You Don’t Build a Country on Fear & Insecurity - Israel is a Country of All its Citizens

You cannot build a society, let alone a country; on fear and insecurity. The realisation of the “Zionist dream”, and the establishment of the modern State of Israel was achieved through optimism, confidence and a commitment to genuine core Jewish values.

The cabinet decision today to approve the so called “Nation State Law ” is a slap in the face to those who established and built this country as well clear evidence that Zionism has lost its way and that sadly, the modern State of Israel has lost its sense of self.

Apparently Israel no longer knows what it is, or indeed, what it wants to be. Israel is in the midst of a crisis of confidence which is rocking the Jewish State and its people to the very core. The “Start-up Nation”, that so wanted to be a “light unto nations”, currently exists in a fog unable to see or even to think clearly.

Israel is the national home of the Jewish people. That is a fact. We do not need an inherently racist and anti-democratic law to define who we are. We know, or at least we should know exactly who we are, as it is clearly outlined in our declaration of independence...

“THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews and for the Ingathering of the Exiles from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

With this law, Jewish supremacists (let’s call them what they are) are cynically exploiting this lack of confidence and a wholesale lack of leadership from our so called leaders; in order to undermine the core values and democratic nature of modern Israel with their perverted, jingoistic; inherently racist, bastardized version of Zionism, which bears no relation to true Zionism.

Naftali Bennett, the leader of the Jewish Home party (Bayit Hayehudi) was the “acceptable face of the unacceptable”, but no longer. Today he has seemingly embraced the ideology of those extremists from the Tekuma movement in his party, who follow Dov Lior, the Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Arba, who once described democracy as the “Idol worship of our time” and who openly admires the Jewish extremist, Baruch Goldstein where after Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinian worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Lior described him as “holier than all the martyrs of the Holocaust”.

Bennett and his cohorts, including Ayelet Shaked, along with Likud’s Zeev Elkin and others are promoting a law which is clearly at odds with the free and democratic nature of Israel as a nation state.

Bennett claims he wants to return Jewish values to Israel. In truth he is doing anything but. In his bid for power he is abandoning the core Jewish values on which the state was built. He is embracing a form of Judaism and Zionism which are the antithesis of core Jewish values.

This law will not strengthen the Jewish nature of Israel, on the contrary, it will achieve the very opposite. Rather than truly strengthen our sense of Jewish identity, this law provides a crutch for a weak and ailing society, unsure and teetering on the brink. It will undermine our ability to walk, talk and think unaided and return ourselves to health and to our true path.

The Jewish nature of Israel is dictated not by the law, but by the people who live and work here, by all those who make up the very fabric of Israeli society. An important part of that fabric is the minorities who live here, currently as equal citizens. What are they to make of this new law? Druze policeman, Zidan Saif gave his life to save Jews at prayer during the horrendous terror attack in Har Nof last week.

What should his widow tell her children when they ask why their father made the ultimate sacrifice? There are many, many Israeli citizens who are not Jewish who deserve far better from their government. Yes it is their government, as Bibi and his ministers seem to have forgotten that they are the Ministers of all Israelis, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, where they are responsible to us all, at least in theory; in equal measure.

Perhaps more important however is the simple fact that a country is not just defined by those who live in it, rather it is the manner in which they live. No law will succeed in making the country more Jewish. No law will succeed in masking the innate insecurities and doubts which permeate throughout society. No law will ever morally justify racism and discrimination. No law can replace the core values of a society.

Israel will only continue to be a Jewish and democratic country if its people behave in Jewish and democratic manner. The Jews themselves have rarely been so divided, where this division leads to an identity crisis and lack of confidence. The thing that Israel and indeed the Jewish people need more than anything is inspired leadership. A leadership which builds confidence and clarity of vision. A leadership which focuses on the positive and the possible. A leadership which looks to the best interests of all Israelis. A leadership which seeks to unite and not divide. A leadership which can address the very real issues of security, economy, fairness and justice and god forbid, peace with our neighbours.

What the country does not need is “pretenders” who pander to the lowest common denominator, who exploit and stoke our fears and insecurities in order to build their own power base. Israel does not need a perverted form of Zionism or extreme forms of Judaism hell bent on perpetuating conflict for the sake of some messianic greater Israel fantasy. There is the Land of Israel and there is the State of Israel. There is nothing that says the two need to be one and the same.

It is time to stand up to the right in Israel. It is time to tell Bennett and his mates that Israelis want to live in a Jewish state which is a free and democratic society for all its inhabitants.

Israel is a modern miracle. The Jews have a thriving, dynamic, country in their historic homeland. Zionism has prevailed. If Bennett and his kind are not stopped in their tracks, they may well clutch defeat from the jaws of that victory.

Israel is a Jewish State and Democratic state. We must fight to keep it that way.