HOW DARE YOU? Israel Is Not Your Political Playground

Greta Thunberg may have contributed at least one immortal sentence to modern culture: “How dare you?”

Whatever you think of her politics, the phrase was brilliant. Short, dramatic and endlessly reusable.

So today, I am borrowing it.

How dare you?

How dare people sitting safely thousands of kilometers away from Israel behave as though Israeli democracy requires their approval?

Open social media during an Israeli election season and suddenly everybody becomes an expert on Israeli politics. Americans who have never lived in Israel explain which Israeli leader is acceptable. Europeans lecture Israelis about which coalition they should elect. Activists who could barely identify Ashkelon, Metula or Sderot on a map confidently explain what Israel must do to achieve peace.

Some have visited Israel. Some have relatives there. Some genuinely love Israel. Others have apparently completed their Middle Eastern political education by watching three TikTok videos and reading an angry thread on X.

And suddenly they know what is best for Israel.

How dare you?

Having an opinion is your right. Pretending that your opinion should carry the same weight as the decision of an Israeli voter is something entirely different.

Israel is a democracy. Every Israeli citizen aged 18 or older has the right to vote in Knesset elections. Jewish citizens vote. Muslim citizens vote. Christian citizens vote. Druze citizens vote. Men and women vote. Their votes have equal weight. Israel uses nationwide, direct, secret and proportional elections.

Notice which qualification is missing.

American social media commentator.

The people making the decision are the people who actually have to live with it.

They are the parents who bring their sons and daughters to begin military service and then somehow drive home while pretending their hearts are not breaking with worry.

They are the families who know exactly how many seconds they have to reach shelter when the siren sounds.

They are the Israelis whose businesses suffer when war empties shopping streets, whose taxes finance defense, whose children lose months of education, whose reservists disappear from their families and jobs for weeks or months at a time.

They are the residents of communities near Gaza who learned on October 7 exactly what happens when security assumptions collapse.

They are northern Israelis who know what Hezbollah rockets mean without needing a television analyst to explain it.

And they are also the people who experience everything wonderful about Israel that foreign political commentators rarely understand.

They drink the water. They pay the grocery bill. They sit in the traffic. They use the hospitals. They build companies. They complain about bureaucracy. They celebrate Shabbat. They argue in cafés. They raise their children there. They vote, protest, celebrate, mourn and continue living.

They experience the consequences of government policy in their bank accounts, schools, hospitals, streets and bomb shelters.

You experience Israel through a screen.

There is a difference.

Yet the arrogance surrounding Israeli politics has become extraordinary.

Israel is probably one of the few countries where foreigners regularly speak as though its citizens are children requiring adult supervision.

Elect the wrong government and Israel receives lectures.

Appoint the wrong minister and foreign celebrities become constitutional scholars.

Build homes in the wrong place and people who cannot name Israel’s neighboring countries suddenly become experts in international law.

Respond too forcefully after terrorism and Israel is condemned.

Respond too cautiously and, when Israelis are murdered again, many of those same commentators ask why Israel failed to protect its citizens.

Apparently Israel must defend itself, but only according to military instructions supplied free of charge by people sitting comfortably in New York, London, Amsterdam or Brussels.

How convenient.

And yes, this applies to Jews outside Israel too.

Loving Israel does not automatically give someone living in Los Angeles, New York, Paris or London authority over the Israeli ballot box. Diaspora Jews have every right to care deeply about Israel. Their connection to Israel matters enormously. Their advocacy matters. Their support matters. Their concerns matter.

But ultimately, Israelis elect the Israeli government.

There is something almost comical about Americans obsessively lecturing Israelis about democracy while the United States has enough political problems of its own to keep every keyboard warrior occupied until retirement.

Perhaps fix those.

Europe has an equally impressive to do list.

European countries are dealing with political polarization, antisemitism, integration problems, economic pressure, security concerns and increasingly fractured societies. Yet somehow there is always time left to explain to Israelis which Israeli politicians are morally permissible.

Thank goodness. Imagine Israel having to make decisions without Europe’s supervision.

Israel does not need foreigners to choose its government.

What Israel needs is vigorous debate among Israelis.

Put the political parties on television. Question them aggressively. Examine their economic programs. Challenge their security policies. Ask what they will do about Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, housing, healthcare, education, judicial reform, the cost of living and Israel’s relationship with the international community.

Let Israelis hear the arguments.

Let Israelis disagree.

Let Israelis vote.

The current electoral threshold is 3.25 percent, and parties that cross it receive Knesset representation proportionate to their electoral strength. That system may produce complicated coalitions and spectacular political arguments, but those arguments belong first and foremost to Israeli democracy.

Israelis do not always make the political choices outsiders would prefer.

Good.

That is called democracy.

Democracy does not mean allowing people to vote provided foreigners approve of the result. It means respecting their right to make their own political decisions, including decisions you dislike.

So advocate for Israel. Defend Israel against lies. Visit Israel. Invest in Israel. Support Israeli charities. Stand against antisemitism. Debate Israeli policies if you wish. Criticize politicians when criticism is deserved.

But please stop behaving as though Israel is your political laboratory and Israelis are merely the test subjects.

When the sirens sound, you will probably not be running toward a shelter.

When reservists are called up, your child probably will not be putting on the uniform.

When the government raises taxes, changes security policy or makes a catastrophic mistake, you probably will not pay the immediate price.

Israelis will.

That is why the final decision belongs to them.

Your opinion is yours.

Their country is theirs.

Their security is theirs.

Their children are theirs.

And their vote is theirs.

So the next time someone sitting comfortably thousands of kilometers away decides to lecture Israelis about how they are supposed to vote, perhaps Greta’s famous words deserve one more appearance:

How dare you?