Achdus Uber Alles: You Don't Achieve Unity by Surrendering Only by Winning

Achdus Uber Alles has been the position counseled by all too many in Israel in the religious community. We must remain united above all else. Some who counsel that are well meaning, others less so. The opposition quickly picked up on it with everyone from Sharon down talking about the importance of unity and warning that "the religious" were destroying the nation's unity. The only way to stay united was to "respect the democracy" and surrender and comply.

The fallacy at the heart of the Achdus Uber Alles position is that when the other side, be they Jews, has no interest in Achdus, surrender becomes the same process of appeasement and retreat in exchange for stepped up assaults and abuse as the Oslo Peace Accord. At the start of the State of Israel, Menachem Begin made the decision to stay committed to not fighting other Jews no matter what.

Even though the left like the happily deceased former Mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek collaborated with the British in capturing Jewish fighters, their thugs like the young Ariel Sharon assaulted members of patriotic Zionist organizations, some captured and tortured Zionist activists and finally the young Yitzchak Rabin opened fire on the Altalena killing refugees, volunteers and Holocaust survivors and nearly Begin himself; Begin chose never to have a Jew fight another Jew. Future Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir even murdered one of his own friends who had been planning the retaliatory assassination of left wing figures.

Was it worth the price? For a while it seemed to be. Israel avoided an Ireland style conflict, which it couldn't afford with Arab armies at its borders. But the rot remained. Begin eventually won office through democratic means but by then it was too late. Nationalism and Zionism had been traded away in exchange for security and stability that could never be achieved except through the path of pride and self-reliance.

The rot finally metastasized in Madrid and Oslo becoming a full blown cancer devouring the state in a cycle of appeasements and ineffectual meaningless piecemeal military actions. This was first and foremost the price of unity. The price of letting the sort of people who collaborated with the British and in some cases even the Nazis, take power and control the country and its culture for too long. The triumph of the socialist left meant a poison seeping through Israel's veins.

Patrick Henry famously said, "Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety will have neither liberty nor safety." Zionism had been sacrificed in the name of unity and the wages of that would be that there would be neither unity nor a Zionism. And that is what we have today.

At the beginning of its history the United States was forced to confront the slavery issue. In the name of unity with the Southern States the issue was buried and suppressed by surrendering to the South on the question. That did not resolve the problem. It did not bring unity. It brought a terrible price that had to be paid through the Civil War and the price is still being paid and will continue to be paid for as long as this nation exists.

It is as yet uncertain if Israel can even look forward to a price as cheap as that paid for that unity. Whether or not Israel will survive at all depends now on choosing disunity. Not a chaotic anarchic disunity but a deliberate drawing of the lines, a refusal to surrender or cooperate with those who are dismantling the country. Those who are for all intents and purposes the enemy, regardless of whether they are also Jews or not.

Unity achieved by the right surrendering to the wrong is worse than worthless. It is a poison that takes root in the nation and eats it alive from the inside. You do not bring unity to a nation by surrendering to the wrong but by winning. By the triumph of the right.

Only a Zionist ideology can bring unity to Israel. Unity under a Post-Zionist flag means giving away and giving up on Israel. For good.