Commandment Car: Freedom's Armour

 

"The armour's tough,

And our tanks are speedy…"

Soviet Military Song

 

In Israel, Orthodox Jewry groups are rather unpopular with the mainstream media. It is, to say the least, extremely hard for them to get airtime on any mainstream television channel. In 1999, when Orthodox leader Arie Deri got imprisoned for fraud and embezzlement, about 15,000 supporters protested outside the prison. During the same time period, a small group known as "The Four Mothers" protested IDF involvement in Lebanon. It is estimated that they never assembled over 400 people during that period. Guess who got more coverage?

With that kind of coverage, the Orthodox leaders had to find other methods of spreading their beliefs. While I am no Orthodox, the methods used by them are fascinating. The religious lobby went grassroots, spreading free tapes with rabbinical sermons, stuffing a leaflet in every mailbox, opening small-size talk radio. The ultimate in grassroots firepower was the rehev mitzvoth – commandment car (as in 'ten commandments').

Commandment cars, which eventually became used by practically every non-mainstream political movement in Israel, are, in their basic form, SUV's with mounted loudspeakers, loaded with leaflets and activists. The cars move through the streets and roads of the country, blaring out their message full-blast, stopping in intersections to hand out their leaflets and explain the message there in. Due to ease of use, the Commandment Cars are seeing service with even the poorest of political pressure groups. For example, 8^th of May has been declared by Ale Yarok (the local marijuana legalization party) to be Marijuana day. Aside from the standard protests and parties, the Ale Yarok party will use a Commandment Car that will patrol various areas of Israel, spreading the green, leafy message as it goes. The words rehev mitzvoth are now used to denote any such car – regardless of whether it promotes drug legalization or religious Judaism.

In Israel, the story of grassroots activism – and, in particular, the story of the command car – is a story of success. When the settlers defeated Sharon's separation initiative, a 450,000-dollar campaign met with the power of the mass media and the mainstream politicians. The Commandment Cars met with the Channel 2 video crew trucks and the Network C broadcasting helicopters, and the Commandment Cars carried the day.

The story of the Commandment Car is a story that any activist on the planet can learn from. Political battles are not won by the people who support an idea. Political battles are won by the people who actually detach their butt from the TV couch and do something – just look at the Free State Project[1]

The Commandment Car is one of the easiest ways to attract attention to your cause, and it is extremely effective. Nothing attracts attention as much as a large car with working loudspeakers in the neighbourhood. If you belong to an organization that can finance its own vehicle, you could attach decals supporting your cause to your vehicle. If it's a private vehicle, tape posters to the car and rip them off later.

A Commandment Car is easy. Even your own car, provided a good sound system (plugging your home stereo into it is good enough), can make a perfect Commandment Car. Want to get active for your cause? Print out a few dozen leaflets from the Internet, tape a poster to your car's hood, put some nice propaganda MP3's into your player and you're ready to rock and roll. Think an SUV covered with pro-gun messages (you can get some nice posters at www.a-human-right.com ), playing pro-gun adverts full-blast (tap www.armedansecure.org and www.jpfo.org ) won't attract attention in Manhattan?  Think a drug-legalization promoter won't make himself noticed, say, in Memphis? I know your answer.

You can make a difference. You have all you need. If you have a car, a printer, and a stereo, you can be part of the armoured columns of freedom. All you need is willpower – the willpower to turn the key in the ignition and go out and spread the good word. Think you won't make a difference? You will. The only difference between members of Martin Luther King's civil right's march and their silent brethren was willpower. Willpower is the difference between a couch potato and the activist. Willpower is the difference between victory and defeat, and it will eventually be the difference between slavery and freedom.

You can sit at home, and watch the onward crawl of tyranny. You may witness Waco and Rainbow Warrior all over again. And you can fight it. You can put fleets of Commandment Cars protesting gun control on the streets of London, the war on drugs in Manhattan, infringements on religious freedom in Paris. You can give those who fight the War on Freedom a real fight. Make it their Kursk.

P.S. If you, or your pro-freedom group ends up using a Commandment Car, please e-mail me at karpa@netvision.net.il and tell me how it went.