A Critical Reminder on This Yom Kippur
Jews and Israelis having different ideas in a liberal democracy is not a sign of menacing division. It is the opposite: a sign of Jewish cultural and intellectual health.
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This is a guest essay written by Nachum Kaplan of Moral Clarity.
It is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement and the most sacred in the Jewish calendar.
More than a day of personal expiation, it is a day of unity, when Jews of all political and religious persuasions partake in the same rituals. This is another kind of at-one-ment.
The idea that Israel is a divided society and that Diaspora Jews are split over how Israel should defeat its genocidal neighbors has considerable currency right now — but it is wrong.
The Islamic Republic of Iran and its evil acolytes Hamas and Hezbollah, which have brought every part of the Middle East they step foot in to ruin, have been propagandizing the narrative that “the Zionist entity” of Israel is weak, divided, and near collapse.
The mullahs in Tehran, however, have made the mistake of believing their own propaganda. Their terror-supporting sympathizers in the West have lapped it up with their usual lack of insight and critical thinking.
Underlying this misconception are two myths: that Israel is a recent fragile colonialist entity with shallow roots that will crumble under pressure, and the unsophisticated notion that disagreement equals disunity.
Israel is so strong because, far from being a fugacious colonial entity, it is an ancient nation. It is the only country that has the same name, speaks the same language, and whose people hold the same belief system as it did 3,000 years ago.
Given such deep roots, it is absurd to claim that transient issues such as disagreements over military strategy or constitutional arrangements mean the country is dangerously divided.
People having different ideas in a liberal democracy is not a sign of menacing division. It is the opposite: a functioning open society thrashing out and brainstorming competing ideas. It is demonstration of Jewish cultural and intellectual health.
In fact, the lack of violence between Jewish groups and factions, despite fundamental religious and political differences, shows Israelis’ high degree of unity.
Israelis might disagree on whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing a good job, or even if he is a good person, but there is complete agreement that the Jewish state is surrounded by antisemitic, genocidal jihadist enemies that Israel must defeat.
Iran and its proxies are now paying the price of believing their own bellicosity. Israel has pulled together to humiliate Iran, whose leaders sleeplessly await Israel reprisals for the Islamic Republic’s recent unsuccessful ballistic missile attack — when Iran fired 181 ballistic missiles at Israel, but caused minimum damage in what was a mighty military failure. The Iranian regime must be in regret of believing its own agitprop that Israel was divided and weak.
Israel has promised a response that will be “powerful, precise, and above all — surprising.” Given that Israel has destroyed Hamas as a meaningful force in Gaza, decapitated Hezbollah and smashed it to smithereens in Lebanon, and that the Houthis in Yemen have always been a B-grade terror group, Tehran is right to be scared.
Iran should probably be thankful about being wrong about Israeli disunity. If it was correct, it would mean that even a very weak Israel can run rings around Iran.
Another reason Israel looks divided is because it is open and democratic society, unlike every other state in the region. When tens of thousands of Israelis throng (the magnificently named) Kaplan Street in Tel Aviv to protest judicial reform, the media reports on it freely. That is not necessarily a sign of great division; it is just a feature of a liberal democratic society.
It is unsurprising that Israel’s theocratic and dictatorial enemies do not understand democracy, liberalism, or freedom. These are markers of confidence, not of division or weakness.
International and Israeli news media, much of which parts of the anti-intellectual Left has infected, feeds this nonsense and misunderstanding. I have covered my share of civil unrest in my journalistic career and a key thing I learned was the extent to which noisy protests — and their attendant media coverage — often do not reflect majority option.
Every time a headline screams that a hundred-thousand protestors have blocked the streets of Tel Aviv, remember that it means the other nine million Israelis are not there. These protestors may or may not be right in their criticism, but they are a minority with a megaphone. Writing that a minority is protesting and the rest of the country is fed up with them blocking the traffic is not the stuff of headlines and clickbait, which is why this point does not get made enough.
A strong narrative from across the Israeli political spectrum is that, because of incessant infighting — the Right trying to push through judicial changes and the Left trying to stop them — Israel looked divided, became complacent about threats from Gaza, and emboldened Hamas to launch its October 7th attack.
There is a dark flipside to this narrative: It revives and nourishes the old antisemitic trope that Jews are responsible for their own persecution. In this case, their own infighting is to blame. This thinking has also been extended to disagreements over whether Israel has done enough to get its hostages back from Hamas, as if Israel’s failure to do so makes it responsible for there still being hostages.
Israel clearly made some serious defense mistakes, but the idea that anyone other than Hamas is responsible for the October 7th pogrom and abductions is specious. It is predicated on the morally flawed notion that Hamas is not responsible for its actions.
The Israeli people have pulled together magnificently after October 7th, showing that the country’s divisions were shallower than most supposed. More reservists turned up to fight than the Israel Defense Forces could absorb. Unity does not mean everyone walking in uncritical lockstep like a Russian military parade. That is not unity; that is mindless conformity.
The same is true among the Diaspora. Jews hold many different views but are remarkably united when it comes to Israel. Approximately 95 percent of Jews globally are Zionists. The tiny minority who are not Zionists generally come in two kinds: psychopaths (such as Jewish Voice for Peace) and ultra-religious Jews who do not care about politics and just want to delve into arcane points of Aramaic grammar.
Overstated media coverage of fringe non-Zionist Jews is a deceitful attempt to make it look like Jews are not united. Journalists also love writing about minority Jewish organizations, such as J-Street in America or the Jewish Council of Australia, which are deemed more “progressive” than more traditional Jewish advocacy groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) or the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Yet, it should be unremarkable that people, Jewish or not, hold different opinions on important, complex political matters. Why would they not?
There is something sinister about the very notion that all Jews should think the same thing, and that if they do not it is a sign of disunity. It is rooted in the antisemitic trope that there is a group, a cabal, called “the Jews.” It is classic “Jewish world-domination” conspiracy theory that Jew-haters peddle along with their usual blood libels.
Especially annoying are polls designed to feed the idea that Israel is not only isolated, but even out of lockstep with those in the Diaspora. A recent poll from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in the UK showed that about 75 percent of British Jews do not support Netanyahu.
Well, whoop-dee-doo! This must be the most meaningless poll in history. Israel’s government is accountable to the Israeli citizenry, not to British Jews (or anyone else in foreign countries). That is how nation-states work.
Besides, I would be more interested in seeing a poll showing what percentage of UK Jews are thinking about moving to Israel because the UK has gone to the dogs and is deeply antisemitic. At least that would be a poll of people talking about their own country.
Much of this idea of Jewish disunity comes from poor political philosophy, specifically an inability to distinguish between a government, a nation, and a state.
Jews might have different views on what Israeli policy should be, but there is extraordinary unity about the importance of Israel, a critical and moving reminder on this Yom Kippur.
Those in glass houses should be the last to throw stones. Which country is more polarized than the States? And it is not just predicated on disagreement of issues but more of the loathing, hating variety.
Having said that, I have no doubt that if war was declared against the USA, all of the arguments and loathing would all drop to the wayside and patriotism would rule the day. Nothing like fighting for your survival to ignite that love and kinship with your fellow citizens.
papa j
Thanks for the perspective. A good reminder that we Jews are an opinionated and argumentative group, that is just part of our culture. Israelis especially love to argue and discuss. We need to be reminded to take it with a grain of salt. I do think the media has divided us further than we naturally would be, and is exceptionally biased these days...