In an anguished cry, bereaved mother Esti Yaniv, the mother of Hallel and Yagel, may G-d avenge their blood, wrote these chilling words: "My children received a burial plot on Mount Herzl because of the Arabs; Matan Kahana will receive a plot on Mount Herzl with Arab votes."
In an interview with Galei Israel radio, she put her pain into words, "Matan Kahana is a good man. We also meet occasionally at events. I did not write a single word against him, but I felt that we were losing our compass. The compass of the people of Israel, of the Jewish nation, when people choose to rely on the votes of terrorism supporters. Someone here has lost their way."
"It is so painful that, after more than three years of war, people can still sit with our greatest enemies, who want to kill us and want us to abolish the Jewish state, yet cannot sit with our own brothers. Nearly four years ago, while our dead still lay before us, I spoke about how 'we are brothers.' It is simply unbelievable."
The profound pain and shock she expresses are shared by a large segment of the Israeli public. Bereaved families, fathers and mothers who have lost those dearest to them - but not only them: Anyone concerned about Israel's future as a Jewish state has been losing sleep in recent days. Many feel that we did not return here from exile to be ruled by terrorism supporters who seek our destruction. We did not establish a Jewish state to live in exile within it. We did not fight the enemy from without for three years only to place the state at the mercy of the enemy within.
So how did the unbelievable become an option?
Let us turn from Esti Yaniv, who speaks of how "we are brothers," to another figure, who rejects that brotherhood and seeks to rule the people of Israel through the Arab enemy within.
In a Facebook post responding to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's call, "Jewish brothers, it is time for unity," for the formation of a Jewish unity government, Kobi Richter wrote, "Smotrich, really? Jewish brothers? Suddenly I am your brother? Mansour Abbas, Yoav Segalovitz, Tibi and Joubran are my brothers! You are not even an illegitimate stepbrother...!". According to Richter's own words, he is Ahmad Tibi's brother, but not even Smotrich's brother-in-arms.
Kobi Richter is a leader of the pilots' protest movement and a leading figure in Israel's financial elite. He called on reservists not to report for duty even during the current war, and pulls the strings behind Eisenkot's moves. According to an earlier report by Amit Segal, he is among the protest leaders who decided that Benny Gantz was not delivering and should be replaced by Eisenkot. Richter said, "If democratic Jews do not unite with the Arabs, we will not have a majority." The initiative he and his associates are advancing through Eisenkot, to take power in Israel by joining forces with the Arab enemy, is deliberate.
How does a kibbutz member, pilot, businessman and entrepreneur become so blind, succumb to "vertigo," disconnect from the Jewish people and seek to subordinate Israel's government to the enemy within?
About 120 years ago, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook wrote that the success of the Zionist enterprise depended on grounding it in Jewish faith. He said that forces within the Zionist movement based on a non-Jewish, nonreligious system of values would become "a destructive force and a monstrosity, and ultimately turn to hatred of the Jewish people and the Land of Israel." The dominance of these forces would lead to a great catastrophe. In the early days of the Zionist enterprise, as the national body and its institutions were being built, an instinctive Jewish national consciousness beat in people's hearts and drove Zionist action. But when the time came to build the Jewish spirit in Zion, instinct would not suffice. At that point, anyone whose consciousness was disconnected from Jewish faith would become a destructive force and an enemy of the Jewish people.
Richter and his associates have already said in the past, "We are the state," we are the economy and we are national security. They and others like them set the streets ablaze in protest and called on reservists not to report for duty, both then and during the current war. Richter represents a small, hateful minority alienated from its roots and its fellow Jews, which is why they need candidates who will conceal their positions. They are trying to steer the state through money, while promoting people such as Eisenkot, who are not publicly associated with their views. In this way, they seek to change Israel's identity from a Jewish state into a state of all its citizens.
My words are not directed at Richter and those like him. The Jewish people will outlast them, too. I am addressing those whom they are trying to use. Matan Kahana, for example. My former classmate.
Matan, we are brothers! The Jewish people returned to their homeland from every place of exile to establish a Jewish state here. The "vertigo" of Richter and his associates, who seek to replace the Zionist enterprise that worked for the redemption of the people and the land with an imaginary democracy based on Israel's enemies, will not prevail. The Lord will not forsake His people; the third return to Zion will continue, the Jewish state will grow stronger and flourish, and the Jewish people will defeat their enemies from without and within. Matan, you face a historic test. The compass of Jewish values must set the direction and lead to Jewish unity. You have been given an opportunity to repent fully, to turn away from the sin of establishing a government through Israel's enemies. Do not miss this moment.
The writer heads the Torat HaMedina Beit Midrash