Reply To: New book – “HaChareidim V’Haaretz”

AAQ – To be totally fair, acquisition of land enabled creating the state and provide physical protection beyond �city states� of Yerushalaim and Tel-Aviv.

The story of the failure of the Kibbutzim and the success of the cities is basically a classic example of Marxism versus Capitalism.

The overwhelming majority of the land that eventually became the State was never purchased by Jews.

Many pre-48 agricultural settlements were stuck behind the “Green Line” and abandoned.

Acquisition of land was wonderful, the main question was what to do with it. The “Second Aliyah” people were Marxists who idolized toiling the land (using religious Sephardi and Yemenite laborers…), so they wasted most of their hard schnorred money building little agricultural Marxist bubbles, AKA Kibbutzim, that mostly remain little holes in the wall until today. Their great-grandchildren still collect subsidies from the Israeli government…

The big success stories were those places that were developed as normal cities with diverse sources of income and a free market economy, where people were always building housing and businesses because they could profit for themselves = capitalism. (Even though there was always a healthy measure of idealism and even agriculture mixed in, but they didn’t make it into a Marxist avodah zarah, so they were able to diversify and change course as needed.)

Other than the Old City of Yafo, Haifa, and Acco, all of the coastal cities, including Tel Aviv (1919), began as settlements. This includes Petach Tikvah (1878) which was built exclusively by Chareidim, and Rishon LeZion (1882) which was built partially by Chareidim. BTW, in the early years the streets of Tel Aviv were closed to (still mostly horse and wagon) traffic on Shabbos… Even in places further afield, such as the Yizre’el Valley, which was purchased in cash from the Christian Arab billionaire Sursock family, the little Marxist settlements remain little until today, while the city of Afula is one of the fastest growing in all of Israel. (Many Chareidim moving in also…)

Israel as a whole remained stuck in Socialist shackles for the first 30 years of its existence, until Menachem Begin came to power and broke the Labor monopoly, although it took another 20 years to complete (almost) the process. The judiciary, MSM, labor unions (with much less power than they used to have) and (most of the) top IDF brass remain in Leftist hands, and you can see what they look like…