When Never Again! means Not in my Name!

Amir Kochavi, the mayor of Hod Hasharon, on Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), remarked in his speech that “We must not be silent in the face of atrocities carried out against people of other nations in the world — even if they are carried out in our name.” He was immediately excoriated, including by the head of his party, Yair Lapid.

The more palpable the truth, the louder the defamation and denial.

A bit later, channel 12 commentator Amnon Abramovich said: “There is no left anymore. But most people want three things: To bring the hostages home, end the war and draft the ultra-orthodox.”

OK Amnon, while I understand your point about the left, I take exception. It’s true that for too long, “leftist” has been a slur pasted on to any political enemies one might have. It’s true that those in the center have always been careful to distance themselves from the taint of the left, while the actual left is too busy protesting in the streets to label themselves politically.

So when we talk about these three issues, we split hairs. It is okay to be in favor of ending the war, but not to be against the war, itself. It is okay to want to bring the hostages home, but we must remain wrapped in our state of denial about the other terrible damages of this war. We want to draft the ultra-orthodox, but we are willing to let the graft and separationist indoctrination through their religious school systems continue.

By that unwritten set of rules, hinting that the present fighting might be anything less than ethical smacks of dangerous leftism, and it must be quashed the second it is uttered.

Berl Katznelson, that famous Israeli leftist, is quoted as saying: “There is only a single step between impurity and purity.” He was trying to lay the groundwork for an IDF code of ethics in which innocents would be spared, orders could be disobeyed if they were unethical. But we could turn that quote around and remind ourselves that the road from purity to impurity begins with a single step. Our army is not “de facto” ethical, nor is the idea meant to be a fig leaf to cover highly impure acts.

Of course the term “purity of arms” was an unattainable ideal, at best, an oxymoron at worst. But if, as Kochavi warned, we have tossed that ideal aside in favor of revenge; if we have justified the continued killing of innocents by our own hatred, then we have lost the very battle to save our democracy.

We are now in that awkward period between Yom HaShoah, Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) and Independence Day. Released hostages and survivors of the Oct. 7 massacre joined Holocaust survivors in Auschwitz, but rather than neatly closing a circle, they revealed the open wounds. They cried out, but no one answered. This Yom Hazikaron, we will have another 316 fallen to mourn.

And on Independence Day, we will be faced with a very real question of the future of the state whose birthday we are meant to celebrate. The tide of gloomy predictions is rising – and not just from the dried-up wadi on the left.

Make no mistake, when we are not allowed to speak about war atrocities, it is not just an infringement on our freedom of speech. It is pandering to a very real vision of our country as an occupying force, in Gaza as well as larger parts of the West Bank. It is giving permission to those committing atrocities to continue with impunity.

When we repeat the trope: “We want to heal the rifts in our society,” we honestly have no idea how to heal while the blood is still flowing. We do not know how to fix those things that have been broken for the past 77 years and have now cracked wide open. Are our words meaningless, or do we mean to put in the effort to restructure our society in a way that everyone is equal, everyone shares the burden, everyone participates?

When we say: “Bring all the hostages home,” we consent, tacitly or openly, to the understanding that the return of every last hostage is dependent upon our government agreeing to end the war. Have we thought about the day after the end of the war? When the current government falls? Do we have a vision for our state to counter that of a non-democratic, messianic, rapacious occupier?

Kochavi, who is either the rare honest politician, a closet leftist, or a supporter of Secret Service chief Ronen Bar (who is being ousted, in part, for warning Bibi of the dangers of the extreme right), has a message. We are all remiss if we wait for the end of the war to wring our hands at every new revelation about atrocities committed by our side during that war. We already know enough. It is time to stand up and say “Not in my name!” The time to resist is now, and we don’t need to shut up or apologize. Because we have a vision too, and we do not need to capitulate in the name of “healing the rift.” Healing our rifts should come about by learning to respect one another and our differences, not suppressing one side of our national debate. We need to stand for our belief that real democracy is possible, that peace is possible, that the killing can come to an end.

I admit that makes me a leftist – and a proud one, at that. And no, I won’t shut up.