Why Israel’s democratic character is the key to its survival

On November 1, 2024, something wondrous took place. Camel races are a beautiful Bedouin tradition. They have been organized throughout the Middle East, as well as in Israel. However, races in Israel were always held illegally. This does not mean that the state was actively trying to stop or repress them but it never received official support…until now.

Israel’s first state-sponsored camel race was organized in the Negev on Friday. It drew a large crowd, composed of the local Bedouin and Jewish communities mostly, but people from around the country, too. The Israeli flag was flown and the clips I saw were a wonderful sight. You might ask why I consider this race to be so inspiring. Well, because it shows the strength of Israeli society. Here is a traditional Bedouin event, that draws a large, mixed crowd, that for the first time has received the official blessing from Israel, a Jewish and democratic state.

On October 7, 2023, Israel experienced one of the most tragic and horrifying events in the country’s relatively young existence. That day, 1,200 people were killed, most of them civilians, and they were subjected to a ghastly mixture of torture, maiming, rape, murder, and kidnapping. On that day, Israel experienced a pogrom that took us as Jews back to the grim memories of our ancestors, who had experienced similar traumatizing events in their lives, whether they were regular pogroms in Russia and Ukraine or the Farhud in Iraq. In Israel, the return to Jewish ancestral lands would put an end to centuries of humiliation, discrimination, intimidation, and decimation. The state of Israel would bring two major benefits. The first, a return to the land Jews once called home. The second, a country where they could be free, as Jews. A place where Stars of David can be worn in public, conversations in Hebrew are abundant, and prayer can be conducted freely, without fearing someone attacking you verbally or physically. A place where Jews could defend themselves. On October 7, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and even Gazan civilians managed to destroy that feeling, shatter it completely. Israeli Jews were thrown back into the past, helpless in the face of adversaries who came to commit unspeakable acts of horror. And to this day, the families of 101 hostages are continuously subjected to unimaginable pain. It needs to end, all the hostages must come home.

Two things I would like to add to that tragedy. One, the crucial difference with the pogroms of the old days is that Jews had the means to fight back this time. While our ancestors had to suffer, without a state to defend them, this time the IDF eventually took control of the fight and managed to take the battle to the enemy. Second, the terrorists were looking for Jews that day, but they had no qualms about targeting anyone they could find on Israeli soil. Foreign students were targeted, Thai and Nepali laborers were murdered and kidnapped, and our Arab compatriots were targeted as well. Indeed, we should not forget the trauma of our Arab brothers and sisters either. On that awful day, Hamas started its onslaught by launching an overture of rockets at Israel that was to serve as a prelude to the wider carnage that was about to follow. Bedouin women and children were slaughtered in the Negev, casualties of the steel and explosive hail that rained on Israel. It showed once again what Hamas truly is. While they hate us as Jews with a vengeance, anything in Israel is fair game. Anything. They will twist and lie as they always do, but we remember the Second Intifada. And we remember how Arab and Jewish civilians on Israeli buses were legitimate targets to them. And we know how on October 7 they overran the military bases to neutralize them, so they could get to the real targets: Israeli civilians.

In this past horrifying year of war, Israelis have experienced much hardship and suffering. We were inundated with horrifying details about that fateful day, told by survivors, volunteers, soldiers, policemen, and returning hostages. To add insult to injury, Israelis and Jews had to watch people celebrate across the globe, even on the day itself, as gruesome details had already found their way to international media. I am not talking about the Middle East, we are accustomed to our death being glorified in the region. No, I am talking about images that came to Israelis from the West. People in the US, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, and even in the Netherlands, taking to the streets and glorifying Hamas’s ‘success’. Sure, these are all democracies and everyone can express their opinions freely. And there are many people in the West who expressed sympathy for Israel. Still, it remains hurtful to see people in this part of the world celebrate the shedding of Jewish blood. Moreover, once they were confronted with the nauseating acts their perceived heroes had committed, they resorted to an incoherent strategy composed of denial, justification and, again, glorification. It continues to this day. We have witnessed endless burials, families and spouses carrying their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives to the grave. Soldiers who came back in coffins from Gaza and now Lebanon, too. Civilians killed by rockets from Hamas, Jihad, and Hezbollah on Israel’s borders and death and destruction caused by rockets from far away, courtesy of the Houthis, Shi’a militias in Iraq, and the so-called Islamic ‘republic’, seated in Tehran. The latter’s rain of ballistic missiles on Israel has even cost the life of a Palestinian man in the West Bank. Everything can and must be sacrificed on the altar of the Axis of Aggression, apparently.

And, despite all of this tragedy, there is plenty of reason to hope. On October 7, people committed heroic acts to save loved ones. Israelis from all across the country sped to the south to help and stem the flow of Hamas’s brutality and in many ways succeeded to prevent much worse. In the immediate weeks after the war, Israelis came back from vacation at breakneck speed to be with their loved ones, to help defend the country. It was something that amazed many people in the West. Where most people had expected Israelis to flee the country or stay abroad, these men and women came back. And on that awful day, so many acts of kind-heartedness were expressed. From an Arab Israeli manager of a gas station who let his Jewish Israeli compatriots in to shelter them from terrorists who were roaming the area, to Bedouin brothers who saved a Jewish woman and stayed with her to support her. And the Druze hero Salman Habaka coming from the north to push terrorists out of Be’eri. Israeli civilians putting their lives in jeopardy to save people from the NOVA festival. We have seen daring rescue operations executed by the IDF that have freed several of our hostages. We have witnessed the moving sight of Farhan al-Qadi being saved by Jewish Israeli soldiers and brought back to his loving family.

The state was caught off guard on October 7 and the entire apparatus collapsed. Many questions have been asked by the public and investigations will continue for years to come. What made it especially embarrassing that this had happened was the fact that this government was the most right-wing the country has ever had. The coalition had campaigned on security, promising that they would make Israel safer than it had ever been. It is even led by Mr. Security himself. Of course, the government is not solely responsible for this massive intelligence failure. And yet, as Harry Truman would say, ‘the buck stops here’. It is impossible for this government to walk away from its responsibility. Nevertheless, it is desperately trying to. After all, it had attacked the previous government, accusing it of jeopardizing Israeli security. The so-called ‘change’ government had a shaky foundation from the start. It was a rather surprising coming together of parties with disparate views, right-wing, left-wing, and even an Arab party. Abroad it was looked at with astonishment, but, perhaps, it is quintessentially Israeli. Where else have parties with such broad differences even considered to form a government together? It failed, unfortunately, but still it held out for more than a year. In that year several terror attacks rocked Israel and the opposition, led by Netanyahu, was quick to come down hard on the coalition every time. Netanyahu childishly refused to acknowledge this new government, virtually calling it an aberration and insisting that his fellow Likud members keep referring to him as ‘Prime Minister’. The opposition voted as a bloc, determined to torpedo every bill the coalition would put forward. It even blocked legislation that would normally receive its support, all to make the coalition look impotent. It vilified the coalition after each terror attack, blaming it on their supposed incompetence. The onus was on the government, because they were weak on security, a consequence, according to them, of the decision to form a government with leftists and ‘terror supporters’ – i.e. the Arab party Ra’am. The final nail in the coffin was the relentless pressure that was applied to the members of Prime Minister Bennett’s own party, Yamina. The wafer thin majority the coalition had would eventually crumble, as several Yamina members abandoned the coalition – they would find a new home in Likud – no longer capable of enduring the opposition’s pressure and the relentless protesters accusing them of being ‘traitors’. Ironically, pundits and the opposition had predicted that Ra’am was the weak link, while in fact it turned out to be right-wing Yamina.

Returning to the current government, one has to acknowledge that several ministers did take responsibility for the failure of October 7, but the Prime Minister never has. In this way, he resembles Donald Trump: never take responsibility, never admit fault, as it will make you look like a loser. And after a year, we can see that the government has returned to the strategy that brought them to power. It relentlessly attacks everyone else, as it desperately tries to shift blame for one of the biggest tragedies in the nation’s history, which has happened on their watch. Once again, it has returned to blaming leftists – they call everyone who is not in the coalition leftists, even those parties that identify as right-wing – and continues to denounce Arab MKs. But they have taken it even further. Their desperation has led them to attack the leadership of the IDF repeatedly and for some reason spokesman Daniel Hagari seems to enrage them quite much. By now, they are even trying to push the families of the hostages into a corner, slowly but surely branding them as ‘unpatriotic’. They have sought to remedy the failure of October 7 by promising a ‘total victory’ – whatever that means – and trying to push through asinine legislation that would negatively affect Israel’s Arab population. When the Minister of Communications calls for members of the opposition to stop watching critical reporting on TV Channels 12 and 13 and advises them to watch ‘patriotic’ Channel 14, you know that the ruling coalition is persistently ridiculing itself.

Of course, you could argue that the opposition repeatedly attacked the government over October 7, instead of offering it the necessary support, but the government’s calls for unity turned out to be hollow from the beginning. Does it foster unity, if the Minister of National Security within days warns the country to prepare for ‘Guardian of the Walls 2.0’? It did not play out that way, but it once again showed Ben Gvir’s general obsession with Arabs, even Arab Israelis. He cannot and will not trust them.

Luckily, Israeli society did come together, as was evidenced by the heartwarming displays of unity throughout the country. Arab Israelis advocating on Israel’s behalf abroad, Jews and Arabs coming together and organizing charity events to support people affected by the war. Jewish volunteers bringing much-needed mobile shelters to Bedouin communities. Israel’s army that is composed of Jews of all stripes, Druze, Circassians, and Christian and Muslim Arabs. Among the fallen heroes we sadly find others as well, such as Filipino-Israeli soldier Cedrick Garin or young Hebrew Israelite Elishai Young. Every day, you see Israelis coming together, supporting each other. All of this shows the power of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

With all of its flaws and shortcomings, Israel is still the only truly functioning democracy in the region. When you look around in the region, you will find stable alternatives, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE. But there are plenty of issues as well. To the west, you will find Egypt, a country that continues to struggle economically. The stable kingdom of Jordan is being challenged by subversion from inside, actively supported by Iran and Hamas, though the former will never admit its role. Iraq is a nominal democracy, slowly but surely dominated by powerful warlords who are sympathetic to Tehran. The presence of American troops within its borders is the only lifeline preventing Iraq from becoming a complete vassal of Khamenei. Syria has been broken for years, as Bashar al-Assad has achieved a Pyrrhic victory by slaughtering his own people that is still not complete. The dictator has managed to evade the fate of Muammar Ghaddafi, but the price has been to see his country carved up by Russia and Iran, as he too has to allow numerous Iranian proxies to use his country like a playground. This war has led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, massive numbers of wounded – several have been treated in Israeli hospitals – and millions of displaced. Yemen is a tragedy of similar proportions, a country divided with a broken economy, massive poverty and hunger, but a group of Houthis who call themselves Ansar Allah wield substantial power with support from Iran. Using their well-known slogan, the Houthis curse Jews not once, but twice – ‘Death to Israel, curse the Jews’. Finally, Lebanon has been a failed state for decades. Effectively held hostage by Hezbollah, its economy has been destroyed, inflation is rampant, and the political deadlock makes it impossible to search for solutions. Its failure as a state has been exhibited by Hezbollah’s unilateral entry into the war on October 8, 2023, making it embarrassingly clear that the Lebanese Army has no authority whatsoever. As Lebanese sovereignty has become a mirage, some in the West consider Hezbollah to be a legitimate political actor, that happens to have guns. What such people fail to remember is that Hezbollah has been involved in terror attacks on an international scale, is one of the biggest drug traffickers in the region, has become a gun-for-hire willing to help prop up a neighboring dictator, and openly fantasizes about Israel’s demise. If you still refuse to believe that Lebanon is a failed state, then compare it to the US. Imagine that the Hell’s Angels would add terrorism to their portfolio and one day attack Canada unilaterally, without the US having any means to stop them. Basically, that is what is sitting on Israel’s northern border.

But in this neighborhood of unpredictability where, to use a nice academic term, Armed Non-State Actors are de facto in control of many Middle Eastern countries, Israel can exhibit strength in a decisive way. Next to its strong defense apparatus that is equipped with highly advanced weaponry and incredible intelligence capabilities, as the war against Hezbollah has shown time and again, its political system is a source of power: Israel is a uniquely Jewish and democratic state. And its democratic foundation can propel it even further. While the government is desperately trying to protect the Jewish character which is not in question at all, it is exceedingly doing so in ways that risk alienating Israel’s non-Jewish population even further. By excessively strengthening the country’s Jewish character, it is weakening its democratic credentials. But I would argue that Israeli democracy is exactly the source of strength that will cause it to flourish even more. As I mentioned before, Israel is a country where Jews are the majority, where the fear of ostracization, alienation, and persecution have ended. Simultaneously, it is a country that harbors landmarks of immense non-Jewish beauty, such as the Baháʼí Terraces, churches and mosques, and Roman relics that can be found in Caesarea.

It is a country where all of its citizens are free to vote and do as they please. But there are ways to strengthen that democracy even further. First, the government has to abandon this Kahanist vision of Israel and rein in the narrow interests of radical settlers, whose only agenda seems to be the legalization, expansion, and building of settlements. Even during this war, its focus is not necessarily on pursuing policies that will benefit all Israelis, rather it wants to use this tragedy as an opportunity to build settlements in Gaza. I am not denying that the eviction from Gaza was traumatic, I can understand that it was. No country, if any, has ever forcefully removed its own citizens from territory in exchange for peace. Though it has not worked out in the way we all hoped, a return to Gaza will not offer a solution. Instead, it will lead to perpetual bloodshed, and settlers and soldiers will pay the price. If the government is not willing to reject this agenda unequivocally, it should step down and allow others to take the helm.

Secondly, Israeli democracy can be strengthened by fostering the bond between Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis. There are already plenty of examples on the ground, citizens supporting each other, helping each other. And the greatest testament to the potential of even greater unity, lies in the fact that the much-hoped for chaos within Israel’s borders which Hamas had expected, has not come to pass. So, as the people already have shared their pain together and worked together to build a better future, the state can support this, instead of diminish it. An important gesture, would be to amend the Nation-State Law. This was, and understandably so, a slap in the face for many non-Jewish Israelis. Especially the Druze, who have sacrificed so much in this war alone to defend Israel’s security. Enshrining the rights of non-Jewish Israelis in this law would show all of them that the Jewish majority does not simply value them and accept them, but that the state acknowledges them, too. Thirdly, security comes into play. The war has shown a gap when it comes to the availability of shelters. Arab communities have fewer means to defend themselves against the dreadful rocket attacks. The state should show its commitment to all of its citizens by immediately expanding the number of shelters available to them. Fourthly, infrastructure in general needs to be improved in many non-Jewish communities. Fifthly, the skyrocketing crime wave that has cost so many lives in the Arab sector needs to be countered by a careful strategy, involving multiple stakeholders. A good starting point would be the approach used by Yoel Segalovitz, a member of the previous government, who had actually succeeded in reducing the number of casualties. Finally, think of alternatives for smaller communities, such as blanket citizenship for the entire Hebrew Israelite community in Dimona.

All of these measures would go a long way to strengthen the bond between Israel’s Jewish majority and its diverse patchwork of non-Jewish communities. The beautiful mosaic that is Israel has always been its strength, never its weakness. And I believe that the best way to counter the intolerant vision of Hamas’s sharia state, is to re-assert yourself and show all in the region and across the world who you truly are. You are a Jewish and democratic state, beautiful Israel. Embrace it to the fullest. That is why the first legal Israeli camel race is such an important symbol. Through such a joyous event, Israel, you show us what you truly stand for.