America First and Israel Last

Tucker Qatarlson and Yinon Magel

There’s a bizarre and disturbing phenomenon in the American political-cultural scene that is also appearing in the Israeli political-cultural scene.

Tucker Carlson, former Fox news host, is purportedly conservative, far-right, allegedly “America First.” Yet he gushes over far-left figures such as Mamdani, along with enemies of America and its values such as Putin and Qatar. (Similarly, Marjorie Taylor-Greene recently showed affection for the left-wing Code Pink organization.)

A similar phenomenon is occurring in Israel. But first, some background.

Remember the monkey man? He was a charedi young man living a less than a charedi yeshivish lifestyle while claiming that he can’t fulfill his civic duties due to the IDF not providing a safe spiritual environment. But an even more obnoxious example is Itamar Babi.

Itamar Babi shot to fame this past summer after he was interviewed on Channel 12. As a charedi young man openly working and not learning in yeshiva, he nevertheless insisted that there is no reason for him to enlist, since the IDF is not religious enough. Moreover, he insulted the reservists, claiming that they are only in it for the money(!).

Subsequently his social media posts were exposed, and they were even more damning than feeding monkeys on a mixed beach in Thailand. Suffice it to say that he was in very close proximity to people of the opposite gender who were most certainly not Beis Yaakov girls.

Babi is held in disgust even by many charedim. But look who is smiling together with him in the photo below, with Babi saying that he loves him:

It’s none other than Yinon Magel, perhaps the most prominent figure on the “government right,” host of the Channel 14 television show “The Patriots.”

Now, Magel is a secular Jew, a former elite IDF soldier, a non-charedi person who is allegedly a Zionist and patriot, someone who wants the IDF to be very strong. So why on earth would he enjoy the company of someone who is the opposite of a Zionist and patriot, someone who puts down IDF soldiers, someone who is opposed to even non-learning, non-charedi charedim serving in the IDF?

There’s two explanations, and I think that there is truth to both of them - indeed, they are related to each other.

One explanation for Magel’s support of charedi draft-dodging is that Magel’s television show, ironically called “The Patriots,” is aired by Channel 14. Channel 14 is owned by Russian quasi-charedi billionaire Yitzchak Mirilashvili and operated by a man called Netanel Siman-Tov. Siman-Tov is a devotee of Rav Tau, the controversial Rosh Yeshiva of Har HaMor and a leader of an extremist faction within Religious Zionism. This group is ideologically very close to charedim and even joined the charedi anti-draft rally in Jerusalem. And so we find Channel 14 promoting the idea that charedim in yeshiva should be exempt from army service - not just as a practical concession to hold the government together, but as an ideal.

Now, Channel 14 itself hosted a show in which the presenter tore into Itamar Babi for being a “fake charedi.” Still, when you have a channel in which presenters are expected to be sympathetic to anti-Zionist charedim, it’s not surprising that some, such as Magel, would even be friends with charedi draft-dodgers who are not learning.

But I think that there is an additional explanation. It’s about tribalism.

One of the reasons why so many people oppose Netanyahu and his coalition is the blanket exemption from IDF service and endless money that they want to provide for charedim. Now, you could be a reasonable government supporter and still agree with that criticism. There are government supporters who see the kowtowing to charedi selfishness as a necessary evil, a deeply unfortunate price to pay for maintaining the current government in power, which they (whether rightly or wrongly) see as being the best government for Israel’s interests.

But many people are unable to hold such a nuanced position. For them, anything that the government does to stay in power must be presented as innately good, and one sometimes gets the impression that they have even convinced themselves of it. This is why we have the bizarre spectacle of secular Likud MKs making claims about how Israel, for its very survival, specifically needs tens of thousands of charedim to be learning in yeshivah. Indeed, Bibi Netanyahu himself made such a claim this week! (This is even though there is no logical or even traditional basis for such a thing, and Israel survived perfectly well for decades without this modern phenomenon.)

And for those who are really deep in their tribalism, it goes even further. The enemy of my enemy is not just my strategic interest - he is my friend. Just as Tucker adores America Last people because they share his hatred of Jews and Israel, so too for people like Magel, if the “Left” (by which they mean anyone who doesn’t support the current government) are against charedi draft-dodgers, then charedi draft-dodgers are great guys!

There’s also a flip side to this, spelled out in a powerful article by Oz Simonovsky. Such political tribalists simultaneously regard genuine right-wing army-serving religious Zionist Israelis, if they are protesting the Likud’s sweeping charedi exemption law, as the enemy. Thus, people such as Shevut Raanan, a religious-Zionist mother of five who, after her husband’s extended call-ups, decided to campaign for charedi enlistment, is attacked and delegitimized by Channel 14 (read her powerful response here). And people such as Rav Tamir Granot, who are too prestigious to be attacked and delegitimized, are simply censored from the discussion.

Such is what happens when it’s all about tribalism, when being in power becomes an end unto itself that supersedes all other values, even the values that brought that power in the first place; it ends up corrupting those very values.