With the recovery over the weekend of the bodies of four of our hostages, including one who was not known to have been killed, the kidnapped captives are back in the center of Israel’s news. That is obviously what the hostages’ families and many others want, and what they sought to accomplish with the alternate Yom Ha-Atzma’ut ceremony that they ran, a ceremony that national TV ran alongside the traditional, official one.
We’ll soon get to the video at the very top of this post, which is a clip from the traditional national Yom Ha-Atzma’ut ceremony in which a variety of people are selected to light a torch. Each year there is a theme for the ceremony, and then there are a number of sub-themes, each of which gets its own torch and people are awarded the honor of lighting it.
More on that, below.
First, though, glimpses of three of the front pages of this weekend’s papers. Usually, there’s a fairly significant similarity in what the papers choose to highlight. This week in particular, while there was obviously overlap, I was struck by the differences, and the multitude of issues that the three managed to cover.
The amalgam of the stories says a great deal about where the soul of Israel is these days. What follows are three front pages, with quick notes on what each of the colored headlines is about.
We begin with Haaretz, Israel’s left-leaning, hi-brow paper.
The YELLOW headline on the top right reads: The war continues to exact a high cost [DG - the reference is to killed soldiers, not money] and the disagreements about its purposes are now out in the open.
The RED caption for the photo reads: The funeral of Captain Ro’i Beit-Yaakov yesterday, on Mount Herzl. Since the beginning of the ground war, 10% of the casualties have been the result of friendly fire. [DG - Ro’i Beit-Yaakov was one of five soldiers killed when an Israeli tank misidentified them and fired on their position.]
The GREEN circle in the photo: I assume a younger sister, but I am not certain, requires no explanation.
The front page above is from Makor Rishon, Israel’s right of center paper that caters largely (but certainly not exclusively) to what might be called the Modern Orthodox community.
The RED headline on the top reads: Ratcheted up a notch: the fire from Lebanon intensifies and is spreading to the lower Galilee.
The caption for the photo in GREEN reads: The Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, in a situational assessment after touring the Lebanese border, along with Commander of the Northern Command, Major General Uri Gordin, and the Commander of Division 201, Brigadier General Zion Ratzon and other senior officers.
In the YELLOW circle is Chief of Staff Herzi HaLevi [DG - Halevi publicly assumed personal responsibility for the catastrophe on October 7 during the Memorial Day ceremony; his resignation is expected, though some are asking him to hold out to ensure that it is not Netanyahu who selects his replacement.]
And then we get to Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s most widely read paper:
The PURPLE headline reads: EXCLUSIVE: a report compiled by the defense establishment: the cost of a military government in Gaza, 20 billion NIS per year.
The LIGHT BLUE border shows the faces of the five soldiers killed in the friendly fire incident that horrified the nation this week.
In the YELLOW box: “Broken Wings” [DG - the name of a famous Israeli movie, worth finding on line to watch if you haven’t seen it]: Staff private first class Ilan z”l made aliyah alone in order to join the army; Captain Ro’i z”l is the 21st graduate of the pre-army Yeshiva in Eli to be killed in the war; Staff private first class Daniel z”l donated bone marrow to a woman he did not know; Junior Sergeant Bezalel z”l was ambitious and determined to succeed; Junior Sergeant Gil’ad z”l was the fifth soldier from the village of Karnei Shomron to be killed since the beginning of the ground invasion ⚫️The stories of the five combat soldiers from Battalion 202 who were killed in the grave incident in Jabalia.
In the GREEN frame, the text reads: Chen Lapid, the sister of Gil’ad Aryeh Boim, z”l: “it is important to use to tell the tank soldiers, we embrace you and we feel no anger towards you. Continue your important work, and when you have an opportunity, come visit us.”
In the RED frame at the bottom: A new poll: a majority of the public is opposed opposed to an agreement with the Haredim that would grant an exemption from being drafted in exchange for ending funding for the Yeshivot.
There were also a few blockbuster Op Eds this weekend that are important to share, and we will do that in the next few days. One is by Ari Shavit, who has now changed his position and is calling for Netanyahu to be forced from office. He explains why he never called for that until now, and why he believes it’s time.
Another Op Ed, in two brief paragraphs, provides a doomsday scenario that could follow if Netanyahu so much as utters the words “Palestinian state.” One doesn’t have to agree, but to understand what Israelis are feeling, one needs to know that they are fearing. That scenario, which we’ll soon share, captures the fear perfectly. We’ll post it shortly.
The flow of events this past week led to some changes in our schedule, so a few posts that we’d planned for this week will appear next week. At the moment, subject to even further unexpected changes, here’s what we have planned for this coming week.
MONDAY (05/20): We will begin with the Ari Shavit Op-Ed mentioned above. Then, Our discussion with Rabbi Avidan Freedman on the Netzach Yehudah battalion that Joe Biden has threatened to embargo. Why was this unit created, who serves in it, is it really as problematic at the President suggests, and if so, why? We will post an excerpt for everyone, and the full podcast with a transcript for paid subscribers.
TUESDAY (05/21): Gil Regev was a pilot in the 201st Squadron, the first squadron of American-made Phantom fighter jets in the IDF during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He’s since achieved a degree of notoriety for his closing soliloquy in a documentary series produced not long ago by Kan TV about the squadron, and even more recently, reflected on where Israel is, and on where his grandson will live here. We’re sharing portions of his interview, an interview that garnered a lot of attention in Israel this week. We’ll also post one of the Op Eds mentioned above.
WEDNESDAY (05/22): Our guest on our weekly Wednesday podcast is an IDF veteran (Maj. res.) and served as Chief of Staff for Israel’s Minister of Public Security. He recently wrote about what Benjamin Netanyahu needs to say to the Israeli people, and if anything, recent events make his argument even more pressing. We’ll hear what he thinks the PM needs to say, and why. We will post an excerpt for everyone, and the full podcast with a transcript for paid subscribers.
THURSDAY (05/23): Ron Arad, the Air Force navigator shot down in October 1986 and never recovered, is back in the news for reasons we’ll explain. So, too, are the soldiers lost in the famous Sultan Yakub battle, for similar reasons. We’ll explain how all that is related to this war and this moment and what it says about what Israelis are feeling and thinking.
FRIDAY (05/24): We’re not covering almost anything at all about the American campus protests, because we focus on what’s happening Inside Israel. But a column this week by a leading Israeli public intellectual, explaining why he thinks the American academy may be unfixable, sheds light on how Israelis are feeling about the American campuses as they watch from afar. We’ll share portions of that column.
We’ve mentioned that there was an alternate Yom Ha-Atzma’ut ceremony this year, held in an amphitheater in the city of Binyamina. One clip of that ceremony follows immediately below, but in order to understand what it did, you need to watch the clip at the top first. Note the following:
Identifying oneself as <name>, son/daughter of <father/mother> and <father/mother> is a longstanding tradition at the national ceremony. Everyone in Israel knows that formulation. When the “protest ceremony” copied that formula, it was to ensure that everyone watching understood that what was happening was a riff on the official ceremony.
In the traditional ceremony, after those selected read their texts, they collectively light the torch and say Le-tifferet Medinat Yisrael, “For the glory of the State of Israel.” Le-tifferet Medinat Yisrael is also a phrase now known by everyone in this country, used in comic spoofs, in literature, everywhere. In this alternate ceremony, as you’ll see below, the phrase that was substituted was Lema’an tit’orer Medinat Yisrael, “So that the State of Israel will awaken.”
Finally, obviously, instead of lighting a torch, the people who had read the text extinguished an already lit torch. No commentary required.
The ceremony was edgy, but it was not roundly criticized. People understood that the families of the hostages and many others simply could not participate in a traditional Yom Ha-Atzma’ut celebration. In fact, even the traditional national ceremony was performed without a live audience.
There were an array of reasons given for their being no live audience, but it was clear to all that the government did not want protests from the audience broadcast nationally during the ceremony, so it eliminated the audience.
To light the torch, or to extinguish? Israeli TV carried two competing, simultaneous Independence Day ceremonies. Why?