78 Days to Election: Separate the Wheat from the Chaff

I love this country and after close to 43 years here I would not live anywhere else especially now, when Israel turns out to be the safest place in the world for Jews.  Even as I write this, I think to myself that as recently as five years ago I would not have made this statement.  But today?  Given the rising levels of antisemitism and anti-Israel activities worldwide, it’s not even a question.

Nevertheless, even among those who openly hate us, there is no argument that the “startup nation” as we call ourselves has punched way above its weight in creating cutting edge technologies in multiple disciplines which have been easily embraced by the world independent of their criticism.  After all, does the multiple sclerosis sufferer in Israel-hating Spain care at all whether or not we really are committing genocide as some believe, if the only prescriptive relief for him or her is a product developed here?  I think not.

So……we accept all of that and continue to willingly share with the world the largesse created by our collective creative genius.

Yet, in spite of all the tech achievement and success, often the leadership of this country exhibits such an incredible lack of understanding of the basics of good public relations that it is difficult to understand how such genius can be so blind to global practical politics.

A case in point is an article reported in the Forward on Friday that said: “At least seven young American Jews have had their electronic travel authorizations (ETA) revoked over their involvement with activist groups involved with “protective presence.” This practice involves unarmed nonviolent activists, often Israelis or other Jewish volunteers from abroad, accompanying and presumably protecting Palestinians at risk of being attacked by Israeli settlers.”

The paper goes on to note that “none of the seven Americans who spoke with The Forward had been arrested or charged with crimes.” It seems that some volunteers in the program, called Hineinu, founded by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence in 2021, even received the revocation notices by mail while they were already in Judea and Samaria.

The program places Jewish volunteers within Palestinian communities for three-month periods, where they participate in protective presence, accompany Palestinians at risk of attack, and document purported human rights abuses with the hope of deterring them.

 To be sure, every country has the right to determine who can and cannot pass through its borders.  It is also true that not every person coming to any country, Israel or otherwise, has only altruistic goals in mind regarding the visit. However, given that we do have an issue here with settler violence, if people want to come here to assist, have a valid passport that is honored by Israel, and have not previously broken any laws, why bar them from entry and risk another public relations nightmare?

After all, as expected, the headlines about the incident will always be massaged to convey a different message altogether. For example, an article about the incident in the progressive online publication Common Dreams shouted: “Israeli-occupied territory is not a ‘safe place’ for all Jews,” said one Jewish American activist.

All of this, of course, does not come out of the blue. In April 2024, Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir created a police task force aimed at handling foreign and Israeli left-wing activists. He has taken credit for having dozens of activists deported from the country. This incident is just one more example of that.

In 78 days, Israel will hold elections for the members of the 26^th Knesset and someone will emerge from that election, be asked to form a government and probably end up as our Prime Minister.  Hopefully the right leaning tilt of the current government will yield to a more centrist position led by people who know how to pick their battles and fight those wars to their loigical and victorious conclusion.  The country will not be done in by a handful of well-meaning visitors who volunteer to help protect an endangered segment of the population.  People at the top of the pyramid should be smart enough to separate the wheat from the chaff.  We deserve nothing less.

Carthago substituenda est!