Blood Test

(Reflections on Erev Yom Ha’atzma’ut)

A couple of weeks ago, on doctor’s orders I went to the medical clinic for a blood test. In Israel’s nationalized health system, the routine is regular as clockwork. You punch your ID number into a machine, which spits out a slip of paper with your number in line. Then you sit down and wait until that number shows up on a TV monitor overhead and a voice, via intercom, summons you to a cubicle.

That morning, I was greeted by a friendly hijab-clad medical technician. Not surprising since Israel’s Arab population, predominantly Muslim, figures prominently in the medical field.1 At her request, I presented my plastic medical card, and she arranged the equipment for my test.

I mentioned my weak spot: Being scared of the pain and blood, I’d have to look away. She smiled and then, very gently and proficiently, pricked me with a needle (I felt a slight twinge but managed not to faint), took my blood, and applied a bandage to the tiny wound. The procedure was over in no time, leaving just a small red bruise, which would gradually fade. I was grateful for the young woman’s kindness and professionalism.

By contrast, Israel’s Arab neighbors have been at war with us for well over a century. Some eventually opted for peace; the majority remain hostile. On October 7, 2023 people across the Muslim world – Palestinians foremost – jubilantly celebrated the mass slaughter of Israeli Jews. Most of Israel’s Arab citizens did not share in that jubilation.2 Shedding Jewish-Israeli blood is a watchword of Hamas, Hezbollah and their sponsor, Iran’s totalitarian-terrorist Islamist regime.

The doctor will call me next week to go over the test results and discuss any possible abnormalities. Testing the Jewish people’s will, enemies are always looking for our weak spots, our vulnerabilities. Zionist thinkers, pronouncing a gloomy prognosis for survival in diaspora (i.e., diagnosing the Jewish people’s exilic condition as terminal), met the test with the bold vision of an at last “normal” Jewish existence in our own sovereign, independent state.

Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, perhaps put the point best in a quip brimming with ironic Jewish wit: “We will know we have become a normal country when Jewish thieves and Jewish prostitutes conduct their business in Hebrew.”3 For Jews, normal is messy.

More seriously, his comment reflects confidence in Israel as a robust social organism capable, through its own immune system, of keeping antigens – those corrupting influences that inevitably show up – from weakening and damaging the body politic. For social as well as political bodies, the ability to survive independently – without being hooked up to a machine; untrammeled by attachments and constraints of artificial life support – is a key measure of health.

Debate over whether Israeli politics, culture and values are healthy rages on, and that’s a good thing! This clash of opinions is itself normal, a sign of public health. In a well-functioning nation people face their differences of opinion openly.

Social malaise, by contrast, is marked by refusal to make room for disagreement. Repression of controversial views and stagnation in communal discourse follow with toxic consequences.

Israel is the rare democracy in this region. We have a free press, energetic political debate, explosive cultural creativity and diversity, and guaranteed human rights and religious freedoms. However, wrongful limitations – indeed, restrictions – on those civic blessings (not to mention violations of them) do exist.

Democratic commitments outlined in Israel’s Megilat Ha’atzma’ut / Declaration (literally, “Scroll”) of Independence are under assault through religious, political, legal, and military agencies representing some of the nation’s contending interests. We bicker over who’s to blame for, and reasons behind, the attack on democracy in Israel – indeed, on how to define or what constitutes the democracy that is so threatened. A specter of sinat chinam / baseless hatred looms.

It’s a potential tripwire for violence in which Jews could end up spilling each other’s blood. We’d better proceed very carefully, watching our steps, watching our words, taking care to love our Israeli neighbor as ourselves.

Love our Jewish Israeli neighbor only? What about the hijab-clad technician who took my blood?

Jewish citizens, let this sink in: You have in your midst Arab citizens, Muslims, who work to safeguard your health.

I’m writing this post on Israel’s Yom Hazikaron / Memorial Day – when we remember heroic acts: blood shed, lives lost to keep this nation vital and strong; and lives of Israelis who fell victim to terrorist bloodlust. Tonight begins Yom Ha’atzma’ut / Independence Day – when the heartbeat of Israel pulses with joyful pride in our 78 years of success as a nation.

Not all taking of blood is about death at an enemy’s hand; blood needs to be taken to assess one’s physical fitness. Not all Israelis are Jews; our national well-being depends upon cooperation among and respect for all our citizens. To sustain its atzma’ut/independence, Israel should not be thin-skinned but should show moral backbone. We must have enough bitachon-atzmi/self-confidence, as a Jewish state, to embrace all its people, Jews and non-Jews alike.

Israeli society’s lifeblood is now being tested. We apply tools of medical science to test the body’s fitness. In the same way, we apply tools of social science to keep our body politic strong, uniting its diverse parts so that they can work together to keep us vigorous and vibrant as a free and independent state.