Page 4 - HaMizrachi Chanukah 5784 North America

Together We Will Win (PHOTO: GAL TWIG/IDF SPOKESPERSON)

ַחַ ֵצֵּ ַנְַנַ ד ַחַ ַיַ ְבְּ ה"זעב

Rabbi Doron Perez

he past five years have been some Israel and many Diaspora communities. the right-wing that murdered an Israeli
of the most divisive in Israel’s Everything became a zero-sum game and Prime Minister, not the left. I asked for
history. The fabric of society everyone was unequivocally right, in their permission to speak and said to him, “Are
Tsignificantly weakened, and we own eyes. Appalling demonization and the you waiting for the murder of a right-wing
experienced a phenomenon almost with- inability to listen to anyone else’s opinion prime minister by someone on the left,
out precedent in the history of democracy became commonplace. Most concerning so it will be 1-1, and then things will be
– five rounds of elections within four years to me was how moderates had become equal?” What has happened to us?!
(2019–2022), unrelenting delegitimization extremists. Few people were willing to The climax came on Yom Kippur. Who
of other Jews and the invalidation of the listen to anyone else. We were left with would have believed that on the holiest
views of others. The country faced years echo chambers of self-righteousness and day of the year, in a Jewish state, we would
of paralyzing political stagnation. fundamentalists on both sides who were see videos of Jews protesting the right of
It turned out that the years of “Just Not absolutely convinced that only they pos- other Jews to pray in public? Almost every
Bibi” versus “Only Bibi” and the Prime sessed the absolute truth. red line was crossed – an ominous sign
Minister’s unparalleled court case were The two sides were like high-speed trains that catastrophe was not far away.
just a gentle warm-up for what was to hurtling towards a head-on collision, with
follow. Even when the political dead- neither train prepared to change course. I And then came October 7.
lock was finally broken in the election remember asking a government minister We knew it would take something extraor-
of November 2022, the situation only whether he was waiting for an assassina- dinary to make us rethink it all. But even
worsened. tion attempt before backing down. I sit in our darkest nightmares, we never imag-
One side wanted to change the legal on the board of the World Zionist Orga- ined the wake-up call would come in the
system at all costs while the other pro- nization and on many occasions called horrific and devastating way that it did.
tested against it at all costs – even if their for the board to be a unifying influence On one dark day, everything changed.
protests would damage the economy and and not a divisive one. During a recent On that Shabbat morning, the Gaza
the IDF reserves. The internal crisis threat- board meeting before Rosh Hashanah, one Envelope became the most dangerous
ened to cause a rift between the State of left-wing board member said that it was and unprotected place for Jews on Earth

4 |