My head is spinning, trying to understand the standards and positions of the government and its most right-wing supporters regarding the definition of patriots who are our friends and traitors who are our enemy.
For example, Yuval Abraham, the producer of the anti-Israel documentary Naza, is condemned for claiming that Israel was engaged in widespread killing of civilians in Gaza. The government, in yet another pointless gift to those seeking to politically and economically isolate Israel, declares that it will try to revoke his citizenship for badmouthing Israel.
But meanwhile, the most right-wing MKs and their supporters are saying that Israel should engage in widespread killing of civilians in Gaza, and that anyone who says otherwise is not a patriot!
Then today, the government voted (in a move that will presumably be overturned by the Supreme Court, but meanwhile is yet another pointless gift to those seeking to politically and economically isolate Israel) to ban all the Arab parties from the forthcoming elections, on the grounds that they do not accept Israel as a Jewish state (which is undoubtedly true of some, but not of Mansour Abbas, who has been very clear that Israel is a Jewish state and will remain that way).
But meanwhile, the charedim, who are automatically and enthusiastically welcomed by this government as coalition partners, are very emphatic about how they do not accept that Israel is a Jewish state!
It’s all so confusing.
But it’s not only the government and its most right-wing supporters who are leaving me confused about such things. On a not unrelated note, I’m also confused by the forthcoming event at Yeshivat HaKotel under the title “v’yaasu kulam agudah achas,” “they should all be one group”:
Featured in the center is R. Shraga Kallus, perhaps to demonstrate inclusiveness and eilu v’eilu divrei Elokim chayim. But R. Kallus himself has explicitly declared that Religious Zionism is not part of eilu v’eilu divrei Elokim chayim, because its values are not Torah, diverge from The Gedolim and The Mesorah, and are warped! And this is all part of a larger charedi belief and approach that they are very much not part of the same agudah achas as everyone else!
We need some clarity and consistency.
Not since Sinai and כאיש אחד בלב אחד were the Jewish people able to experience one moment's peace of clarity and consistency.