14 Comments

One thing I find both fascinating and terrifying is that my husband and I have the same conversations in the US about when will it be time to leave, should we move money, etc. as Mishael Zion has with his wife about leaving Israel. The difference is that my husband and I have these conversations because we feel unsafe. The Zions seem more concerned about whether of Israel continues to reflect their moral vision for the Jewish state which as far as I am concerned. Is a luxury.

Expand full comment

Is it really a luxury to want to live in a country that maintains its moral vision? Zion is right to hold to that standard. My fear is that America loses its moral vision, we move to Israel and find that a Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu government is one we can’t live in….. aliyah and diaspora/ both failures! I want Israel to be there for all of us, but it must be the Israel of October 6 th!

Expand full comment

Is there any other country in the world where existential debates and heart-searching about the "purpose" and "future direction" wrack public discourse as they do in Israel? Where large numbers of people ask themselves whether the country will still deserve to even exist and whether they can stay or should emigrate if person X gets into a senior government post? Do French citizens themselves regard the very justification for existence of France as somehow conditional, even in their own judgement?

Israel exists. End of. Yes, as a chareidi ma'amin in Hashem I firmly and fervently believe that it's only due to His beneficient Hashgacha; and I believe that our continued existence and survival as the Am Hashem in Eretz Yisroel is entirely dependent upon His Hashgacha which is contingent upon our observance, as a nation, of the mitzvos, especially those relating to morality and ethical conduct in both personal and national spheres.

However, I don't anguish over some subjective, socially-defined "national purpose" (that is: to be a mamleches cohanim and goy kadosh). We're here; we have to conduct ourselves first and foremost in keeping with the Torah, ever improving our observance both quantitatively and qualitatively, but also, subject to that, doing so within the framework of the natural world and its physical, social and political rules. With an army; military, political and economic strategies; etc.

Why? Why are we here and nowhere else?

Simple: Ein li eretz acheret.

Expand full comment

For the life of me , I do not understand why anybody in Israel thinks Trump as president will be bad for Israel or bad for America.

As far as I see , Biden has enabled all of Israel's enemies including the young fools at all the colleges yelling river to the sea and continues to protect Hamas

Expand full comment

The reason that people in Israel think Trump would be bad for Israel and America is because many Americans think that!!

Expand full comment

Despair is a result of human beings believing that they can save themselves without any help from God. Although Daniel Gordis is religious, none of his posts, and certainly not these gloomy, doomy ones, ever mention God. Yet we Jews, as the first of the Ten Commandments proclaims, believe in a God who not only is the substratum of reality but also intervenes in human history for our benefit, for which the code phrase is: "Who took us out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Before June, 1967, Israelis also felt desperate. The joke was: "Last one out, turn out the light." But God not only saved us, but gave us a miraculous victory. And, yes, as commentator S. Levin points out, God did not save us in 70 CE, but the sages are clear that our destruction was due to "sinas chinum"--our hating each other. Will such hatred cause our undoing again? Among my friends, all of us religious and all of us who have sons or grandsons who have served/are serving in the army during this war, there is no despair, only a firm belief that God--not the IDF, despite its heroism--will save us and bring the Redemption.

Expand full comment

I hope that these segments of Israeli society can begin to listen and hear each other and try to forge some level of consensus so that Israel can continue to move forward in a more positive manner. The solution to Islamic terrorism -Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, etc. - is not something that Israel can implement - this really requires a strong US foreign policy that will support the leaders of the Arab countries that are willing to consider normalization with Israel and provide the type of political, economic and military protection against Iran, etc. that is required - something that has not been present in recent years. Watching what has been happening in Europe and more recently in the US, selfishly we need Israel to survive and prosper so that Jews of the Diaspora will have a potential destination if our situations continue to deteriorate.

Expand full comment

Sitting in Cleveland and reading your Inside Israel column today has me frightened beyond belief…thank you for presenting both sides but I wish one had the solution!

Expand full comment

The policy's of Israel's govt and top military brass, being scared of American policy and threats, and not eliminating Hamas in one week, irregardless of necessary victory casualties, and following the western globalist evil elites programs would bring Israel to it's destruction. By not crushing hamas totally does lead to the end of Israel's existence I use words like would bring and not will bring as God will save Israel Inspite of the leaders. But when God save Israel, it's after the undesirables are pruned from Israel. It's gonna hurt real bad but Israel will live.

Expand full comment

Really? God didn't save Israel in 70 C.E.

Expand full comment

Of course He did or we would not be here today! There is so much pessimism in these posts (as if the psychological warfare has taken the lead) that certain persons who should know better have stopped feeling and saying AM YISRAEL CHI!

What we need a better attitude and some more obvious approaches to finishing off Hamas and not to look for how tomorrow will be organized.

Philosophy of Change

Change brings pain—again and again.

Pain brings suffering—uttering, muttering

Suffering brings tolerance—with much endurance.

Tolerance brings thinking—and good ideas linking.

Thinking brings knowledge—saves going to college.

Knowledge brings understanding—sensibility expanding.

Understanding brings wisdom—and where it comes from.

And wisdom makes life bearable—happily declarable!

Expand full comment

Yeah, I've been saying this since Oct 9th (when I was in Israel during the attacks). Anything less than full Israeli control will not suffice. Basic counterinsurgency is 'clear, hold, build'. Clear and leave does not cut it.

Expand full comment

Wow, what a dialectic. As always, thank you for the Inside View

Expand full comment

Because of rejection of the Jewish messiah. Not the same one Christians perverted but still the messiah.

Expand full comment
Error