Sometimes we luck out and those who oppose Israel make things easy for us, as when Raja Zaatra, an Israeli citizen with access to all the good our country has to offer, goes and praises terrorist organizations who act against Israeli citizens with firearms and then asks to be appointed Haifa's deputy mayor. Luckily, Israel's largely indifferent public woke up and denounced the madness.
But our enemies at home and abroad are usually a little smoother than that. They will renounce the direct weapons instead choosing to topple Israel through patience and a hospitable demeanor. "The Zionist factor will be brought to its ruin in a pleasant manner," said the secretary of the Progressive List for Peace, Haim Hanegbi, in the 1980s. Why aggravate the Israelis with firearms when you can finish them off in a more pleasant manner? This quiet elimination policy is based on one central principle: opposition to Israel's definition as a Jewish state. To that end, soft tactics are employed: Israel's opponents "only" seek the cancellation of Jewish aspects of the state, in the name of equality, of course. It is easy to brand this opposition legitimate. Cloaked in democratic terminology and waving the flag of equality, it is easy to brand this opposition legitimate, but the significance, the end of the State of Israel, is clear.
Allow me to repeat what should be obvious: An Israel that is not Jewish is not Israel. Canceling Israel's Jewish identity would mean canceling its very existence. This basic insight guided the Israeli legislature on a series of laws, among them Basic Law: The Knesset, which bans political parties that oppose Israel's existence as a Jewish state from running in elections. The law's wording was not enough to keep the High Court of Justice from repeatedly forcing the Central Elections Committee to allow opponents of the Jewish state to run for elections and allow their representatives to serve as members of the Knesset. Joint Arab List MK and Balad party chairman Jamal Zahalka was not ashamed to say, "We in Balad have a historic position against the character and the fundamental definition of the state as Jewish." His fellow faction member and Ta'al party chief Ahmad Tibi has likewise emphasized that "we do not recognize a Jewish state. I say this on every stage; it is a doctrine."
The tragedy is that thanks to this false democratic and humanistic rhetoric, what was once common among Israel's opponents has now penetrated Israel's defensive layer. The salient outcome of all this is the attack on the nation-state law, which in the name of equality managed to enlist the support of the Zionist Left. Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich cursed the "contemptible, cowardly and hateful nationalism" and claimed it was "racist and vile." Zionist Union party leader and opposition head Tzipi Livni, who supported the law in the past, now maligns it on every stage. When the destruction of the state is veiled behind the word "equality," Zionists fold and retreat. The true battle is then over Israel's legitimacy as the nation-state of the Jewish people. The country's borders are not just geographic but also cultural in nature.
Zaatra's stance in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and against the idea of the Jewish state is dangerous in that it poses the most significant existential threat to the Jewish state by an admirer of Israel's sworn enemy, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. When it comes to the latter, we are alert and unified enough to defend ourselves. But presented with the former, we are confused, divided and helpless and tacitly approve the appointment as deputy mayor of someone who holds Nasrallah's positions.
