"In the last few months, I feel that the anxiety of the founders of the state that the Jewish people are not able to carry a state, surrounds us again."
These mournful words were written in "Haaretz" by the historian Prof. Anita Shapira.
Shapira is the laureate of the Israel Prize for Researching the History of the People of Israel and the author of books about Berel Katznelson, Yigal Alon and the Labor Party.
In the article, Shapira writes about priming, about solidarity, about being Jewish and democratic, and above all it reveals her identification with a temporary group of the "founders of the state", who felt that her actions were drowning in a sea of anti-democratic regime revolution.
And here, a miracle happened to the historian: she went to the demonstration in Bhima square, and she was a little relieved.
"On Shabbat night, when I stood in the pouring rain near the Bhima square, in the midst of a dense crowd, determined to defend Israeli democracy, I felt a brotherhood that crossed the boundaries of status, ethnicity, and beliefs. The song that those gathered around me sang was the song of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav: 'And the main thing is not to be afraid at all.' It was a moment of hope, that maybe it will turn out that the Jewish people have the talent to have a state, while recognizing the obligations involved in its existence."
See how Kelly valued Israel's problems and challenges, if a demonstration on a rainy evening can bring hope to the desperate.
It is worth noting Shapira's impression of the participants: they seemed to her like a broad spectrum - but unified - of "status, ethnicity, beliefs", that is: guys exactly like her.
The founders of the country in the past and the owners of the house in the present.
Shapira is not afraid of democracy from today.
Already in 1983 she wrote an article titled "The Year We Crossed the Red Lines"
The freedom of demonstration is one of the rights that a democracy allows its citizens as part of the freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly and the freedom to shout slogans with like-minded people.
There are other advantages to the democratic system, such as the right to vote and separation of powers, the reviled majority rule - without which there is no democracy at all - and also equality before the law and other terms that do not have a declaration system.
The value of the demonstration is nothing more and nothing less than an item in a long list of annoyances that the public as a whole is obliged to put up with their existence, for the reason that many parents throughout the generations have been good at articulating: "You are not the only child in this family".
Therefore, the public is required from time to time to tolerate other citizens who come to shout their various cries in the streets of a city, disturb the rest of the neighbors, and sometimes even block the road until the police consult with the media when the time is right to evacuate them.
The beauty and grandeur of demonstrations is the sum total of all the traffic jams and noise they generate and the slogans carried on their signs.
That's all, and it's not much.
But there are demonstrations that are so just, that the participant in them is allowed to feel like a warrior who did the supreme democratic act of heroism: he took to the streets!
He waved a sign!
He applauded Ayla Procchia when she said "value-based democracy is not just the will of the majority", and Zifi-"we will stop you and we will not compromise"-Livni, and of course a permanent member Eliad Sharga from the movement for the quality of government, who called out to President Herzog from the bottom of his heart: "I am calling you from here Today, in the name of all this holy crowd, Kom took action. He declared the Prime Minister unfit to fulfill his position, he declared his impeachment immediately."
The same Shrega argued for Netanyahu's incompetence in 2019, at the High Court, for other reasons. There are always other reasons. Shrega was also against the gas plan, and protested in favor of a commission of inquiry in the submarine case, and against governmental corruption in 2017 - usually accompanied by petitions to the High Court. C.
He is, in fact, democracy.
What is so holy about these protesters?
Why do a certain type of protestor get headlines in an edition?
Why are we required to admire the fact that they left the house?
Get out of the house, for God's sake!
to Tel Aviv!
in the rain!
Maybe because of their persistence over the years.
The demonstrators on the stage look familiar to the veteran observer from somewhere: from the cost of living protests of 2011, the gas robbery in 2015, the Balfour protests in 2020.
These are not sectional, sectarian or political demonstrations.
God forbid.
These are super-protesters in favor of super-purposes.
Always in defense of democracy, never against the right, never against Netanyahu.
These are always exemplary citizens, of high rank and above, like Prof. Shapira, like the pilots, the schledgists, the hi-techists, the former prosecutors, the lawyers and their robes, who cannot turn a deaf ear against the terrible act that the government intends to do - which happens to be headed by Netanyahu, who we have nothing personal against Of course - but there is no choice. As quoted from a Manhariya protester in the subtitle: "The blueprint endangers the country's democracy." Well, yes, even in 2015, the gas blueprint endangered democracy.
Perhaps it is worth recalling the results of the demonstrations of the ancestors of the protest against the "regime revolution": the cost of living protest received admiring media coverage, as if it were the authentic heart murmur of the people, and then Netanyahu was elected, life returned to its normal course, and apartments in Tel Aviv are still expensive.
The gas robbery protest may have caused the royalties to the state to rise, but it did not leave the gas in the sea and did not return Netanyahu to Caesarea.
Also, electricity prices in Israel are almost half of the average price in the European Union.
It was not the Balfour protests that brought down Netanyahu, but the defection of Naftali Bennett.
In the 2022 elections, Netanyahu was elected with a convincing majority, but the protesters are not desperate: armed with a new danger to democracy, they simply change their signs and shirts (sometimes not even that), go out to shout in the streets and enjoy favorable media coverage.
The owners of the house leave the house - meaning, their words are important.
It should be noted that Shapira is not afraid of democracy as of today.
Already in 1983 she wrote an article entitled "The year we crossed the red lines", and lamented: "The rule of law in Israel was undermined, the honor of the judicial system was defamed in the dirt and the Israeli government did not come out to protect them".
1983 was the year "when we first thought with understanding about those decent Germans, who continued to sit in their country in the 1930s and did not climb the barricades but went down an 'internal descent'''. It was only by chance that in 1983 Israel had a right-wing government headed by Menachem Begin and followed by Yitzhak Shamir. Democracy In danger every time the right-wing is in power, and the left-wing protesters are always more noble than the dubious types who didn't go out in the rain to the square, but just went to the polls.
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