One of Israel’s greatest strengths over the years was a feeling people around the world had that Israel was in the right, it was justified in what it did and even when the images were tough and the outcome unclear, the moral foundation for what Israel did had not changed.
It was this assumption that kept the country in a positive light across the world. It was the feeling that even if mistakes were made – during an airstrike in Gaza or an IDF raid in Jenin – Israel still stood its moral ground. Israel was still that scrappy little country fighting enemies encroaching upon it from all directions and despite it all, was finding a way to thrive.
To the world, Israel always had a powerful story. It is the tale of an ancient people who had returned to their historic homeland and against all odds not only survived but persevered and thrived. The Jewish people built up a vibrant democratic society that was diverse, intriguing and innovative. It developed some of the world’s most advanced life-saving technologies and at the same time, continued to tell a story that would bring pride to its people, as well as its supporters around the world.
It had to fight way too frequently but even so, it was a country that did not waver. It stayed the course of where the West thought it should be and where most of the country’s citizens – Jewish and non-Jewish – seemed to want it, as well.
After a week in the United States and endless conversations with Jewish and non-Jewish supporters, that is no longer the case. People in America are confused about what is happening in Israel. They don’t understand why the judicial reform is needed, why it is ripping the country apart and why wherever they look it seems like Israel is falling and failing. The story, they feel, has lost its thread.
The rapid pace of events in Israel makes it seem like the country is on steroids. If news one day is not dominated by 250,000 people protesting on the streets, there is some security situation, a terrorist attack or just another wacky piece of legislation that members of the coalition are putting forward.
Israel is at a crossroads
This is just what happened over the last few days, not including the judicial bills: The coalition advanced the hametz law that will ban people from bringing food into hospitals over Passover, directly undermining civil liberties; a member of the coalition claimed that a shortage at the country’s blood bank was because the forms now say “parent 1 and parent 2” and not “mother and father”; the coalition started the process of repealing the 2005 disengagement law; and a law meant to allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to keep the money he received from his cousin to fund his legal expenses and to prevent the attorney general from declaring him unfit to serve all moved through the Knesset.
AS SOME people told me in the US, they feel like Israel has taken on the role of president Donald Trump, who used to start the morning with a series of tweets that no one could predict where they would go and what they would do. That is Israel today: Constantly on the move in an exaggerated and extreme way.
This is all worth thinking about on the eve of Israel’s upcoming Independence Day. Seventy-five is an age when you are no longer a kid. You’ve grown up, you’ve seen a few things and you are supposed to have experience, wisdom and perspective. You are supposed to appreciate what it is that you have and understand how fragile it is and how easily it can all be lost.
But it is also an opportunity to think about the story the country is telling today. What is the narrative that we are telling ourselves and the world? This is something that transcends the figurehead of who is prime minister or what specific issue the country is grappling with on a specific day.
It is a question of national identity and thinking about who we are and what we want to be, while appreciating where we once were and where we are now today.
Arguing is fine – that is actually one of Israel’s greatest characteristics – but when the arguments divide people the way they are doing now and when they have created the worst political paralysis this country has ever known, there is a severe problem.
Questions of identity are always going to come up at some point in a nation’s life. The US had its civil war some 90 years after its independence when it needed to figure out the direction that it wanted to go in as a nation.
Israel does not need a civil war and we have to pray that never happens. It does, however, need to think hard about what type of country it wants to be and how it plans to get there. Judicial reform is not the end goal on its own but rather for some people, it’s just the means by which they take care of their personal problems (Netanyahu’s trial and Aryeh Deri’s appointment) while changing the character of the state at the same time.
And even if there wasn’t the judicial reform moving ahead right now, would Israel be able to tell a story that can once again captivate the world? Is that even possible?
It might not be. It could be that life has become too good in Israel for that to happen. And maybe that is the silver lining of the arguments over the judicial overhaul: life is good in Israel, we are strong militarily, the GDP per capita in the country is over $50,000 (NIS 184,000) and we have energy independence.
When the country was fighting for survival – as Israel has often had to do over the past 75 years – it didn’t have the luxury to think about how to appoint judges or what percentage of Knesset members were needed to override a Supreme Court decision. It was too busy simply trying to survive.
But that is not the case today. Yes, there are threats and challenges but Israel’s existence is not in question. It does not wake up in the morning in fear that some external enemy will be able to sweep in, conquer territory and potentially put an end to the Zionist dream.
Israel does, though, need to figure out what type of country it wants to be but to do that it needs to be able to tell a compelling story to itself and the world. As of now, everyone seems to have lost the plot.
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Bezalel Smotrich
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was in Washington DC for a gathering of Israel Bonds, this week. It was his first visit to the US since being appointed minister and it mostly garnered headlines because of the ban the Biden administration imposed on him – no US officials met him during the trip.
While that is unprecedented, what wasn’t was Smotrich’s attempt to deliver his remarks at the conference in English. He should have stuck to Hebrew.
In a video circulating all over the Internet, Smotrich is seen giving a speech in what can only be described as broken English. Words are swallowed and sentences are garbled. Some of the words he can’t even pronounce, trying two or three times to get them right.
Clearly, Smotrich’s English is not at a high level. And what we need to understand is that this is fine. He is an Israeli politician and until now, his roles have all had a domestic focus. He has not needed to speak English publicly.
The question that needs to be asked is why did he even try? Why did Smotrich not speak in Hebrew and have a simultaneous translation? In trying to speak English, he followed in the footsteps of other Israeli politicians who did the same and failed, people like Amir Peretz, the former defense minister, who in 2005 gave a speech in which he mispronounced, slurred and even skipped words.
Israeli politicians need to realize that there is nothing wrong with speaking their native and authentic language of Hebrew. That is the language they know and using it is how they can be most articulate. When Angela Merkel used to address the UN, did she speak English or German? When Emmanuel Macron speaks there, he addresses the audience in French, not English. It is the same when it comes to Arab leaders and so many more.
For some reason, Israeli politicians feel the need to try and do something that their foreign counterparts do not do but also is not expected. They can take pride in their native tongue and speak Hebrew without shame.
Save the effort. It is not worth it.