Scary Stuff

I’m an old-timer, an  olah hadasha vatika, an old new immigrant. I landed in 1984; four years later I  officially declared my allegiance to the Jewish state, took on citizenship, and was assigned a mispar zehut, an identity number.

Over the decades, I’ve seen a lot — the halcyon day of the settler movement, Oslo, Gush Katif, Rabin’s assassination, various Lebanon wars, and intifada one when my husband wore his green IDF uniform in the midst of a crowd of rioting Palestinian Arabs, intifada 2 when riding busses or sitting in cafes became dangerous activities, missile attacks,  stabbings, the pandemic and more.

You’d think after all this, nothing would bother me anymore.

No, it doesn’t work that way.

I’m finding this current episode the hardest of all.

What we are seeing now is a collective death wish played out on a grand scale.  The grandchildren and spiritual heirs of the original zionists have been defeated at last and they are sore losers.

They cannot wrap their collective heads around present-day Israel exists–a country that is more Jewish than Israel and so they are lashing out viciously. They cannot bear to relinquish their power, even if that means destroying all they and their forebears have worked so hard to build up.

These protests and the subversion that accompanies them– if a former prime minister telling our overseas allies to cut relations isnt an act of subversion, I dont know what is–are aimed at sinking our precarious ship of state.

This may result in a  government collapse.  In place of our flawed but functional society  Israel could turn into a Hebrew-speaking Venezuela–and that’s presuming that we’re lucky enough not to be driven into the sea.

.That would be a tragedy.

We’ve seen tremendous blessings here, whether it’s in IDF’s victories, our tech sector, our innovations in agriculture or our high birth rate, among the highest on the planet.

We are living better than we ever did.  We have more money, more cars, better housing, and more access to consumer goods.  Until very recently, we even had the hope of robust diplomatic relations with our neighbors via the Abraham accords.

And now? We’re shooting ourselves — possibly in the heart,

President Herzog and Chief Rabbi Yosef have called for a halt, a compromise.

Please, G-d let their words be heeded, or else we’re all sunk.