Emunah. I Have Faith.

Emunah. Faith. Not belief, not religion. Faith. I have faith in the Israel I know.

The Israel which raised more than 600,000 NIS in a matter of hours, for the widow of Ofir Hisdai, who was gunned down in a parking lot over a dispute.

The Israel where 30,000 people attended the funeral for fallen lone soldier, Max Steinberg, none of whom knew him personally.

The Israel in which hundreds of thousands of people attended protests against the government’s anti-democratic agenda, every single week for ten months, protesting the government. And then every Saturday evening for two years to stand in solidarity with the families of hostages held in Gaza, whose lives were a living nightmare, and to demand their release, until they were, to the last living one.

And when the government froze, unable to function, paralyzed by shock after October 7 – and for the three months following, until they eventually got their act together – when hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in the North and the Gaza Envelope – the Israel that mobilized of their own initiative and collected everything these displaced families needed, from diapers to toiletries, to toys and clothes, blankets, pots and pans. As well as transport. Thousands volunteered to go down south to milk the cows and harvest the crops in their stead. Hundreds took leave from their work to open crèches and classrooms in hotels where the displaced families were billeted. Psychologists worked 16 hours per day, treating the traumatized families, for free. The individuals, like Shelley Liss and others who every single day, for two years, cooked hundreds of meals for the soldiers sent to fight in the north and the South. The taxi drivers and restaurant owners who refused to take payment from soldiers who came home from the war for a snatched respite with their families.

Yet, the world chooses to judge us by the worst among us. As if we all approve and support those who have committed atrocities. As if we all approve of the government’s management of the war. As if we are all complicit in the starvation of the people in Gaza because of the rabble of thugs, which blocked aid trucks at the crossings. As if, when the reservists of Force 100 brutally tortured a Palestinian terrorist in their custody, we all joined the chorus that they were “war heroes” and we all participated in the mob that broke into the prison and obstructed the Military Police who arrested them – and that we were not shocked and disgusted by them. As if we all breathed a sigh of relief and accepted with equanimity the fact that the government underhandedly released the victim to Gaza so that he wouldn’t be able to testify against the reservists, causing the case against them to collapse, perverting the course of justice. Or, that we do not feel outrage when a soldier defaces a statue of Jesus, or shame that he is one of our soldiers, who is fighting in our name.

I have faith in the people of my country that we are not the murderers, sadists and rapists that we are made out to be by the world because of this sectorial government of savage, rabid and racist extremists and their extremist ideology – a government which, since October 2023, enjoys much less public support than the number of seats they have in the Knesset. And that those who are, are a fringe minority who have been given disproportionate representation and power, and we are being held hostage by them. And, this is something that the world refuses to see, or understand. (Antisemitism)?

I have faith that we reject the idea that a government which thinks that revenge is an effective war strategy, represents us all. That we feel that army units that think that hate and vindictiveness can be used a basis for esprit de corps, are a disgrace and feel embarrassed that they have become the face of the IDF. Because we know that they do not truly represent the ethos of the IDF; that although they have been given oxygen, they are no more than a very visible anomaly.

I have faith in my people, that we will come together, and on election day we will exorcise ourselves of this government that has caused us so much shame and damage, and we will condemn them to ignominy. And that we will resurrect our democracy and reinstate the societal norms and values that defined us before January 2023, when they came to power and started to dismantle it all.

I have faith that we will restore our sense of decency and self-respect.

“אם אתה מאמין שיכולים לקלקל, תאמין שיכולים לתקן”. If you believe that you can break and damage, believe that you can repair.

I have faith that we can.