Even On Memorial Day, Israelis Are Divided

Fears of new laws that would weaken democracy cast a shadow on traditional day of national solidarity.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has avoided public events but his presence is felt throughout the country.

 

Dear Reader,

My wife and I have been on the road this month. A week in Nashville visiting family; a week in Tel Aviv with family; a week in Poland to experience Auschwitz and the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; and now a week in Jerusalem to mark Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut, visit friends and deepen our appreciation for the miracle of the Jewish state.

 Our emotional lows and highs have been extreme these past weeks and we are still in processing mode.

Next week I plan to share my observations on Poland, where a small but significant effort is underway to write a new chapter in the long-closed book of Polish Jewry. 

Today, Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, my thoughts are on this unique moment in Israeli history that finds society on the cusp of solidifying – or perilously weakening – the state’s democratic core values for years to come.

As terror incidents go, yesterday afternoon’s car-ramming on a busy street here near the shuk, the busy Machaneh Yehuda outdoor marketplace, may not be considered particularly memorable. After all, this is a country where, according to government statistics, terror attacks number in the hundreds each month.

But the fact is that a man in his 70s who was hit by the car is fighting for his life. Six others were injured; the East Jerusalem driver was “neutralized” by a citizen on the scene. 

The news was jarring. People ask first, “Was anyone killed? Was the perpetrator caught?” 

We let our family back home know we are safe, in keeping with an all-too-familiar ritual among Israelis who, on hearing such news, start checking in with relatives and friends to make sure they are ok and let them know they are unharmed.

Last night, like millions of others, we observed the mournful siren at 8 p.m. last night that sounded across the country, ushering in a 24-hour period of prayer and introspection. Standing in place on the sidewalk of a usually busy street, I stepped back from the curb, thinking of those innocent victims of the latest use of a car as a lethal weapon against Jewish life.

The shuk attack no longer leads the news. Instead, today is about Israel’s Memorial Day, when virtually every Jewish family mourns a relative or friend killed in the wars and terror attacks suffered by the world’s only Jewish state. 

This most recent car-ramming was just one more reminder of the high cost Israelis pay for the courageous act of founding, building and protecting a Jewish state in a sea of hostility.

But even on this sacred day, the unifying factor of shared loss of loved ones has been damaged by the current crisis over the planned judicial overhaul, which has torn Israeli society like no other domestic issue in its 75-year history of statehood.

The debate here this week has been about whether government representatives should take part in memorial programs for Israel’s fallen today, and celebrations on Independence Day, or whether their presence would politicize what has always been a day of communal solemnity followed by a day of national thanksgiving.

This upheaval is not about an existential threat from an outside enemy. It’s not about Palestinians or Iran. And it’s not about left vs. right politics. Rather, it’s about the threat from within Israeli society – the conflicting visions of Israel’s citizens over the future of their country as a democratic state with concessions to religious observance, or a religious state with unclear limits on human rights. The stakes could not be higher, and tensions erupted into scuffles and angry rhetoric at several memorial events today, including one at the Beersheba military cemetery where National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir spoke, despite pleas from some bereaved families that he not attend.

More than four months into the huge demonstrations against the government’s plan to weaken the High Court, there is a sense that the current “time out” during this holiday season is not going to sap the will of the opposition, whose views are shared by the majority of Israelis. The protests stemmed from the grass roots, not from political parties, and they have grown in size and number. The Saturday night that Prime Minister Netanyahu fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israelis took to the streets after midnight to express their anger.

By contrast, demonstrations in favor of the government began much later, have been much smaller and were organized by political parties.

Netanyahu has found himself in a trap of his own making. He often has described his position – prime minister of Israel – as the leader of the Jewish world. But in recent months he has managed to unify large segments of Israeli society and the diaspora in ways he never imagined or intended: against him and his efforts to create a more autocratic form of government.

The fact that he chose not to address the 2,000 participants in the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America meeting here in Israel this week speaks volumes. These are the diaspora’s most loyal, supportive and generous advocates for Israel, but Netanyahu no doubt feared his visit would spark protests inside and outside the hall. (The protests occurred anyway.) 

As has been noted in the Israeli media this week, the prime minister appears to be doing everything possible to deepen the divide between him and North American Jewry.

Sadly, the current crisis has cast a shadow over the long-anticipated 75th anniversary of the Jewish state, taking place tonight and tomorrow. It should have been marked by an unalloyed celebration of all that has been achieved by this small country that has not known a day of peace. But a large number of opponents of the coalition, including former government leaders, have insisted that joyous music and dazzling fireworks cannot hide the precarious state of a society on the edge.

My hope is that this milestone anniversary will not be recorded in history as the last to precede Israel’s slide toward autocracy — but rather when a massive, ongoing grassroots campaign helped preserve and strengthen the state’s commitment to both democratic and Jewish values.