What has caused the divisions in Israel?

“If one beholds tribulations coming upon him, let him inspect his deeds.” Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot, 5a

There have been nine months of tribulations for our beloved homeland, the State of Israel. Unfortunately, the supernationalist so-called Religious Zionist and Jewish Power parties and their supporters in Likud, Netanyahu’s party, have contributed mightily to the highly visible divisions in Israel before October 7, which may have precipitated that catastrophe.

The divisiveness of judicial reform and October 7

The push for judicial reform, which would have neutered Israel’s Supreme Court and given free rein to Knesset lawmakers to legislate even against Israel’s Basic Laws, divided the country. Judicial reform’s major accomplishment was to bring out tens of thousands and occasionally hundreds of thousands of protesters, cause national strikes, and move even high-level members of the IDF to refuse to report for required training sessions. The latter explained that they had not become soldiers to defend a dictatorship.

At the time of these events neither the proponents of judicial reform nor their opponents knew what was to come. The military warned Netanyahu that Israel was vulnerable due to the divisions splitting the populace. Several times the highest-ranking leadership of the IDF wished to meet with the prime minister to warn him about these dangerous perceptions. More than once, he refused to meet with them.

Netanyahu and company and October 7

It is true that Yahya Sinwar began planning the October 7 attack two years before it occurred. However, it does not seem coincidental that it took place at a time when Israel was roiled with internal conflict caused by Netanyahu and his coalition. No one was looking at Gaza as a source of conflict. Netanyahu had been supporting Hamas-controlled Gaza financially, believing that the bribe would keep Gaza quiet. That support aligned with Netanyahu’s agenda, which was to marginalize and weaken the Palestinian Authority to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu has consistently masked his intents regarding a Palestinian state in the West Bank as a matter of security, “No Hamastan; no Fatahstan.” This scare-tactic has kept him in power. However, we should remember that he is the son of Benzion Netanyahu, secretary to Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who had his own Jewish vision of “from the Jordan to the Sea.” Netanyahu’s Likud Party follows Jabotinsky. Netanyahu seeks a Jewish state in the entire biblical Land of Israel. Nothing less. This is his ideological bottom line.

Up until now, Netanyahu has not been bold enough to say this out loud, but today he can rely on the support of the likes of Smotrich and Ben Gvir for writing the annexation of the entire West Bank into the agreement for entering the present coalition. What these people have accomplished is failure to protect Israel’s citizens, and counter to their ideology, the reduction of the size of Medinat Yisrael. After all, the communities in Israel’s North and South that are under fire have been evacuated.

It is hard to say when Yahya Sinwar would have struck. However, when “religious” anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racists like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir have a firm grip on Israel’s policies, a man with similar racist and “religious” hatred of Jews probably figured there was nothing to lose by brutally killing 1,200 people, by far most of them Jews, and having his henchmen take another 250 as hostages.

The hard truth

At the beginning of the war with Hamas, the fissures in Israeli society that were engendered by the prospect of judicial reform looked like they were going to disappear. Former right and left enemies came together to support the war effort, and the government became a unity government with a unity war cabinet, though some parties refused to sit with the indicted Benjamin Netanyahu. Two objectives were established: the total defeat of Hamas and the return of the hostages.

Nine months later, neither objective has been achieved. Hamas forces are repeatedly declared “cleared” and the IDF moves on to fight Hamas in a new arena — only to return to an old one. Most recently, the military echelons have informed the political administration that the complete destruction of Hamas cannot be accomplished. Still, Netanyahu and company push for “total victory.”

After the initial 100 or so hostages who came home in the original hostages-for-Palestinian prisoners swap, most have remained prisoners in Gaza. We hear figures about the hostages’ fate. First, we hear that one-third are dead. Then reliable sources tell us that half or more are dead. So, if or when the hostages return home, many will come home in body bags. The objective of the return of the hostages has not been accomplished.

These failures have again brought Israelis to the streets in angry protests, dividing supporters of the war from those who want a cease-fire and the hostages home now.

Hamas’s two biggest victories

Yahya Sinwar has achieved what no Palestinian leader has managed to for several decades — to put the issue of a Palestinian state back on the world’s table. This is a political victory. Sinwar reminded the world of an issue that it had mostly forgotten.

Sinwar also has drawn Israel into a war in which truth and reality are not necessarily in sync. For example, can the Hamas-controlled health administration in Gaza be believed about the number of civilian deaths suffered by Gazans? Even the U.N., no friend of Israel, revised the figures. Can UNRWA be believed about famine, starvation, and thirst in Gaza when some of its employees are Hamas members? But whether they are true or not, the media’s presentation of these figures and portrayal of conditions have made Israel a pariah state, whose leaders are now indicted war criminals, compared in a single breath to Yahya Sinwar.

Sinwar can now declare himself and Hamas victors on two counts.

If one beholds tribulations coming upon him, let him inspect his deeds

The Jewish month of Tammuz has begun. On the seventeenth day of that month, the beginning of the destruction of the First and Second Temples began. On the ninth of Av the destruction was soon to be complete. The period between these two dates is traditionally a period of mourning for the tribulations that came upon us, and that lasted for two thousand years.

Well, present day tribulations have come upon us, and we should be horrified that Israel’s fight is existential, especially if Hezbollah gets into the fray in a more serious fashion.

But who is examining their deeds? Mr. Netanyahu, who is playing the dangerous game of spitting in the face of the president of the United States, who is risking his political future in some quarters for supporting Israel? Smotrich and Ben Gvir, who are prioritizing an impossible “total victory” over Hamas and settlement-building above the lives of
120 hostages?

The Book of Lamentations, which we read on the ninth of Av, tells us, “Let us diligently inspect our deeds and examine them and return to Adonai.” This was Jeremiah’s advice to his people as a remedy for the tragedy that led the Jewish people into its first exile from the Land of Israel.

By examining our deeds and Israel examining its, we might save ourselves and each other. And as we examine, we should remind ourselves that the end of the Second Jewish Commonwealth and the destruction of the Second Temple was caused by the Zealots. What does a government controlled by present day zealots with no sense of political realities, an oversupply of hubris, hearts full of hate, and hunger for power have in store for the Third Commonwealth?

Not teshuvah.

Rabbi Michael Chernick of Teaneck is professor emeritus at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He received his doctorate from the Bernard Revel Graduate School and rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.