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Our Promised Land: Faith and Militant Zionism in Israeli Settlements
Our Promised Land takes readers inside radical Israeli settlements to explore how they were formed, what the people in them believe, and their role in the Middle East today. Charles Selengut analyzes the emergence of the radical Israeli Messianic Zionist movement, which advocates Jewish settlement and sovereignty over the whole of biblical Israel as a religious obligation and as the means of world transformation. The movement has established scores of controversial settlements throughout the contested West Bank, bringing more than 300,000 Jews to the area. Messianic Zionism is a fundamentalist movement but wields considerable political power.
Our Promised Land, which draws on years of research and interviews in these settlements, offers an intimate and nuanced look at Messianic Zionism, life in the settlements, connections with the worldwide Christian community, and the impact on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Selengut offers an in-depth exploration of a topic that is often mentioned in the headlines but little understood.
Our Promised Land, which draws on years of research and interviews in these settlements, offers an intimate and nuanced look at Messianic Zionism, life in the settlements, connections with the worldwide Christian community, and the impact on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Selengut offers an in-depth exploration of a topic that is often mentioned in the headlines but little understood.
202 pages, Hardcover
First published August 21, 2015
46 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 2, 2016
This is a very short book (not quite 150 pages of test), but I got a lot out of it. This tries to do something tricky: describe the point of view of a group in the middle of one of the world’s leading and most polarizing controversies without taking sides. He’s trying to describe, not judge. This is the book’s biggest strength – it does give a really good view of the Yesha movement that is central to many of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
I imagine that many would also find the above a weakness in the book: describing without judging gives a group greater legitimacy. Forget problems that Palestinians have with settlers, or Arabs in general have with them, or people from the rest of the world – Selengut interviews many secular Israelis who are horrified by these people and their worldview and find it a looming disaster that can destroy Israel. Simply put, the settlers’ worldview is very different from the one that founded Israel, and some fear it’ll destroy the Israel that they know. To hear Selengut describe it, that seems to be the main attitude towards these guys among secular Israelis in towns like Tel Aviv.
Those in the Yesha Movement are largely Orthodox Jews who see the Bible as divine truth. Period. This is therefore THEIR land and there should be no attempt made to compromise. They see themselves living in historical times – maybe even the times of the long foretold Jewish messiah. Some say that yes democracy is nice, but it doesn’t quite fit in with the messianic mission of Israel. (If you’re more secular in nature, you can see how groups like this would give you the willies). The Yesha movement is opposed to secular modernism and individualism – but is strongly nationalistic. They are revolutionizing Jewish culture and what it means to be a faithful Jew. They see themselves as the harbingers of a messianic transformation.
Zionism began as a secular movement. For most religions Jews, they’d been kicked out of the home land and the diaspora was something they had to endure. The Jewish culture that evolved about 1,500 years ago focused on patience and passivity. Endure to survive. You can’t make the changes you want to happen – you can’t create a new Israel – only God can. Human action to create it would go against God himself then. He punished, so accept the punishment. Zionism began as a challenge to this. To this day, many hardline religious Jews still see it as heresy.
But things slowly changed. Once Israel was real, you start to see some acceptance. Coming so soon after the Holocaust – maybe God’s punishment was over. A real turning point in the rise of a religious Zionism like the Yesha movement was the Six Day War. Now many sites from the Bible were in Israeli hands. Surely, this must be what God wanted. Yesha Movement spoke that maybe there can be some human agency involved in creating God’s will on this earth. People should be able to take action to reclaim the lost land for the Jewish people.
This wasn’t the attitude of the Jewish government in 1967. They saw the land as valuable trading commodities: land for peace. Why keep land that had 1.5 million extra Arabs on it? One internal government memo said that keeping this land would be colonialism (in an era when Europe was giving up its colonies). But Jordan and others wouldn’t play ball. And the Yesha group started taking matters into their own hands. Some guys tried to build Israeli settlements there. The settlements weren’t sponsored by the government, but they started accepting them. The government gave permission for the first settlements in Sept. 1968, on a place where there had been Jewish farmers in the 1920s. Settlers made practical arguments, not religious ones, as those would go over better they knew. They picked sights that had special resonance, like around the Biblical site of Hebron (where David had been, and a massacre of Jews occurred in 1929). Some settlements wouldn’t be officially sanctioned for a decade, but inspired by religious zeal, the settlers held out until approval came. (They lived there in tents or trailers or just as “tourists” in the meantime). Most Israelis have now come to terms with the settlements, though he notes that Rabin once called the settlements, “a cancer” on Israeli democracy.
The religions Zionists saw the 1973 war as a test. Their faith is traditional, but the approach is different. This isn’t patience and passivity. This is taking action – even violence, if need be. The worldwide migration of Jews just added to the sense of living in messianic times. Israel’s economic success is seen as God’s favor. They feel that holy war itself can be justified. It is an aggressive occupation featuring risk taking and confrontation of Palestinians. Early in the book, the author notes that when he first came to the settlements, his guides – who had automatic rifles with them – saw some Palestinians at the distance at one point and opened fire on them. To them, this was normal. (Though he also noted when he relayed this story to many others in the settlements, they thought that the guys opening fire were crazies who had to be kept in line). These “price tag attacks” are designed to show Palestinians that the settlers mean business. There is a very literal bunker mentality going on. After all, they are outnumbered and there is plenty of Palestinian violence directed at the settlers. Many (most?) know someone who has been killed by the settlers. The settlers say they don’t cause the violence. There is still no peace without us. One thing noted throughout is that when Israel dismantled some much smaller settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005, the result wasn’t peace but rocket attacks on Israel, and then a 2014 war. Get rid of the settlements, the settlers believe, on the violence will be on Israel itself as so many of their neighbors deny the state’s right to exist. Many settlers see themselves as the true Zionists and those back in the ’48 borders as chickenshit sell outs (well, the book puts it less crassly). There is an increasingly confrontational attitude toward the government itself. If it is moving too slowly toward Israel’s messianic mission, then it’s part of the problem. The end of the Gaza settlements in 2005, many settlers believe, came because the settlers didn’t resist hard enough. ALL Israel should be for the Jews. God gave it to them so there should be no compromise. Even some moderate rabbis say that they’ll fight back if there is an attempt to expel.
There is also some strong social conservatism among these settlers. The author spoke to one rabbi know (even by his opponents) for his honesty. He opposed gay rights, feminism, and think it is women’s duty to have as many kids as possible. Are these messianic times? Well, “time will tell” if the Jewish messiah emerges here. The moderate settler position is that Israel should have Area C of the Oslo Accords, and that the Palestinians there should be granted autonomy, but not sovereignty. Some moderates will accept a two-state solution on these terms. But others are unilateral: it’s God’s will. Most Yesha leaders, though, oppose vigilante violence and are trying to build a consensus. The more radical approach is growing in numbers.
Most Israelis are profoundly ambivalent to the settlements. Polls show that most oppose giving back all the 1967 land. But they also don’t want the extra Palestinians. They also fear international isolation, and becoming the new South Africa. Modern Orthodox Jews in Israel and abroad are the backbone for the Yesha movement. There is no real clear path forward to see how it all gets resolved. What the Yesha group wants seems impossible – but then again so did the original Zionist wishes 100-some years ago.
It’s interesting. One problem is that while it’s really short, it’s also repetitive.
I imagine that many would also find the above a weakness in the book: describing without judging gives a group greater legitimacy. Forget problems that Palestinians have with settlers, or Arabs in general have with them, or people from the rest of the world – Selengut interviews many secular Israelis who are horrified by these people and their worldview and find it a looming disaster that can destroy Israel. Simply put, the settlers’ worldview is very different from the one that founded Israel, and some fear it’ll destroy the Israel that they know. To hear Selengut describe it, that seems to be the main attitude towards these guys among secular Israelis in towns like Tel Aviv.
Those in the Yesha Movement are largely Orthodox Jews who see the Bible as divine truth. Period. This is therefore THEIR land and there should be no attempt made to compromise. They see themselves living in historical times – maybe even the times of the long foretold Jewish messiah. Some say that yes democracy is nice, but it doesn’t quite fit in with the messianic mission of Israel. (If you’re more secular in nature, you can see how groups like this would give you the willies). The Yesha movement is opposed to secular modernism and individualism – but is strongly nationalistic. They are revolutionizing Jewish culture and what it means to be a faithful Jew. They see themselves as the harbingers of a messianic transformation.
Zionism began as a secular movement. For most religions Jews, they’d been kicked out of the home land and the diaspora was something they had to endure. The Jewish culture that evolved about 1,500 years ago focused on patience and passivity. Endure to survive. You can’t make the changes you want to happen – you can’t create a new Israel – only God can. Human action to create it would go against God himself then. He punished, so accept the punishment. Zionism began as a challenge to this. To this day, many hardline religious Jews still see it as heresy.
But things slowly changed. Once Israel was real, you start to see some acceptance. Coming so soon after the Holocaust – maybe God’s punishment was over. A real turning point in the rise of a religious Zionism like the Yesha movement was the Six Day War. Now many sites from the Bible were in Israeli hands. Surely, this must be what God wanted. Yesha Movement spoke that maybe there can be some human agency involved in creating God’s will on this earth. People should be able to take action to reclaim the lost land for the Jewish people.
This wasn’t the attitude of the Jewish government in 1967. They saw the land as valuable trading commodities: land for peace. Why keep land that had 1.5 million extra Arabs on it? One internal government memo said that keeping this land would be colonialism (in an era when Europe was giving up its colonies). But Jordan and others wouldn’t play ball. And the Yesha group started taking matters into their own hands. Some guys tried to build Israeli settlements there. The settlements weren’t sponsored by the government, but they started accepting them. The government gave permission for the first settlements in Sept. 1968, on a place where there had been Jewish farmers in the 1920s. Settlers made practical arguments, not religious ones, as those would go over better they knew. They picked sights that had special resonance, like around the Biblical site of Hebron (where David had been, and a massacre of Jews occurred in 1929). Some settlements wouldn’t be officially sanctioned for a decade, but inspired by religious zeal, the settlers held out until approval came. (They lived there in tents or trailers or just as “tourists” in the meantime). Most Israelis have now come to terms with the settlements, though he notes that Rabin once called the settlements, “a cancer” on Israeli democracy.
The religions Zionists saw the 1973 war as a test. Their faith is traditional, but the approach is different. This isn’t patience and passivity. This is taking action – even violence, if need be. The worldwide migration of Jews just added to the sense of living in messianic times. Israel’s economic success is seen as God’s favor. They feel that holy war itself can be justified. It is an aggressive occupation featuring risk taking and confrontation of Palestinians. Early in the book, the author notes that when he first came to the settlements, his guides – who had automatic rifles with them – saw some Palestinians at the distance at one point and opened fire on them. To them, this was normal. (Though he also noted when he relayed this story to many others in the settlements, they thought that the guys opening fire were crazies who had to be kept in line). These “price tag attacks” are designed to show Palestinians that the settlers mean business. There is a very literal bunker mentality going on. After all, they are outnumbered and there is plenty of Palestinian violence directed at the settlers. Many (most?) know someone who has been killed by the settlers. The settlers say they don’t cause the violence. There is still no peace without us. One thing noted throughout is that when Israel dismantled some much smaller settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005, the result wasn’t peace but rocket attacks on Israel, and then a 2014 war. Get rid of the settlements, the settlers believe, on the violence will be on Israel itself as so many of their neighbors deny the state’s right to exist. Many settlers see themselves as the true Zionists and those back in the ’48 borders as chickenshit sell outs (well, the book puts it less crassly). There is an increasingly confrontational attitude toward the government itself. If it is moving too slowly toward Israel’s messianic mission, then it’s part of the problem. The end of the Gaza settlements in 2005, many settlers believe, came because the settlers didn’t resist hard enough. ALL Israel should be for the Jews. God gave it to them so there should be no compromise. Even some moderate rabbis say that they’ll fight back if there is an attempt to expel.
There is also some strong social conservatism among these settlers. The author spoke to one rabbi know (even by his opponents) for his honesty. He opposed gay rights, feminism, and think it is women’s duty to have as many kids as possible. Are these messianic times? Well, “time will tell” if the Jewish messiah emerges here. The moderate settler position is that Israel should have Area C of the Oslo Accords, and that the Palestinians there should be granted autonomy, but not sovereignty. Some moderates will accept a two-state solution on these terms. But others are unilateral: it’s God’s will. Most Yesha leaders, though, oppose vigilante violence and are trying to build a consensus. The more radical approach is growing in numbers.
Most Israelis are profoundly ambivalent to the settlements. Polls show that most oppose giving back all the 1967 land. But they also don’t want the extra Palestinians. They also fear international isolation, and becoming the new South Africa. Modern Orthodox Jews in Israel and abroad are the backbone for the Yesha movement. There is no real clear path forward to see how it all gets resolved. What the Yesha group wants seems impossible – but then again so did the original Zionist wishes 100-some years ago.
It’s interesting. One problem is that while it’s really short, it’s also repetitive.
March 2, 2024
Selengut attempted to be as neutral as he could in writing this book and it shows. At times, he wasn't afraid to ask challenging questions to some settler groups, causing minor frictions, but it gave a good indication how different groups of settlers respond to political, religious, and ideological differences.
Of course, this book isn't focused on the Palestinian point of view, so I didn't expect much from that side. Although, I'd like to point out that Selengut succumbed to Israeli propoganda disguised as a website created by the Palestinian Authority (page 106: Is Reconciliation Possible). The PA is known to be a corrupt government funded and influenced heavily by Israel. Anything on that website making claims about the views and conduct of Palestinians must be taken with a grain of salt. Selengut made the statement that he thought the settlers were justified in their thinking because of the information on the website. I wish he knew more about the Palestinian Authority before writing this book. When reading, just err on the side of caution, is all I'm saying.
Otherwise, I applaud him as a Jewish American visiting the settlements and giving the public a sense of what historical and modern-day settler communities are all about.
Of course, this book isn't focused on the Palestinian point of view, so I didn't expect much from that side. Although, I'd like to point out that Selengut succumbed to Israeli propoganda disguised as a website created by the Palestinian Authority (page 106: Is Reconciliation Possible). The PA is known to be a corrupt government funded and influenced heavily by Israel. Anything on that website making claims about the views and conduct of Palestinians must be taken with a grain of salt. Selengut made the statement that he thought the settlers were justified in their thinking because of the information on the website. I wish he knew more about the Palestinian Authority before writing this book. When reading, just err on the side of caution, is all I'm saying.
Otherwise, I applaud him as a Jewish American visiting the settlements and giving the public a sense of what historical and modern-day settler communities are all about.
December 29, 2023
This book would have benefited from a better, more detailed map; otherwise excellent.
June 12, 2016
Compresive accounts of the Settlers in the West Bank, a Biblical lands.
June 16, 2016
I don't even know what to hope for anymore.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews