Someone wrote me from the States yesterday and asked me, “What’s the mood?”
Truth is, there is no mood. Gaza might erupt as Trump pushes to Phase II, but then again, he might not, and Gaza might not.
The IDF is insisting that Hezbollah never really disarmed, and that if the Lebanese Army won’t do it, we will. But we might not.
The revolution in Iran is heating up, Trump is saber rattling (and after Venezuela, that might not be meaningless), but Iran has said that it will respond to any US military action with a strike against us. Still, I haven’t heard anyone here express a lot of worry. The army is apparently all over it, and no one I know has taken their generator out of storage, nor have I heard of anyone cancelling a trip.
Iran, I guess, might attack us. But they also might not.
There will eventually be elections here later this year, but even that, for now, isn’t a burning issue. There’s this story and that, this little scandal and that bigger one, but in a strange way, this is all normal, and many people are enjoying normal—and will enjoy it even more once we get Ran Gvili’s body returned, so he can be buried as he deserves to be.
Still, as you move from café to café, coffee to coffee, Shabbat meal to Shabbat meal, there is one subject that keeps coming up—the Haredi draft.
I posted the following video on Friday (it’s made its way around social media, and we added the subtitles), but in case you didn’t see it, take a quick look.
People mention either this video or similar ones, or even just the attitudes behind them, and their blood boils.
But then comes the big question: so what’s the solution? Because if there isn’t a solution, we’re not going to make it.
One (religious) person said to me over coffee earlier today, “I have no idea what the solution is, but here my faith steps in. I can’t believe that the Jewish people survived for thousands of years only to have this backward, repulsive way of being Jewish be the victor.”
His faith is stronger than mine. I can easily believe it.
The problem is that with Hamas, we know how to deal. We can’t completely destroy them, but we seem to know how to manage any attempts of theirs to regroup.
And Iran? Even if Iran decides to attack, we apparently know how to manage that.
Think of the way the Bible would tell this story. Iran attacked us, we did a tiny bit in return. They attacked us again, and we took out their defensive positions. And then it was quiet, until it wasn’t—and for 12 days, we bombed them relentlessly. Their citizens, too, saw that the regime is in many ways a paper tiger. A dangerous paper tiger, but a paper tiger nonetheless.
So now, no longer as deterred by the regime as they used to be, the people are rising up. If the regime should fall (which is obviously far from certain), will it be in large measure because it attacked the Jewish state?
Ironically, it will. Attacking the Jews wasn’t a good idea. (Think Purim, speaking of Iran.)
And if you don’t believe Iran, ask Hamas.
But what about enemies of the Jewish state who live in the Jewish state? What about enemies of the Jewish state who are Jews? What about the Jews who live in the Jewish state who are more dangerous to our future than are either Iran or Hamas?
When it comes to them, we have no idea what to do.
This government, of course, has a perfect solution. “Let us win again, and we’ll let them do what they please.”
There were days when Israel had Zionist governments.
With Haredi protests continuing to be violent (directly causing the death of one Haredi teenager last week), and with no one having any good solution in mind for how to handle this existential threat to the Jewish state’s survival, we’re sharing today a few clips that are making their way across Israeli social media to give our readers and listeners a sense of what’s being said here and what people are talking about that can’t be picked up from the standard press.
The video at the very top of this post (we’ve added the subtitles to all these videos) was posted on Facebook by Naftali Bennett). It speaks for itself —a young woman who has already lost a partner, and now fears losing another, asking why the entire country can’t “be under the stretcher.”
“Being under the stretcher” is a common Israel phrase that, referring to not leaving anyone behind in the field, means that everyone takes a turn carrying whatever has to be carried. Indeed, note the photo atop Naftali Bennett’s Facebook Reels page, and that’s what you’ll see—people “under the stretcher,” shouldering their share of the burden.
The next video, below, was posted by Michal Barkai Brody, a leading advocate for women’s rights in Israel, and one of Israel’s most-in-demand public speakers. The video appears on her Facebook Reels page.
If you don’t look carefully, the video might not sound like much. But as you listen to Alon Kaminer speak about his determination to get back into the reserves, you need to notice his hands.
Look at the hands, listen to his determination—and then ask yourself if there ought to be a place in the Jewish state for the Haredi speaker in the video above who speaks about “what the army’s really worth.”
Then listen to Eli Meiri, below (also on his Reels page), a man who’s been a commander for thirty years. Listen to him speaking before the Knesset Committee, telling them what he’s focusing on now in the army— making sure the soldiers don’t kill themselves.
Listen to all of that, and then watch this video just posted by Or Sitt, a fabulous, much respected videographer in Israel, of a Haredi celebration of some draft dodgers who just got out of jail. No need for subtitles here … a quick gander even without the subtitles makes everything clear.
What should this country do?
If you have no idea, you’re in good company. And if you don’t want to think about it, you’re in the good company of our leaders.
One thing, though, is entirely clear.
Anyone who thinks that the dangers to our survival are Arabs doesn’t come close to beginning to get it.
