On Monday evening my eldest son called me. It was a few hours after the demonstration in Jerusalem. He went there with friends, and came back upset. "Father, the country is over, my house is gone," he said.
I know him well.
He is thoughtful and calculated.
The farthest thing from impulsive.
When he comes to such a statement, to such a conclusion, I understand that something has fallen.
Not in his personal view, but in our general situation.
I asked him to explain, and he did.
At length, logically, quietly.
He spoke of a country where those who serve, pay, and donate, are persecuted and denounced as traitors and anarchists by a party whose parts do not do all of these.
I listened to him.
He graduated high school with honors and went on to serve six years in the military, including an officer and command course.
Last year he was released and started working.
He works a lot (my grandmother used to say that it's hard when you work with Toriya), pays taxes, makes reserves every month and donates quite a bit to those in need.
A good citizen, as written in the book.
Say - another privileged Ashkenazi.
So that's it, his grandfathers, on his mother's side, were born in Morocco and came up as teenagers.
From her past, difficult absorption, stressful jobs as laborers, too slow progress in the ranks, and a constant feeling that they failed to reach their potential.
The poster boys of the Second Israel.
And yet they chose differently: to be proud of the country, proud of the people, and above all - a desire to excel.
Always.
Children were urged to succeed, to become officers in the army, to attend university and to be good citizens.
And so are the grandchildren.
Neither Moroccans nor Ashkenazim.
Israelis
When my oldest spoke, I thought of his grandfathers.
Then I thought of my uncle Amsalem.
He came from exactly the same place, but instead of choosing love, like them, he chose hate.
Bars.
in destruction
His speech about the protestors' Rolex watches and Mercedes cars was not only a gross lie from the mouth of someone who wears a luxury watch himself and drives in a luxurious car paid for with public money for a fictitious position designed to buy his silence, but a particularly magnificent display of voluntary crushing of the last veins that still connect the parts of the people this.
that connect my son, and his brothers and his friends, to this place.
to their home.
Please relax, we are not leaving
I have a close friend named Ofer Bronstein.
A recognized peace activist, one of those who never give up.
A hopeless optimist.
Loves Jews and loves Arabs, and believes that everyone can live together.
In recent years he has been living in Paris, and during one of his visits here, a few years ago, he brought Dodi Amsalem to our meeting.
I didn't know him before, but I was fascinated: a warm, huggable man, full of energy.
All evening he called me "brother", and I think he meant it.
I haven't seen Amsalem for a long time, but I don't think I'm his brother anymore.
In many moments, like this week, he gives me and those around me the feeling that for him we are as bad as the worst of our enemies, maybe more.
After all, anyone who goes out to demonstrate is privileged and an anarchist and oppresses Israel and contributes to our enemies and a host of other stains, which raises the question of whether it is not better for him, for Islam, that we leave.
We will go ahead and say that we are not leaving.
We have no other country, nor is there any reason to give up the values, the truth, the home.
In any case, it is doubtful whether it is worthwhile for Islam to leave: if this happens, he will have no one to blame for all the country's problems and ailments.
But let's talk for a moment seriously about this matter.
About these people, whom Amsalem sees as his enemies.
Israel is a regional power, and a wonder on a global scale.
It is like this even though it has large parts whose contribution to this national effort ranges from marginal to negative.
Yes, learning Torah is important, but Startup Nation did not grow in yeshiva, and neither did the attacks in Iran and the thwarting of the attacks in Jenin.
He grew up elsewhere.
In places where core studies are not a burden but an asset - for the general and the particular.
Places where serving society is a value.
Places where they contribute much more than what is necessary.
There are tens of thousands of associations in Israel;
Some of them are replacing the state in providing essential services and support - to the hungry, the poor, the elderly, Holocaust survivors, the mentally and physically injured, why not.
Amsalem will be honored and check what percentage of traitorous leftists are among the donors and managers and activists and volunteers in these associations.
to ask himself what will happen to the company if they stop operating.
Yes, there are class differences.
No, it's not good.
But the one who spends day and night trying to reduce the gaps is not the government, which only perpetuates the deprivation, but others.
The elitist 8200 unit from Galoli sends officers and soldiers to teach computers in the periphery, at the expense of their own time, so that the young people there have a better chance in the future.
Sheldag and General Staff and Pilots alumni associations contribute to social projects - almost all of them in the periphery - out of a deep need to give back to society and invest in its future, especially the future of its weakest links.
And while all this is happening, Amsalem stands in the Knesset and blasphemes.
Those who do, and those who demonstrate.
He is of course not alone.
The Israel of 2023 is a world wonder: the Minister of Justice hates the legal system, the Minister of Communications hates the media, the Minister of Information hates the public.
They do all this at the expense of the same public that pays taxes;
And, it should be said: the rich, i.e. the elites, i.e. those whom Islam hates, pay much more taxes.
Without them and without their money and without the investments that their companies raise, Israel would be a poorer, more ignorant and much weaker country.
Those who benefit from this will be her enemies - from Ramallah to Tehran.
Jews are worried
Amsalam is of course a parable.
He is not alone.
The one responsible is the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Last month I was in the USA. Netanyahu understands America, and understands American Jews, or at least he did in the past. Diaspora Minister Amichai Shikli was there as well, and when he returned to Israel he said he heard widespread support for the government and its actions. I can't decide if he is lying, or if he is wrong In my understanding: at the conference in which we both participated, concern was expressed from wall to wall about the government's moves, and about the deep rift they are creating in Israel, and between Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora. He heard this much more clearly and decisively in his meeting with the leaders of American Jewry, led by the New York Federation.
They warned him, literally, of the damage the government is causing with its actions.
Netanyahu and his partners won the elections.
There is no, and cannot be, disputed about that.
This is the democratic game, and the opposing side can only blame itself for not knowing how to properly leverage its power.
But the victory does not include carte blanche for the predatory crushing of the state and its institutions.
It requires to proceed carefully, sensibly, with an understanding of the chances and risks involved in every move.
My son understands this simple logic very well.
He knows what will happen here if these moves continue and escalate.
Where Israel will deteriorate in every parameter: economic, security, political, social.
And he (and hundreds of thousands of other people) now see the king's new clothes, and shout: the king is naked.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
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