The New Israeli Consensus

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Believing that every phrase in the Torah has a unique meaning, the rabbis of old were troubled by the apparent redundancy in a verse from this week’s Torah portion. Deuteronomy 12:10 promises the desert generation of Israelites that “you shall cross the Jordan and settle in the Land that Hashem, your God, causes you to inherit, and He will give you rest from all your surrounding enemies, and you will dwell securely.”  To the rabbis, the phrase, “you will dwell securely” seemed superfluous. Isn’t it obvious — they asked — that if the Israelites would be given rest from all their surrounding enemies, they would ipso facto dwell securely?

The eighteenth century sage, Rabbi Yehonaton Eybeshutz of Prague resolved the apparent redundancy by asserting that the phrase “you will dwell securely” has nothing to do with safety from outside enemies and everything to do with peace among the tribes of Israel. In his view, the verse articulates two entirely distinct promises to the Jews: 1) they would be given rest from external adversaries; and 2) they would enjoy fraternity and fellowship among themselves.

Two centuries later, Rabbi David Moskowitz carried that explanation a step further.  He asserted that the first promise can only be realized if the second already prevails. Only when Jews are united are they safe from hostile neighbors.

It is no secret that during the year preceding the horrific events of October 7, Israeli society was sorely riven. Proposals for judicial reform became the lightning rod, but, truth to be told, the divisions were more deep-seated and widespread than that.  Multiple socio-economic and religious differences were tearing the nation’s fabric apart. Some even spoke of civil war.

As Rabbi Moskowitz’s understanding of the biblical verse anticipated: without domestic tranquility, there were no safe borders. Our neighboring enemies smelled debilitating Israeli factionalism and decided to strike. True, in the immediate aftermath of October 7, Israelis pulled together in remarkable ways. The slogan, “Together we shall win” was seen everywhere. But after ten months of frustration over our inability to liberate all the hostages, repopulate the country’s largely evacuated north and south, fully restore its vital tourism, agriculture and construction sectors, and provide relief to IDF reservists stretched thin, nerves have frayed and squabbles have resumed. It will take tremendous effort to address them and fully restore the internal cohesion that serves as a prerequisite to protection from outside enemies.

But make no mistake. The trauma of October 7 has generated an Israeli consensus on a host of issues where none existed before. Having totally underestimated Hamas’ military preparedness to challenge Israel through “armed struggle,” Israelis are now more inclined to take preemptive action. Having unearthed overwhelming fresh evidence of Hamas’ widespread use of schools, mosques, hospitals, and UNRWA facilities to shield its terrorist headquarters, arms depots and launching platforms, Israelis are less hesitant to target such strategic sites. Having seen enduring support for Hamas and other terrorist groups among common Palestinians, Israelis no longer feel obliged to promote the fairy tale that most Gazans and West Bankers are entirely distinct from their leadership. Having been threatened with arms embargoes by nations long considered friendly to the Jewish State, Israelis are determined to seek maximum self-sufficiency in the field of military manufacture. Having witnessed the utter failure of providing financial incentives to the territories in the hope that they would encourage Palestinian pragmatism, Israelis are less inclined to reward bad behavior. Finally — as if it weren’t long obvious that Israeli attempts to win peace through territorial concessions were an exercise in futility — October 7 provided the death blow to the two-state solution. It made clear that the Arabs in the territories are not interested in such an idea. Polls conducted by their own research institutes reveal that the largest percentage endorse Hamas’ October 7 attempt to eradicate Israel in one fell swoop. Though a small, pragmatic minority might be prepared to accept a transitional state in the territories — they evidently would do so only as a springboard for a future, final assault on the Jews. The concept that I, myself, had long endorsed of twin democratic states at peace — one with a Jewish majority and an Arab minority, the other with an Arab majority and a Jewish minority — simply does not resonate with them. They are hellbent on genocidal conquest.

Such overdue shifts in Israeli thinking will take some getting used to by American Jews and others in the pro-Zionist community, but the upcoming High Holiday season is precisely when we should be ready to second-guess moribund ideas and actions, sweep away self-deluding myths and adopt better approaches. The thirteenth century poet, Rabbi Avraham HeChazan Girondi captured that open-to-change spirit in a piyyut that many Jews recite on Rosh Hashanah night: “May the old year and its curses be expunged; may the new year and its blessings begin!”

Let us look forward to a year of Jewish solidarity as a catalyst for regional and global peace.