Understanding Israel’s moment of truth – from the war on Start-up Nation, to the moral crisis in Orthodox Jewry, to the author’s personal failure of empathy for political opponents

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-wounded-jewish-psyche-and-the-divided-israeli-soul/?utm_campaign=daily-edition-2023-07-28&utm_medium=email&utm_source=The+Daily+Edition

July 28, 2023 – by Yossi Klein Halevi – The Times of Israel

Yossi Klein Halevi is among the most insightful commentators of how historic, religious, secular, emotional, political, and nationalist elements are manifesting themselves in contemporary Israel.

This 5450-word essay reflects upon the competing forces at play in the current crisis in Israel and in Israeli identity and shines a light on all that is taking place in the Knesset, the Israeli Supreme Court, on the Israeli street, and in the multiplicity of communities and homes across the country. Yossi considers the raison d’être of Zionism, the history and development of the Jewish state, the impact of antisemitism, the Holocaust, war, terrorism, and security concerns on the Israeli psyche and identity, the role of religion and nationalistic zealotry in the modern, secular, and democratic state, the intersecting tensions between the many ethnic communities that make up modern Israel, and the relationship between Israel and Palestinian-Israeli citizens and with Palestinians living under occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Far more than a critique about what is occurring in Israel today, Yossi describes thoughtfully, empathically, and self-critically how Israel has arrived at this crisis and inflection point in its 75-year history, and he lays bare the complex competing forces struggling within the heart and soul of modern Israel that defines it today and will determine what the Jewish and democratic state will become.

Despite the despair Yossi feels and expresses poignantly in his essay, on the day the Knesset passed the “Reasonableness” bill, Yossi spent ten hours with demonstrators and described the protest and his optimism on the Shalom Hartman Institute Podcast “For Heaven’s Sake” this way:

“I came away feeling we’re going to win. At the end of the protest, the leaders, who spoke so eloquently, are devoting their lives to protecting Israeli democracy. They stood on the stage together and the crowd began chanting ‘todah, todah, todah – thank you, thank you, thank you.’ It was such an overwhelmingly beautiful moment. That’s what I feel this protest movement is about. It’s this feeling of gratitude to the state, for what we owe the state. That’s why we’re all out there. And we’re going to win [over corrupt extremist anti-democratic, autocratic, and theological forces] because we [the majority of Israel] really have love on our side. What I feel from the other side is only anger and vengeance. We have anger too, lots of anger. But what makes me an optimist is that our side knows that if the government neutralizes the court, the long-term viability of the state is at risk. The other side isn’t motivated by a fear for Israel’s survival. No one on the other side believes that if the government doesn’t control the courts the state won’t survive. In this particular fight, we have the existential edge.”

I was relieved to hear Yossi’s optimistic words as he is not only a friend but a keen observer of all things Israeli and the Israeli-American Jewish relationship. Optimism, after all, doesn’t deny the difficult reality in which Israel finds itself. The late President Shimon Peres said: “There are always skeptics in life…To be an optimist you have to work very hard to maintain optimism with the people you lead and have a lot of patience. It’s more natural to be a skeptic and be on the safe side…but in my experience in life I feel that being optimistic is wiser and more realistic…” Peres reflects the spirit of Judaism’s Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Sages 2:1) “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”

The case for a democratic Jewish state of Israel remains strong regardless of what the current Israeli government is doing, and regardless of the imperfections in Israel’s democracy itself.

If you read nothing else about Israel’s current crisis of identity this summer, let Yossi’s essay be the piece that you read. He helps us understand better what’s at stake for Judaism, the Jewish people, the Jewish Diaspora, and the Jewish and democratic State of Israel.