Like other liberal Jewish groups, Rabbis for Human Rights feels it is necessary to water down the Haggadah by trying to make it apply to whatever their current cause of the month is.
I was a little surprised to see that
one of their additional texts (on asylum seekers) quoted the decidedly non-progressive Menachem Begin:
...and within our State, justice will be the supreme ruler, ruling even over the rulers. There will be no tyranny. There will be functionaries who serve society, rather than tyrannize it. There will be no parasitism. There will be no exploitation. There will be in our home no person, citizen or foreigner, who is hungry, lacking a roof, clothing or basic education. "Remember that you were a stranger in the Land of Egypt" – this supreme commandment will determine our relations with our neighbors. And "Justice, justice you shall pursue" – this supreme commandment will determine our relations, one person unto his comrade.
-Menachem Begin, "Voice of Zion Fighting, "Radio broadcast at founding of state on Saturday night, 5 Iyar / 15 May 1948
I looked up
the Begin speech, and it is incredible.
It is true that Begin had a very refined sense of morality. I only recently discovered that he was very much against the Israeli practice of administrative detention without trial, against either Arabs or Jews, an opinion that Rabbis for Human Rights no doubt shares. He was also
against applying martial law to Arabs, a law enforced by Israel's Labor Party until 1966. Begin's first act in office was to welcome 66 Vietnamese "boat people" and award them citizenship. It is unclear how Begin would have dealt with tens of thousands of asylum seekers, but almost certainly he would have
agonized over the decision.
However, this speech by Menachem Begin also made it clear that while Israel must treat friends and residents well, it must treat enemies with no mercy.
And yet, even before our state is able to establish its normal governing institutions, it is compelled to fight, or rather, to continue to fight satanic enemies and blood-thirsty mercenaries, on land, in the air and on the sea. ... We are surrounded by enemies who long for our destruction. Our one-day old state is set up in the midst of the flames of battle. And the very first pillar of our state must therefore be victory, total victory, in the war which is raging all over the country. For this victory, without which we shall have neither freedom nor life, we need arms; weapons of all sorts, in order to strike the enemies, in order to disperse the invaders, in order to free the entire length and breadth of the country from its would-be destroyers. But in addition to these arms, each and every one of us has need of another weapon, a spiritual weapon, the weapon of unflinching endurance in face of attacks from the air; in face of grievous casualties; in face of local disasters and temporary defeats; unflinching resistance to threats and cajolery.
In his speech he also said "Our soldiers will unfurl that flag over the Tower of David and we will yet plow the fields of the Gilead." Gilead is in - Jordan! Begin was insisting that the original British mandate area be the Land of Israel, before it was partitioned into "Palestine" and "Transjordan."
I don't think Rabbis for Human Rights would like that!
Here is the entire Begin speech, which is not easy to find on the Internet.
(full article online)
Rabbis for Human Rights add a Haggadah reading quoting - Menachem Begin! Here is his speech, in context. ~ Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News
