Pundits have claimed that the anti-Israel bent of the International Court of Justice in The Hague is the “reason” some in the upper echelons of the Israel Defense Forces, the security forces, Israel’s courts, judges and attorneys general and opposition politicians are attacking religious Jews, Sephardic residents of communities in Judea and Samaria, and right-leaning populations.
I disagree. Much of the animosity from the minority anti-right, fervently secular population is focused on dividing the nation of Israel.
The heart and soul of the Jews—the coalesced nation of Israel—are held together and sustained by adherence to belief in God, Torah and the centrality of the Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.
Despite the left’s strenuous battle to remove much of Judaism from Israel’s secular schools, many secularists have been turning to Judaism to add meaning and focus to their lives. As Rabbi Berel Wein, a scholar and lecturer, stated: “As Jews, we have to know where we come from to know where we are going.”
The future leaders of Israel will be coming from the valiant soldiers now fighting for months in the Gaza Strip to eradicate the existential threat to Israel. Religious and secular have been shoulder to shoulder, forging a unity of blood, faith and trust. The divisions and fears of the “other” foisted upon the secular as students have been blasted away by the reality of the enemies’ hatred of all Jews on Oct. 7.
This attempt to divide the people and crush religion goes way back to the early days of the State of Israel. Even so, the reawakening of Judaism has been gradual, taking a leap after the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967.
But the denigrating of the religious and Sephardim has continued.
The violent disruption last year at Yom Kippur prayers where secular Israelis prayed together with their religious brethren was a trigger. Why was this such a focus? Why was it necessary for the anti-religious left to stop this act of unity? They are terrified to lose their grip and power. They have vilified the head-covering-wearing right and cannot bear to see their acceptance in the larger society.
But on Oct. 7, following the dictum that saving a life pushes aside the restrictions of Shabbat, religious Jews streamed to the south. They left behind their families and their prayer services on the dual holy day of Shabbat and Simchat Torah to save other Jewish people and the land.
The secular citizens who saw them come to their aid and fight beside them—soldiers, ambulance drivers, medics, doctors, nurses, civilians, haredi, da’ati tzioni—worked united. At the same time, commanders who had disregarded documented known threats and disarmed the defenses of the surrounding communities were not available.
Soldiers, who as students and young men were taught nothing or little about their Jewish heritage and our ties to the land of Israel, were thrown together with those whose every fiber of being is part of this heritage. Taught to distrust them, the independent love for one’s fellow Jew, regardless of background, of the da’ati (religious) soldiers won them over and created unity. There is now a high demand for tzitzit across all soldiers, requests for tefillin and families commissioning Torah scrolls for deceased loved ones from the war. This newfound admiration for the religious is what the secular elite wants to crush. They can’t have this unity.
But all the flailing of the courts—falsely accusing soldiers and those who live in the towns and villages of Judea and Samaria of criminal acts, defending vile terrorists against Israeli soldiers, stopping students from putting on tefillin in public and preventing public prayer—are not to kowtow to The Hague. Rather, these actions are an attempt to crush the unity of the Jewish people and the reflowering of the Torah, the unity of the Nation of Israel in the Land of Israel.
We must help this unity grow and flourish and it will, despite all the attempts to crush it. Shoulder to shoulder, this next generation of leaders will welcome all levels of observance of Judaism, recognizing the spiritual uplift of prayer, the peace of Shabbat and the unity of ahavat chinam—respect, acceptance and love for your fellow Jew.
