One of the snarky comments that made the social media waves over the last few days of rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza and Lebanon said: “Looks like we’ll have to postpone the civil war for a while.”
That dark humor, typical of our sensibilities that have developed as a natural defense mechanism in a country that has to roll with the seemingly countless punches directed our way, does have a shred of truth in its essence.
If anything has been demonstrated by the Palestinian-ignited violence on the Temple Mount, the barrages of rockets launched from Gaza over Passover, the salvo fired into northern communities – and Friday’s deadly terror attack in the Jordan Valley that killed two sisters and wounded their mother – it is that we can fight among each other all we want, but at the end of the day, the real enemy is at our doorstep, not within our home.
With the country under attack from the north, south and east, there is no better time for the government to institute a reset to everything that has gone down since it took office some three months ago.
Israeli government needs to reset
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should apologize to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for firing him simply because he told the truth about the threats facing the country and about the defense establishment’s difficulty in coping with them as long as the judicial overhaul protests continued.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir should start acting like a minister and not like a partisan extremist fanning the flames instead of putting them out. And if he’s incapable of doing that, he should resign or be fired.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Law Committee Chairman Simcha Rothman should shelve their sweeping legislation that has torn the country apart and negotiate in earnest with the opposition under the auspices of President Isaac Herzog to slowly and responsibly initiate changes that will strengthen the country and its democratic core.
Before you can change the nature of the country, you have to make sure that there is still a country left to change.
The IDF reservists should rescind their threats of refusing to show up for training and volunteer duty – and business leaders should stop threatening to take their money out of the country.
As we’ve seen over Passover, our internal dissent only emboldens Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorists just waiting to exploit any sign of weakness and discord in our midst.
Nobody asked the residents of Shlomi, hiding in their bomb shelters, if they’re for judicial reform or not. Likewise with the Gaza border communities – whose residents marked their Passover Seders with a soundtrack of booms emanating from across the border.
And surely, nobody knows or cares what the Efrat family – mourning its insurmountable losses – thinks about the protests taking place or the legislation that was temporarily halted.
The No. 1 item on the table going forward needs to be safeguarding the citizens of the country and implementing the deterrent factors that will dissuade the enemies of the state from launching rockets and instigating terror attacks.
We’ve got one last chance to demonstrate that the things that unite us are more binding than what separates us.The civil war can wait.