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.
Consistency and values went out of the window a long time ago. Today it is only about personalities. Bibi was able to attempt to form a govt with Mansour Abbas but when Bennett actually did it later, he was declared a traitor. The same with the Oslo Accords and the Disengagement. Once upon a time, we essentially had a 2 party system in Israel and the parties stood for things and their members had to uphold those principles. Today, every party is just the manifestation of its leaders and disappears as fast as its leaders do. Remember Kadima, the largest party in the country? It barely lasted 3 elections. There are no more long term parties today with fixed values that outlast their leaders and Likud, the last of the old time parties, will eventually go that way as well.
The same is true with the Charedi Gedolim. If they change their values tomorrow, their followers will follow however much it contradicts what they previously taught, because you have to listen to them "even when they tell you that right is left and left is right." That is why there is hope that if the money stops flowing to them, they will tell their followers to change their lifestyle.
Dear Natan,
You blew it on your last paragraph or two. Those who are going to Yeshivat HaKotel for its program are some of the most level headed individuals in Chinukh today . You disagree with ONE of them and therefore the entire project you reject?? C’mon now, you have got to be bigger than that !!