I never believed, as either a young or an old man, that what would bring Israeli society together would be hatred. There were times when Israeli society had a social contract, which – apart from bitter ideological disputes – solidified shared values that allowed us to handle defense, aliyah integration, and diplomatic isolation, all of which demanded sacrifice and true devotion.
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It was obvious to everyone, on both the Right and the Left, that a Jewish state in the Land of Israel was the fulfillment of a dream and that the wings of history were bolstering the Israeli spirit.
In his poem "The Vow," Zeev Jabotinsky wrote "White and blue, and no other /
There will not be added the Redness of / ad-mixture." He was right, the red flag has been folded and put into the recycling bin. The bitter ideological disputes ended with a clear win. Nothing remains of the Left's ideology, and the Left is hovering barely above the minimum electoral threshold. Political parties are moving toward the center, mostly in order to say nothing of consequence and scrape up votes from anyone who passes by. Candidates move from one party to another, to whomever is paying the most.
Ideology has left the building, and hatred has stomped into its place in the public sphere. Media outlets, particularly TV channels, fan the flames of hate and depression. There is no real news, news and opinions are jumbled, and mostly political propaganda from morning to night. There is a lofty attempt to brainwash the public and engineer its thinking – activity is consistent, even by the public broadcaster funded by the taxpayers and a radio station that is supposed to be the "army's."
The main target of the hatred, which is the focus of nearly nightly reports, analyses, and shallow "exposés" – is the Haredi public. They are treated in a way that is reminiscent of anti-Semitic blood libels from the Middle Ages about Jews spreading plagues, polluting the water, and being lepers who must be crowded into ghettos. There are good reasons to criticize the radical, vocal Haredi sectors. But criticism that expresses boundless hatred, a desire to oust them from the tribe, is both brutal and dangerous. How much evil and mean-spiritedness links Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman, who both espouse hatred of the Haredim. Who better than Lieberman knows the Stalinist slogan "Strike the Jews and save Russia"? He has updated it to "Strike the Haredim and save Yisrael Beytenu."
The "politinists" (journalist-politicians) who fill the media will never forgive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for taking the country they thought was theirs away in democratic elections. They cannot accept that secular, religious, traditional Jews and settlers joined forced to turn Israel into an international military and economic powerhouse, and make peace in exchange for peace. Does Peace Now still exist? The journalists of the Left will never forgive him for showing how empty their beliefs and opinions are, and there is no vengeance like that of a journalist who was wrong. Their hatred of Netanyahu is out of control. Weak politicians, including ones that pretend to be on the Right, are doing everything to fall into line with the left-wing politinists in order to win a little kindness from Media Ltd. The pathetic slogan that expresses the hate is "Anyone but Bibi." It's a pathological hatred that Freud would certainly ascribe to roots in their tortured souls.
King Alexander Yannai told his wife Shlomzion "Fear not the Pharisees and the non-Pharisees but the hypocrites who ape the Pharisees." In the upcoming election, we must defeat baseless hatred. We have paid the price for it in the past. Disputes aside, we are brothers. We must not allow the media to wear down the depth of our unity.
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