The Jewish State we all once knew is starting to slip away. Ever since the election, Israel’s political left and mainstream media establishment have acted to uproot Israel’s democracy, unity, and reputation in the international community. This behavior by the left must be identified, admonished, and stopped. The Jewish people have been through too much infighting, jealousy, and fear in their long history.
The left’s inability to accept election results will hurt our beloved people and country. We have enough enemies around us, and we must remain united and strong.
In a speech four months ago in Tel Aviv, Ben Shapiro said that “America’s one major thing to learn from Israel is that a nation state must have at its heart a nation. What it really means is America has to learn from Israel the necessity of having a common history, a common culture and a common destiny. It's a truism of politics that when you're too close to something you see the complicated inner workings nobody likes to see. From the inside, Israel has to look like a roiling country of disagreements and conflicts, of dislike and antipathy and of unbridgeable gaps where nobody gets along. From the outside which is where I live, Israel actually looks like a country more solid in its identity than nearly any country on planet earth.”
Ben’s monologue on Israeli unity is clear to all Israelis. What ultimately has led our young nation to grow so quickly was our national unity and collective commitment to making Israel a better country regardless of who is Prime Minister. Under no circumstances can a Jew fight another Jew. This is the way it was when Ben Gurion ordered the Irgun’s Altelena ship to be sunk (which led to a loss of millions of dollars of ammunition and the lives of 16 Irgun soldiers) and this is the way it must be now. The hundreds of Irgun soldiers did not fire back at the IDF on the shore, and the head of the Irgun, Menachem Begin, who gave the order later said, “my greatest accomplishment was not retaliating and causing civil war.”
Yair Lapid is Israel’s outgoing transition Prime Minister. Lapid has a history of incitement against the right wing and the religious community. Since the election Lapid has taken a different track in his verbal attacks. At a graduation on November 10th for soldiers finishing the IDF’s commander course he said that one of the challenges facing the IDF Is “is the call to use force without laws, without rules, without adhering to the model of a law-abiding army. These calls weaken Israeli society and the IDF.” To put his words into perspective, let us understand that this is a serving prime minister telling the future officers of the Israeli army that the future government will push Israel and the army away from democracy.
This is no way to accept defeat nine days after losing a democratic election.
Additionally on December 1st Lapid wrote an open letter to Israel’s municipalities which said that the parties set to form the next coalition government have “abandoned the education of our children and handed them over to the most extreme and darkest elements in Israeli society. I urge you not to cooperate with the unit for external programs and partnerships in the Ministry of Education as long as it is under the control of Maoz.” Lapid called for municipalities to disobey the law because he was upset the new democratically elected government may choose to promote values different than his.
In other countries this would easily be considered sedition.
During a committee hearing in Knesset on December 20th, Alon Shuster, who was the Vice Defense Minister from Nationalist Camp Party (led by Benny Gantz), when speaking about the election results said of the Israeli electorate that, “the people didn’t vote their conscience, the people don’t know how to vote their conscience”. That doesn’t seem very democratic or “nationalist” to me.
Israel’s mainstream media has taken a similar approach. Barak Ravid, a journalist from Walla news reported on several occasions that the US administration is very concerned about the new Israeli government and holds constant talks about the extremists in the government and how the United States plans on not having any form of communication with several ministers in Israel’s new government. These rumors caused a lot of concern in the mainstream Israeli public and media. The United States denied all these rumors and has said repeatedly that they look forward to working with Israel’s new government and that they will focus on “policy and not personalities.”
In addition, this same Israeli media said the new far right ministers coming into the government would destroy the Abraham Accords. Contrary to their expectations both Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Minister Itamar Ben Gvir were both invited to the UAE’s celebration of their Independence Day. The Ambassador to the UAE and other Arab states have publicly met with both Ben Gvir and Smotrich.
On the economic front the media is also spreading rumors that the new government will cause a catastrophe for Israel’s. In an interview on Channel 13 with social media personality and high-tech entrepreneur, Michael Isenberg on December 19th, Raviv Drucker practically begged Michael to admit that high tech companies from all over the world would stop their investments in Israel because of the new government. Michael didn’t fall into the trap of Israel’s media and simply said there is not one company who has said anything about the new government to him.
It makes sense that Israel’s left wing news media has selective memory about the economic issues and security issues the state is facing. Over the last year and a half, the press has forgotten its job is to criticize and be a watchdog of the government. It must be a coincidence that with the swearing in of a right-wing government they have suddenly remembered. This can all be expected by mainstream Israeli media. What is inexcusable is misinformation and rumors with the intention of hurting the State of Israel on the world stage.
A few days after the election on November 6th, Bezalel Smotrich spoke in the Knesset at a memorial for former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. In light of the election results he said, “In the last few days I hear people saying they won’t enlist in the army or participate in reserve duty anymore. I want to request you not to fall into the trap of the media and left-wing politicians. I say this as the representative for the Religious Zionist community which accepted Israeli democracy even when it caused us destruction. Not so long ago was the expulsion from Gush Katif, we accepted our fate, we protested, and tried to make it not happen, but we didn’t rebel even for one second. We never had a thought to stop serving in the army, reserves or leave the country.”
This is the message we must take moving forward. We must stand together unified for the only Jewish country even when things may not go our way. I am talking to you, Mr. Lapid and the rest of the left-wing politicians who completely disrespected Israel’s democracy on Thursday and who have slandered Israel’s political right wing in every way possible. The time has come for the “politically correct” to maybe try being respectful of our beautiful country instead of trying to tear it down while shouting that this is the end of Israeli democracy.
Benjamin Sipzneris the Director for International Operations at Ad Kan. He was the Anglo coordinator for outreach and events for the Religious Zionist Party in Israel’s last two elections. He is an Oleh from New York and completed his service as a lone soldier in the Nachal Brigade of the IDF. He can be found on Facebook and can be reached at [email protected].