A country cries out

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

These are difficult, complex, challenging, tense, and often depressing days in the Land of Israel.  The 88 year-old former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, probably Israel’s most respected jurist, expressed his fear that the country could be heading toward a civil war.

The Israel Business Forum, which represents 200 of Israel’s largest companies, has threatened to “shut down the Israeli economy” if the government defies the High Court of Justice’s temporary injunction against the firing of the head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.

The head of the Histadrut Labor Federation asserted that the country was on the verge of anarchy and that a failure of the government to comply with the ruling of the Court would be “a final red line that cannot be crossed.” He promised that the Federation would not “sit silently and watch them take apart the State of Israel.”

Several universities have threatened to go out on strike if Bar is fired.  Forty regional council and municipal heads signed a letter calling on the Prime Minister to publicly pledge that he would comply with the court’s decision.

Bar’s dismissal would be the first time in the history of the country that the head of the Shin Bet has been fired.  Netanyahu claims that this unprecedented step is necessary because he and Bar have lost "mutual trust." Bar was planning to resign within months, but apparently the Prime Minister feels the lack of trust is so compelling that he must move the date up, even at the risk of a constitutional crisis.

Many others suspect that the real reason for the hasty sacking, against the admonitions of the Attorney General and possibly in defiance of the High Court, is more likely due to the fact that the Shin Bet under Bar’s leadership is investigating allegations that some of Netanyahu's closest aides were in the employ of Qatar, an enemy country that harbors terrorists and supports terrorism and that purports to be a good-faith mediator of hostage negotiations.

Many fear that firing Bar and installing a Shin Bet chief more likely to toe the line could result in the suppression of the investigation of this incredibly serious conduct. And, of course, this alleged scandal was quickly given the moniker of “Qatargate.”

As if this were not enough, there is this:

We have a renewed war whose timing, need, and impact on the lives of the hostages are in dispute, and the motivation for which by the Prime Minister is suspicious and political in the view of many.

Israel refused to negotiate about and proceed to Phase 2 of the agreement with Hamas.  If the breaking of the agreement advances Israel’s security, helps defeat Hamas, and/or keeps hostages alive and brings them home sooner, no reasonable person should have any qualms about Israel’s breach.

Is this normal?

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

It is hard to describe the mood here.  What we have experienced in the last 48 hours is indescribable.

We thought we had already experienced the worst.  October 7th.  Families destroyed.  Hostages returned to learn that their spouses and their children were murdered.  Young women kept in dark tunnels.. Emaciated men displayed on stages in bizarre "ceremonies." Hostages finally freed after hundreds of days of captivity given farewell certificates and goodie bags.  Unimaginable, sick behavior.

Only to be topped by the last 48 hours.  Four coffins.  A red-headed baby in one.  His red-headed four-year old brother in another.  Latest reports are that Hamas murdered the kids "with their bare hands."

An 83 year-old peace-activist great-grandfather who drove sick Gazans to Israeli hospitals in another coffin.  And in the fourth an unknown woman's body that Hamas tried to pass off as the children's mother Shiri Bibas.  Hamas says transferring the wrong body was due to a "an error or mix-up" and it will now investigate, as if this sort of "mix-up" happens every other day.

[Latest report as this is finalized:  Hamas has transferred another body to the Red Cross it claims is that of Shiri Bibas.]

A bizarre, depraved "ceremony" transferring the murdered bodies.  The caskets of the elderly man and the unknown woman affixed with a sign saying "Arrested October 7, 2023." Arrested???

Where is Shiri Bibas' body?  Speculation is that it was so tortured, so mutilated, that they did not return it.  Are they stupid enough to think that Israeli forensic specialists wouldn’t figure it out?  Whose body did they produce?  Do these sick people just keep extra bodies hanging around?

The word "surreal" is often used to describe things that are just strange.  But what has happened here, is truly not of this world.  It is like an infinitely deep, dark universe.

A fantasy?  Yes, if a fantasy includes a cruel nightmare.  Unimaginable, sick, bizarre behavior.

Somehow life goes on—people shopping for Shabbat, at restaurants, putting gas in the car.  All the trappings of "normal" life. But there is nothing normal about what has happened here.  There is a huge pall hanging over this country.  There is depression, dismay, and anger.

In November of 2023, just seven weeks into this ordeal, I questioned the entire idea of negotiating with Hamas.  I argued that only when Jews are subjected to terrorism does the world expect negotiations.  I argued that this process "normalizes" the taking of hostages by terrorists, and that it encourages further hostage-taking and terrorism generally.

Elation, trepidation, disappointment

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

Today was a clear, beautiful, and warm Shabbat in Jerusalem, more like April than January. We were sitting in our synagogue, just starting to read the Haftorah portion, when a tzeva adom, a red alert, wailed out.

There was a little hesitation, some quick quizzical looks. One of our members called out something like “walla,” shorthand for “what are we waiting for,” and we all traipsed down to the shelter.

No panic. No rush.  More like resignation, a feeling of “once again.” A question of “isn’t this over yet?”  A look of “they have to get in one last shot.”

A couple of us pulled out and turned on phones and confirmed what we suspected: it was the Houthis firing their one-a-day ballistic missile at a population center in Israel.

Some people take a one-a-day vitamin.  The Houthis shoot a ballistic missile from a dirt-poor, failed nation that could use every dollar it can find at a people 1373 miles away who have done absolutely nothing to them. Their second in command has straightforwardly declared that their motivation is pure hatred of Jews.

The daily missile crosses a wide swath of Israel, inflicting terror and sending a substantial segment of the population to shelters and safe rooms.

They usually take their shot at night.  Today they chose the morning. Perhaps they were afraid they wouldn’t get it in before the ceasefire took effect.

We stood around in the shelter for about 10 minutes, waiting, resigned, chatting, thinking.  Then we went back up to the sanctuary and finished the service, undoubtedly like hundreds of thousands of other Israelis.  Life went on almost like nothing had happened.

As we finished the service, I did take special note of the last sentence of Psalm 29: “The Lord shall grant strength to His people; the Lord shall bless His people with peace.”

I hope so.  But I have my doubts.  Big ones.