After the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, both political parties and their leaders—Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican Trump—have been advocating for unity among Americans. Unity is always a positive message to send to a nation after it has faced a challenging situation.
In Israel, calls for unity reverberated throughout the nation after the Simchat Torah massacre on Oct. 7. For the year-and-a-half leading up to the attacks, Israel was divided over the issues of judicial reform and between religious and secular communities. For months, Israelis have set aside their differences, pulled together and supported the war effort. Political disagreements were set aside, and uniting to defend the homeland and rescue the hostages became Israel’s mantra.
What does unity look like in today’s times?
No one expects Republicans and Democrats to set aside their issues or Israelis to forget their differences in the effort to focus on unity in trying national times. Americans and Israelis are strong-willed people who have long thought through their positions and feel they are right for their people. Unity doesn’t mean giving up on your values and compromising your principles.
Unity requires divided people to come together while still disagreeing about fundamental issues. Unity requires political opponents to deal civilly with each other and talk to each other with respect. It requires the recognition that those on the “other side” are fellow citizens and neighbors, not the enemy. Most importantly, it requires a tampering down of inflammatory rhetoric in favor of dignified dialogue.
In America and Israel, the rhetoric about the “other side” has veered towards the extreme. In America, Republicans say that Biden has been the worst president in America’s history and Democrats are destroying America. Democrats call Trump Hitleresque and say Republicans want to repress America back to the 1800s. In Israel, the right claims that the left is weak and willing to let Israel’s enemies defeat the Israel Defense Forces. The left claims that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a dictator and that the right wants to end Israel as a democratic state.
The rhetoric in both countries is extreme and uncivil. It bolsters division and creates a dangerous environment that fosters violence. Both America and Israel have seen how extreme rhetoric can lead to political violence with disastrous consequences. The violent consequence of extreme discourse is the ultimate problem of division in a nation.
Yet even without the fear of violence, extreme characterizations of political advocates towards their opponents in America and Israel reflect partisanship more than truth. The two countries are both strong democracies that can withstand political contentiousness.
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln once said, “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.” Many have summarized Lincoln by saying, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we lose our freedoms, it will be because we have destroyed ourselves from within.”
Lincoln’s idea of America only being at risk by tyrannical and anti-democratic forces from fellow Americans has been used by those perpetuating divisive language on both sides to support their idea that their political opponents are not just rivals but actual enemies of the state. Their defeat, they argue, must be had at almost all costs.
Using Lincoln as a cudgel against political opponents is as cheap as it is easy. Anyone can be branded anti-democratic and therefore painted as an enemy of the state whose extreme views must be defeated. Also, using Lincoln doesn’t require either side to address the issues. Instead of explaining their positions and their opposition to the other side’s positions, they look for the cheap punch.
Unity is essential in a democracy that hopes to be a well-functioning society. Done correctly, disagreements are healthy and can lead to a larger discussion of diverse ideas that allow the best ideas to rise to the top and improve the nation. Those ideas can only be shared when opposing parties are willing to listen to their opponents with an open mind while not disqualifying good ideas solely through a partisan lens. True national unity is when people of diverging views place the nation’s improvement as the top priority, especially above partisan interests.
The first step towards national unity is addressing individual issues and not individual personas. Political opponents need to highlight the advantages of their policy ideas and the flaws in their opponent’s ideas. They need to demonstrate how the country would be better off with them at the governing helm of the country, and how the country would regress if their opponent’s policy ideas were implemented. Most of all, they must address their opponent with respect and admiration for their willingness to serve their nation.
To unite the citizens of America and Israel, both parties need to begin utilizing more respectful language towards each other. Extreme rhetoric plays more to fear than intellect and must be set aside in favor of addressing problems by highlighting their flaws. Respectful dialogue will bring unity between opposing sides in America and Israel.
