This October is one of the most consequential months in Israel’s tangled history. It began with the commemoration of the tragic events of October 7, 2023 when invaders from Gaza murdered more than 1200 Israelis, some attending a music festival and others residents of settlements close to the border. The country is a long way from healing from that trauma.
At the other end of the month, on October 27th Israelis will vote for its next government, just a week ahead of our own election. This week The Atlantic published an article which provides a perfect bridge between the start and end of this month. It is by a resident of one of the invaded villages who, after much soul searching with his family, is in the process of moving back home, just a mile from the Gaza border, the place where many of his friends and neighbors were murdered or kidnapped.
But many boxes remain packed awaiting the outcome of the national elections. If the results return Prime Minister Netanyahu to power, there is a strong chance that those boxes will be shipped to a destination outside the country where the family will make their new home. They will become another statistic in the growing yerida – outmigration, literally “going down” in contrast to the country’s long history of Aliyah – “going up” that has brought millions of Jews from around the world together, presumably to safety. This outflow of population is concentrated among the professional classes – doctors and workers in the country’s burgeoning high tech industries. The losses in those groups will surely accelerate with a Netanyahu victory.
In the US, we heard threats after Nixon’s and Trump’s elections from citizens threatening to leave the country. Very few people actually left. But In Israel it is already a reality, and in a country as small as Israel, the effects of these departures will have a strong impact on the country’s future. The reasons for leaving vary but at the core, they revolve around Bibi, the war, security and disillusionment. Whatever the reasons, these departures will concentrate the power of right-wing parties and the growing deeply conservative ultraorthodox population, who, one day soon, will make up 25% of the population.
Just as Trump is not the sole cause of our country’s current condition, Israel’s flaws have a long history, dating back to the creation 1948, even, some say, to the Bible. Most of the parties opposing Bibi do not have sterling political histories of their own, particularly regarding the rights of Palestinians, support for anything resembling a peaceful two-state solution or even the inclusion of Arab parties in a governing coalition.
Much of what I’ve written here you’re likely to have read in the media already. What I have to add concerns the reactions right here from the American Jewish community to news about Israel. Two recent experiences remind me that much of American Jewry is still wedded to images of an Israel that never was, as I was for a good part of my life. This view does not include the need to account for and acknowledge the presence of Palestinians in the Holy Land equation, or their presence only as an enemy to be contained by whatever means necessary.
First, a friend in Baltimore sent me a video of a High Holiday speech by a young rabbi in her city which she found admirable. It made for thirty minutes of unobjectionable listening, but lacking in any daring, I thought, that might challenge his congregants to think differently about events in Israel. I sent my friend a note to that effect. “You don’t understand,” she replied. “The mere mention of Palestinians in a positive or sympathetic light from the pulpit is like touching the third rail here.” The events of October 7th have surely reinforced that.
The second example comes from Houston, whose Jewish community is more familiar to me, having lived in it for 13 years. We continue to subscribe to the local Jewish newspaper, primarily to stay abreast of births, deaths, wedding announcements and special events. A recent issue contained a story of the appointment of a new Israeli consul general for the whole southwest region, who will be based in Houston. Perhaps I’m asking too much from someone whose job it is to paint Israel in the most positive light possible, which Ms. Adi Farjon Israel does by promising to bring more Israeli arts to the Houston community and encouraging travel to the country, but so much of the story is presented in an uninflected business- as- usual manner. “We are seeing more and more business connections with Israel and Texas. We want to continue that and see how we can strengthen economic ties between Israel and this region.” And later, “The community here is already very connected to Israel. To see an Israeli flag in a synagogue is something that really warms my heart. We just want to bring the beautiful face of Israel to the community.”
The new consul general is doing her job, but in the process, she reinforces the blinkered view of Israel that prevails among many of our Jewish communities, one that many of our youth are abandoning and which much of the world has rejected and replaced with a perception of Israel as a rogue state. It’s possible that the results of the upcoming elections will bring some small shifts, but American Jews have a lot of catching-up to do in revising their relations to Israel. Many of their brothers and sisters closer to the ground in Israel are already there.
