Aug. 12—As the Netanyahu regime is preparing a bloody takeover of Gaza with the goal of ridding the Gaza Strip of Palestinians, Haaretz featured an interview on Aug. 9 with an attorney who warned of a coup plot underway by ultra-Orthodox Messianic Jews. According to Yair Littman Nehorai, the ultra-Orthodox see the wars in Gaza and Iran as “divine intervention,” which will “expedite the era of redemption,” when the world will embrace their view of one God. For the believers, the Jewish mission is “the struggle against global wickedness,” which is inspiring “an outburst of unfettered ecstatic fervor,” with talk of miracles and the belief in Netanyahu as a “messenger of God.”

Nehorai’s father was once a prominent member of the ultra-Orthodox movement headed by former Chief Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook. After spending World War I in England, Kook returned to Palestine, where he was named Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and later Mandatory Palestine. He founded Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav, which Nehorai identified as the training ground for the ultra-Orthodox movement, and the religious Zionist parties.

They believe in a two-stage process. First, the establishment of a Jewish state with an army, a secular state, while building an Messianic army. Nehorai says there are 5,000 to 6,000 graduates of the Yeshivas created by Kook’s followers, who are now in the army and the intelligence services. One example is Maj. Gen. David Zini, who has been chosen by Netanyahu to be the new head of Shin Bet. Another is the recent appointment of Brigadier General Eyal Krim as Chaplain General of the Army. Krim’s first act was to replace all members of the IDF rabbinate with followers of Kook.

Nehorai says they are now prepared to move to the second stage, which includes: taking over all the “promised land” (i.e., Greater Israel—Kook was behind the founding of the radical settler movement, Gush Emunim); rebuild the Temple; replace the secular state with a messianic ultra-Orthodox state. The judicial coup initiated by Netanyahu is part of the plan.

Their goal is to foment a religious revolution in Israel, moving their people into all institutions. Individuals like Fianced Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir are examples, racialists, who believe in “Jewish supremacy.” He characterized their outlook as follows: “The war in Gaza is a war of mitzvah [blessing]. That means you take what’s yours—and you’re allowed to kill them all. They succeeded in introducing the Amalek narrative … and thanks to it the idea that ‘No one in Gaza is innocent.’ We are in the midst of a religious war.”

Finally, he concluded with these two points: the loyalty of the Messianists is to the “land of Israel, not the state of Israel.” And all of Israel’s wars have been necessary stages toward redemption.