Against one another or against our real and deadly enemies?
Only together we will win – is the chosen slogan of the just joined political parties of Isaac Herzog (Chairman of Labor) and Tzipi Livni (chairwoman of Tnua). But win over whom? Israel’s sworn enemies or fellow Israelis?
The opposite will be the result of this mantra, what they are about to do to Israel’s electorate with this their negative and often hate-filled campaign against the other side, especially against the present Prime Minister. This all will far more divide the already splintered Israeli nation than unite the people of Israel, because of this obtrusive negative campaign, just as it was during the days of the destruction of the second Temple and all of Jerusalem by the Romans. Israeli politicians of this sort and caliber, with their obvious ‘sinat achim’, will not win as a nation but lose, just as their people lost against the cruel power and forces of Rome through their insidious infighting the Jews had then for one another. This is not the way to win a war against such a joint and all out threat of Israel’s deadly and dangerous enemies from the Hizbollah in Lebanon till the Hamas operatives in Gaza, both pawns in Iran’s hand, Iran which herself will soon have their own hands filled with nuclear explosives. Then there is the upcoming Islamic State, cruel as no other, rising at the horizon! Then we see an increasingly weak and feeble Islamic and pro-Palestinian oriented Western World who are more critical of Israel (the only true democratic state in the whole Middle East) for building houses in their own God-given capital, than the massacres that are happening in the name of ISLAM in many parts of this world.
Is this then the time for a campaign by Israel’s leaders, be they from the right or from the left, to subscribe to this chosen slogan of Tzipi and Isaac: “only together we will win”, but not against the other “evil” fellow Israelis but against Israel’s real enemies who at this moment with delight are looking on how Israel’s left in the name of “togetherness” are spreading hatred not against them but against one another!
And what is this often Jewish fear not to offend those Gentile leaders who throughout history have often bullied them? Especially as it today has become sadly again an important element of the Israeli left elite, not to offend the Gentiles. Rather than criticizing the weak and often critical support by the present US administration – they have chosen to blame their own present Prime Minister and government – just as often the Jews in the diaspora did by nastily criticizing their proud and erect fellow Jews to make themselves more acceptable to their Gentile rulers! Hofjuden was the word then.
Now that soon a totally different wind will be blowing for Israel from the Senate as well as the Congress, should Israel’s left pick a fight with Bibi who already now receives more standing ovations when he speaks to the U.S. Congress than even the U.S. President himself?
Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director
International Christian Zionist Center