Israel Divided
Photo: Abigail Mason
As I prepare for a trip to Israel later this month, my attention can’t help but be drawn to the current and unprecedented political division throughout the country. While the focus of much of the global media has always been on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, a new division has arisen in the region. A division between the Israeli government and its people.
It is a complex division that has shaken the global Jewish community. Thomas Friedman, a foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, explains that “ever since Israel’s founding in 1948, supporting the country’s security and its economic development and cementing its diplomatic ties to the U.S. have been the “religion” of many nonobservant American Jews…”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have been under criticism for their plans to completely overhaul the Israeli judicial system. This is just another governmental shift that will cement Netanyahu’s authoritarian rule over the country. Netanyahu, in the previous election cycle, took a much more outspoken nationalist approach to his rhetoric, and although he was elected, his recent proposed reforms have sparked mass outrage.
In protest of the judicial reform, approximately 250,000 Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv. Members of the Israeli Air Force also protested the “judicial coup attempt” by sitting out on training. The extent and gravity of this protest has led to its labeling as the second war of independence. The Israeli government needs the cooperation of the military—it’s an integral part of their national security and the daily protection of their citizens. Disfunction and corruption is rife within the Israeli government and its citizens recognize this.
The American Jewish community has always been vocal in their opinions on the current political state of Israel. Three well-known centrist voices, Rabbi Daniel Gordis, Yossi Klein Halevi, and Matti Friedman recently published a letter in The Times of Israel, addressing an influential American audience. A section of this letter reads:
“To Israel’s friends in North America, we are taking the unusual step of directly addressing you at a moment of acute crisis in Israel. Protecting Israel today means defending it from a political leadership that is undermining our society’s cohesion and its democratic ethos, the foundations of the Israeli success story. … A prime minister currently on trial for corruption, and who has appointed ministers with criminal records, is claiming legitimacy to overturn the legal system.”
Protesters have blocked the main road from Ben Gurion Airport, disrupting the flow of traffic to and from the airport.
And so, as this conflict continues, I expect to encounter and report on some of its effects during my travels throughout the country.