‘We are great at fighting together and at dying together, but unfortunately, we do not know how to live together.”
That is how one Israeli who lost two family members in terrorist attacks expressed his feelings this week in the aftermath of the religious battle that played out on the streets of Tel Aviv on Monday in what can also be referred to as the Yom Kippur War of 2023.
The bereaved family member could not have been more right. Something is wrong today in Israel. Wars unite us. Death unites us. But the larger challenge – the need to get along here while we are alive – we seem to consistently fail. And sadly, the situation only seems to be getting worse.
What happened in Tel Aviv on Yom Kippur is the result of how the public discourse has been taken over today by the extremes. On the one hand, there is no question that shutting down a prayer service in Tel Aviv – known as “The First Hebrew City” after its founding in 1909 – is unacceptable. Jews trying to pray being pushed on the holy day of Yom Kippur are scenes that should never be part of any country in the world, let alone a country that is meant to be the Jewish homeland.
On the other hand, the group that organized the prayer service at the Dizengoff Square – Rosh Yehudi – should have never tried to erect a mechitza (partition) in the public space after it was told that it couldn’t by the city and then the Supreme Court. Israel needs to remain a country where there is adherence to the rule of law. It is not a place where people can do whatever they want.
Additionally, it is hard to ignore that Rosh Yehudi seemed to want to hold an event that would be more of a political nature than a religious prayer service. They sought to hold the service in the center of the bastion of secularism in the country. They align with extreme religious leaders like Yigal Levinstein, a rabbi from Eli known for a history of terrible sexist and homophobic comments.
Group effort in Rosh Yehudi conflict
Everyone played a role in the outcome of what happened on Yom Kippur in Tel Aviv, as well as in other parts of the country where services were disrupted for trying to hold prayers with gender separation.
It is hard not to think about the extremists who burned the food stores in ancient Jerusalem and how that decision contributed to the quick destruction of the Second Temple. Did anyone know back then that burning some grain would lead to the loss of Jewish sovereignty? Probably not. But knowing that today, how can we be so foolish and march in that same direction?
UNFORTUNATELY, THE events in Tel Aviv are not isolated. This is part of a larger social shift in Israel, where extremists on both sides are openly pushing the country toward a religious war and actively trying to pit observant Jews against secular Jews.
We saw that immediately after Yom Kippur, both sides stoked the flames even more, leading to the only natural result: Itamar Ben-Gvir announcing that he would hold a public prayer service in the square on Thursday (he thankfully called it off on Wednesday afternoon). Immediately after the fast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the protesters, referring to them as “leftists” who “rioted” against Jews trying to pray. That doesn’t exactly help ease the tension.
On the other hand, Benny Gantz took days to release a statement condemning the protesters and acknowledging that violence was used on Yom Kippur. He came under criticism for only doing so after polls on the main TV channels showed him lose a bit of political steam and that the public overwhelmingly supports the worshipers.
The reason some people want this fight is because it serves their political agenda. On the Right, there are those who see what is happening in Israel today as similar to the way the late American political consultant Arthur Finkelstein helped get Netanyahu elected in 1996. Then, Finkelstein came up with the idea that Israel can be divided between those who identify as “Jewish” (right-wing) and those who identify as “Israeli” (left-wing).
It was this distinction that gave birth to the slogan “Peres will divide Jerusalem” as well as to Netanyahu’s controversial comment caught on an open mic that “they [the Left] have forgotten what it means to be Jewish.” It is what helped him win his first prime ministerial election.
And on the Left, there are people who want this divide to rally support and make clear that they stand with the public that is opposed to the coalition which is today overwhelmingly religious.
Politicians on both sides want to force Israelis to choose – who are they: Jewish or Israeli? And what do they stand for? Jewish tradition or liberalism?
For the Right, this type of discourse diverts attention away from the ongoing fight over judicial reform and forces centrists and right-wingers, who might not be happy with the way the overhaul was managed, to understand that there is something greater at play – an attempt to harm Israel’s Jewish character. And for the Left, it helps keep the people focused on fighting this government.
But what about the future of the State of Israel? What about the future of the Jewish people? Are we capable of living together or is that now lost and as the bereaved Israeli said, we only know today how to fight and die as one?
The writer is the immediate past editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.