Jerusalem & the West Bank: What Does the Future Hold?

Just as we publish Bible in the News this week, there has been a horrific terror attack in Jerusalem. The terror attack was a shooting attack in the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, which is the most prestigious religious zionist education institution. This attack was perpetrated at the heart of Religious Zionism. Mercaz Harav was founded by the late Rabbi Yitzhak HaCohen Kook and led after his death by his son Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook. Rabbi Kook is known as the founder of Religious Zionist thought and his son Zvi Yehuda put his weight and energy behind the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria. It can be seen not just as a random terror attack, but a carefully chosen target, one that would effect the Religious Zionist community greatly, but the government of Israel is also warring against the Religious Zionist community and the settlement movement. A quote from Arthur Hertzberg's book, "The fate of Zionism", correctly sums up what would be Olmert's government's view of Religious Zionism: "It is... important within the Jewish community that modern Zionism not be identified as the heir and continuation of the messianic element of classic Jewish religion. If the Zionist endeavor is ever dominated by the notion that Jews have come back to Palestine as a giant step toward the coming of the messiah, there can be no peace within the Jewish camp." In the first report after the attack on the Jerusalem Post website, the Olmert government was already stating that this would not effect their "peace talks". To read about the hatred of the Catholic Church toward Zionism and even more so religious Zionism, see the latest Bible Magazine.