Netanyahu's supporters and opponents refuse to admit that they do not win at any cost.

Through the echoes of the drums, the plethora of bandana colors and naive street performances in Balfour; Among the insulting and gurgling words of a handful of thugs who identify as Netanyahu's supporters and the language of hatred of some of his opponents; And while the membranes of normalcy are melting and social networks are overflowing with filth and slime - scorched and passing before my eyes are images from another difficult summer - the summer of disengagement.

The Prime Minister is expected to rehabilitate and reassure his agitated supporters. Protest in Balfour // Photo: Oren Ben Hakon

15 years have passed. There was a great rift even then, several times more severe. Even in those days there were violent margins they hated. Even then, Israeli society threatened to disintegrate. Democracy really calculated then to break down. The regime has trampled on - literally, the rights of the protesters. He stole public opinion and the votes of his voters. But "for all crimes" - and there were so many then - "covered love" (as a whole wisdom in my own book).

"With love we will win," insisted the residents of Gush Katif, who were eventually expelled from their homes. They believed and sowed their fields until the last hours before deportation. With my own eyes I saw. In front of them, expressionless soldiers and policemen, who were mentally trained to emotionally disengage from the evacuees they were ordered to evict from their communities and homes - they served coffee and cake. Many of the evacuees fell on the necks of the evacuees in tears and hugs that cracked the opaque expression and detachment, but did not prevent the disengagement. The psychologists in the IDF and police evacuation workshops did not prepare the displaced persons for such a response pattern on the part of the displaced persons.

This was not a show. There was something pure and real there, so lacking now on both sides of the Balfour checkpoints: "free love" and "just not civil war." Menachem Begin understood this in 1948, when he prevented his commanders from returning fire at the IDF soldiers who killed them, in front of Altalena, the Irgun's gunboat that went up in flames. The political and rabbinical leadership of the opponents of the disengagement in 2005 also understood this.

Do not break tools

In her book "Not at Any Cost," which was published six years ago, Anat Roth revealed the minutes of that leadership discussion that revealed the same responsibility that is so lacking today. Zambish (Ze'ev Hever), who conceived with Ariel Sharon the map of settlement in Yesha and became its major operation, told his friends: "We can put pressure on the kingdom, but in the end, we will not break it. No tools are broken ... It is impossible to save the Land of Israel at this price that we will defeat the people of Israel and cut it to pieces ... This is not a victory. "Hanan Porat spoke of" heroism of restraint ". Rabbi Eliezer Melamed explained that" the struggle is limited, because we took We have a responsibility not to cause a civil war. "

Pinchas Wallerstein reminded his friends: "Even if we are terribly determined to be betrayed - we are also responsible for the people of Israel." Even the seemingly "extremist" in the group, Yitzhar's rabbi, Rabbi Dodkevitz, had clear boundaries: "Because you are my brother, I will not harm your body, because you are a Jew, but I am willing for you to harm my body." In Katif, and in the village of Maimon, to which the tens of thousands who hoped to stop the disengagement drained, this concept was assimilated. Hundreds of thousands were educated according to her, before and after. 

In Kfar Darom I saw the 17-year-old son of a real laser, a Border Police officer and a resident of the place, handing the Israeli flag to his friends on the roof of the fortified synagogue in Kfar Darom. As if he wanted to say to them in his own language: Only a few months after the displacement, Laser's son and his friends enlisted in the army who evacuated them. Many of their parents re-bloomed deserts and established new settlements. They realized that the national home of the Jewish people, the State of Israel That the whole - the people of Israel - is greater than the sum of its parts and its disputes; that the common is greater than the separator.

There were also Yossi and Tova Hadad, whose house, like many houses in the bloc, was directly hit by shrapnel in the last years of its existence, and their daughter, Racheli, was wounded by gunfire on the Kfar Darom children's bus. Hadad comforted his children in a trembling voice: "Gush Etzion also fell , And for 19 years his children dreamed of returning home. We and his family will pack up some more, move a chapter of Psalms, tear a tear in their clothes and walk together hugged towards the Kissufim checkpoint, waving the Israeli flag that has been hoisted in front of their house for so many years.

They, like most of the residents of Katif, did not raise an hand against the IDF soldiers and did not curse them. They accepted the harsh and wrong judgment, like the real mother in a complete trial, with the understanding that if they behave differently, then "neither will I."

"You're burning barns"

The question that needs to be asked now is where is the “real mother” of today? Neither the protesting public, which for the most part cries out for real distress, nor does Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has already been crowned a dictator, a Erdogan and even compared to Hitler, understand that the general and divisive division and conflict brings us closer to civil war, where there are only losers. 

The responsibility of the Prime Minister, by virtue of his position and status, is superior to that of his rivals, and from him rehabilitation is expected and will calm his agitated supporters; To remind them of the heroism of restraint that prevented civil war in the days of the disengagement and the Sazan and Altalena, and even to warn against violence and harm to protesters against him; Japanese and will warn that "not at any cost."

Even the leaders of such an understandable protest, in the face of the economic corona that befalls us, are not exempt. They must make it clear to the public that power, even if it is corrupt in their opinion, is only replaced by elections, a question that took place here for the third time in a row just a few months ago. They must also warn of riots and street initiatives that could lead to an assassination attempt on the prime minister. They, too, need to be honest: no one is trying to steal their democracy. Moreover: compared to similar and even more severe protests, the police treat them with silk gloves. 

MK Michal Kotler-Wench, who previously worked with two Supreme Court Presidents Aharon Barak and Miriam Naor, is loyal to this issue. Kotler is convinced that "there is a balance in the Great Corona Law between conflicting rights"; that the law not only gives the government extra powers during the period Emergency, but also "protects ... the rights of demonstration, the rule of law and the courts." "You burn barns," Kotler warned her members of the opposition a few days ago, "accept responsibility." Or in other words: "not at any cost." .

But instead of trying to calm the stormy winds and violence, the impression now is that the two camps are waiting almost impatiently for the same violent event that will ignite a large fire and serve their political purposes. This is a distorted expectation, a real eclipse, and a reflection of a stronger loyalty to their reference groups than to Klal Israel.