Zionism for decades simply has not understood modern Zionist history.

The Mechanism of Distraction

But let us return to "The System" this combination of Media Micro and Intellectual Macro which is not accidental at all.

It is a mechanism.

Without the media complaints about "Elites" and the attempt to intellectualize and justify this crying as "Theory" the Right would be forced to stop and examine the results of its own rule and failure and conduct a house cleaning.

It was after all the article "An Invitation to Weep" by Arnon Lapid that caused Rabbi Hanan Porat to go out and take action to establish Gush Emunim. Here we have been hearing the weeping and wailing for years and for some reason they are trying to infect us with it. With this Right wing crying. But here we must take responsibility. We must stop and wonder whether the long standing alliance with the Likud the same Likud that in its last 30 years of rule built 4 times fewer new settlements in Judea and Samaria than Yitzhak Rabin built in his 6 years as Prime Minister (Yes!) is a profitable logical alliance that symbolizes national and sectoral responsibility.

Without the obsession with Guy Peleg and the flight to outdated and baseless theories that do not fit the reality of our lives in the Holy Land. Without all this one would really have to examine how much the policy regarding the Law of Return Settlement Governance the status of Rabbinical Courts and the state of Jewish literacy and identity in the state education system has changed since Oslo (Yes for the worse).

Without talking about "The Oppressed Second Israel" and "The Elitist Channel 12" and the 'Knitted Kippahs' who will save us from this class sling Tal Kopel would be forced to examine why after 20 years of almost continuous Right wing rule and after years of Marxist writing by "Right wing" supporters we are still "ruled."

The psychological pattern of dealing with an imagined enemy confirmed by the Micro Macro equation mentioned above whose entire purpose is to hide intellectual limitation political emptiness and the Likud’s reliance on us as well as its inherent internal failures and the limited political potential of its traditional voter base is a psychological pattern that in my eyes as a believer and a man of the book constitutes a much greater enemy to Tikkun Olam in the Kingdom of God than any corrupt degenerate and antisemitic legal system from the Left.

And why? Because this is exactly the pattern that allows one to continue blaming "The Outside" "The Left" and diverting the fire from "The Inside" thereby allowing the negative reality Kopel complains about to continue endlessly. It is a pattern that renders us helpless.

On the contrary the things Kopel writes like the automatic criticism by his cohorts of "The Left" are what allow Netanyahu to do whatever he pleases including handing over homeland territories. For he knows that he is always protected by the fantasy of the Sitra Achra (The Other Side/Evil) of the Left maintained by the Tadmors Kopels Magals and Segals. Thus in terms of risk management he will certainly permit himself things that the Zionist Left would likely have had to think about 10 times in a post October 7th reality.

And this is without mentioning how much easier it is to point to an external enemy than to the roots of internal weakness and thereby continue to fail. But all this friends is intended to avoid the true historical correction that I propose later in this article. To wean us off the division...

In the meantime it is clear: it is as if Kopel and his people need the 'Right' to be a failure and the Left to be the master "above it." Otherwise he would really have to lead his proletariat to a class revolution instead of explaining why the Right promoted the Disengagement turned Oslo into national policy and has managed the land like a stranger in his homeland since 1996.

The "Elites" and "Hegemonies" and the engagement with yellow gossip are interwoven via the language of Marx's critical sociology and the frantic media language of the Segals and Magals. Together they will always be here to provide a circular external and comforting explanation for the infinite self failure of our useless alliance with the Likud.

This is the language that produces ignorance regarding reality but mainly a structural consciousness of inferiority which does not know how to confess the sin of our enslavement to a party that despite its talk of Judaism and Israel in my eyes as a historian certainly compared to Mapai and even to Mapam (!) is questionably Zionist.

Much of this stems from the fact that Kopel as a Marxist sees the Likud as the framework of "The Second Israel" a body incapable of saving itself and therefore in need of assistance from an elite.

But instead of us liberating ourselves from this yoke he buries us and the entire State of Israel within it.

Other problems are that:

As a historian were I a Marxist I would not be enthusiastic about this somewhat sloppy projection of Marxist doctrine onto the historical and sociological reality of the Israeli Right.

The Call for a New Path

Meanwhile in reality in our lives here the Right wing parties and their mouthpieces complaining about oppression seek only to prevent a connection with the Center Left (which the NRP was part of between 1948 1977) or joint work on a new Center Right which could actually serve as a decisive tool against the Likud that has for decades blocked the ox of Religious Zionism and its just legitimate messianic aspirations while it threshes.

Instead of exploiting the ideological weakness of the Likud to generate a new ideological reality there is an amazing voluntary surrender to Post Zionism.

The greatest absurdity of all is that this is happening precisely at a time when masses from the sane Israeli Left and Center are being weaned off Palestino centric delusions off false visions of multiculturalism post nationalism and post modernism. They are walking searching scouting and opening up to the tradition of Israel and even understand the need to discuss gradual and agreed upon reform in the structure and powers of the justice system.

There is such positive energy. It is gaining momentum. You see it on the ground.

But Kopel wants the National Religious public which bore the burden of settlement the army pioneering and also the unbearable weight of the national political idleness of the Likud movement that rules over it he wants this specific public not only to continue being a "slave" to the alliance with the Likud but also to his theory that ties us to this stumbling and failing party.

Because he is a socialist who believes that the daring and strong must be enslaved to the cowardly and weak.

Only the trouble is here he forgets that Religious Zionism is the one working. It is the one serving. It is the "Working Class." And from that it has already earned its status as an elite since the dawn of the state. Not the other way around. His "Second Israel" were it truly to exist is largely a satiated and fat bourgeoisie reminiscing about tradition it is not a serving elite.

By the way the concept of the Serving Elite is a strictly Israeli concept which began with the Palmach and continues today in the institutions of Religious Zionism. It is a concept that completely refutes classic class theses. But let it be.

In the face of this flood of reality Kopel asks that we enslave ourselves to his theory otherwise how in God’s name will we be liberated from the stranglehold of the Likud?

I propose something else.

Let us admit that as Jews of sound mind we chose this enslavement. We chose this unholy alliance which in fact since the days of Rabbi Hanan Porat and Ariel Sharon (in the early version) has had no real justification with the party that built 75% fewer settlement points than the historic Labor movement.

On the contrary if we want to lead we must create a new Center Right.

Not to be enslaved to the old idle one. To break free from the stranglehold of the Likud. Who knows I even know some people from "The Second Israel" who have already realized this...

But there are those for whom the theoretical and sociological need to loathe the other and to define themselves as awakeners of public consciousness (even though they do not belong to it themselves) is greater than the need to conduct an intellectual political and public soul searching for everything that has happened in this land since the Oslo Accords.

And this need and the results it produces in my eyes do not align with Judaism.

An elite Right Left Religious or Secular defined by victim consciousness is not an elite; it is at most an unconscious psychological projection of the theoretician.

Kopel’s imagined Right is supposed to hold simultaneously the image of the Master and the image of the Slave. But this is a split consciousness not a consciousness of leadership and Sovereignty (Malchut).

Finally even if we agree that everything Kopel said about "Elites" is true. Even if we assume that in a parallel universe where history economics law demographics and Israeli anthropology have no importance everything is correct and the political sociology he fabricated indeed reflects reality.

Even if we surrender to it his method still contradicts his goals fundamentally.

For the obsessive engagement with programmed campaigns and marginal figures in the media (Micro) and with Marxist theoretical victimhood (Macro) is exactly the reason that disallows the "Hegemony" he claims to fight for.

Rather it is exactly what allows "Right wing" governments to trample their voters time after time after time by distracting them from the elephant in the room and screaming "But the Left" for 30 years.

Sometimes it seems as if Kopel must deal with the 'small things' in the media to explain "intellectually" why we are "ruled." He also must have us be "ruled" so that the "Theory" will gain any listening (and desperate) ears at all.

Kopel the Likud and the Left have done the same thing to us. They used national language sometimes more welcoming and pleasant sometimes more foreign and accusatory only to use us as clay in the hands of the potter for their goals.

They came to tell us that the true interests of the Jewish people require our enslavement to their whims which are doubtfully Jewish Torah based or Redemptive.

And from the Left? They simply needed us since 1974 as the "Other" to define themselves... each to his own use.

Until we regain our senses and understand how we have been used for the last 30 years to turn the wheels of history back to a non faith based Leftist Marxist reality (from both Right and Left) and to a security consciousness reality of Oslo on steroids (from the Left and especially the Right); and until we understand who is truly diverting our attention from the faith based struggle for the future of the nation all we will be able to do is continue to lose on the exact same track.

As Kopel demonstrated this week in his small Facebook response the only thing he can provide as "receipts" as counter arguments to my critique is quantity (50000 copies) not quality (influence on reality).

This is while the foreign occupation he speaks of strengthens thanks to the very political psychology he himself produces which trips up the Right from the pages of this very leaflet and diverts its mind from the elephant in the room sitting in Metzudat Ze'ev (Likud HQ) and the Right wing studios.

Sociology is an analytical tool it has no theoretical or metaphysical value.

By turning the analysis and the sociological tool into a God one commits idolatry no less than the idolatry of "Democracy" at Kaplan.

Israeli reality is stuck in Sociology it needs to be liberated through the Holy History of the People of Israel toward Theology. Not to wallow in jealousy and narrow mindedness that divide brother against brother.

Right now because we are not there yet we sometimes feel the loss of power to understand to influence and to act.

Kopel and Levavi the Likud the Left everyone turned the Srugim into tools.

The Left defined us as the "Other" to be fought.

The Likud defined us as 12 seats that will always give it a coalition quiet and settlement prestige (which its own people lack). And Kopel Tadmor and their friends define us as a tool for some Post Class Utopia that yields no results whatsoever.

Turning this entire Holy Nation into a vessel for strange fire.

But all these have no method. Because the method is only the Holy Torah.

Kopel and his people will likely not stop their mixing mixture of Micro Macro.

As someone who has been researching Marxism for 11 years I know that Marxism is something hard to get out of after age 40.

But we we must look inward. Not to distract ourselves from the disgrace named "The Right wing Government."

We must redefine the Right.

It will start by exposing the Fake Right that has blurred our own tracks beyond recognition.

Until we liberate ourselves from enslavement to the Likud and the language of Classes we will not be able to even begin to repair the Kingdom.

So that we may bring satisfaction to our teachers and rabbis so that Rabbi Hanan Porat will recognize our image.