When lecturing about how American Jews fuse liberalism and Judaism, I used to include a slide from Haaretz on November 10, 2016, proclaiming: “US Synagogues Invite Grieving Jews to Sit Shiva Together after Trump Victory.”
The photo showed a guitar-playing cantor surrounded by anguished congregants. I stopped using the slide because Israelis, from Left to Right, laughed whenever I showed it, inevitably offending some Americans. Most Israelis don’t play guitars at shiva. Besides, we’ve experienced too many real shivas and electoral roller coasters to waste this sacred ritual on politics.
As we awake today in a post-October 27 Israel, I beg Israelis and Israel-lovers alike: Take a breath! Find something to laugh at. Put yesterday in perspective.
Israel remains the plucky Jewish democracy that invented WAZE and cherry tomatoes, Bamba and Fauda.
For once, let’s learn from our enemies. They’ll keep fighting us, no matter what – even if Mother Teresa arose from the grave and won yesterday. So, let’s remain loyal, no matter what.
Remember: politicians don’t define our state – we do; and politicians can’t make or break our state – only we can.
The day after Election Day is as holy as Election Day. Let the dust settle. Learn why your side won or lost. It’s not a day for protest, let alone political violence (aka terrorism).
So, while accepting the results respectfully, let’s denounce any allies if they start agitating too quickly, and let’s denounce political violence comprehensively, consistently.
Similarly, I say to Diaspora Jews and Israel supporters worldwide: Israel today is the same Israel it was yesterday. And while it’s fair to put new employees on probation, it’s unfair to put our old-new nation – or your own country – on probation, making your loyalty subject to your preferred candidates winning.
Meanwhile, long before knowing who won yesterday’s election, I know what the next government must do to make us all winners.
Some problems are tamable “Herzl Street” challenges, which most common-sense Israelis on the street could solve. Others are feral, systemic “Balfour Street” problems – Gaza, the Palestinian conflict, the ultra-Orthodox draft, the cost of living, our deteriorating schools – requiring maximal skills, creativity, and power from our prime minister and his cabinet.
This Knesset could make a splash by, in its first week, addressing these “Herzl Street” headaches decisively.
Fixing the problems in Israeli society
First, the growing unhappiness of miluimnikim (reserve soldiers) and their families, who have done so much to save the country from evil.
Even while waiting for the next government to mobilize the ultra-Orthodox, minimize secular draft evasion, and recruit Israeli Arabs to National Service, a new Quality of Miluim Life Task Force should troubleshoot, addressing pressing problems.
It should be proactive, assessing where the system frustrates reservists and their families. And it should be reactive, responding to those falling between the cracks, from the units called up for a stint just short of the trigger to better benefits, to my friends who served countless days but couldn’t get compensation for their bookstore because it’s in their mother’s name. Just launching a conversation about anomalies, while providing ameliorative mechanisms, would boost morale even before the burden is shared more equitably.
Second, appoint a post-October 7 investigative commission with no politicians, just independent experts and revered, nonpartisan, public figures – immediately.
Third, help poor and lower-middle-class Israelis. Stop adding VAT – taxes – to water, gas, and electricity bills. Taxing those necessities hurts the poor disproportionately while undermining the state’s legitimacy. Taxing taxpayers buying state resources means that they’re penalized for buying their own property they have stakes in as citizens.
Fourth, in another long-overdue assault on the state’s double-dealing, subsidize more generously first-time home buyers who served in the army. Ninety-three percent of Israel’s land is state-owned. Its youngest and most responsible citizens should get a break when essentially buying their own land from their own state.
Fifth, imprison anyone who behaves criminally in Judea and Samaria, from violent Jews to provocative Palestinians.
Don’t just arrest armed Palestinian terrorists – but also the Palestinians guilty of 123 stone-throwing incidents, 46 attacks on Jewish shepherds, and seven ramming assaults, all in the last 30 days. Just because reporters ignore these crimes doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be policed.
And if many of the Jewish assailants live outside the territories, impose travel bans on any suspects.
Sixth, restore the Bennett-Lapid government’s effective strategy of cracking down while investing in Arab communities. That strategy cut the Israeli-Arab murder rate. It then jumped by 70%, fueled by the Netanyahu government's negligence.
Crime is cancerous. Beyond the horrific loss of life in the Arab community, these crime families responsible for most of the murders threaten us all.
Law and order spiral upward, elevating a society; crime and disorder spiral downward, destabilizing society.
Finally, in that spirit, create an elite force of commandos and prosecutors to squash the protection rackets harassing business owners and hurting consumers who absorb the high costs imposed on proprietors.
This elite force should apply social and political pressure, too, where possible. Bedouin village leaders, for example – while being incentivized constructively with new schools, relaxed building permits, and other quality-of-life initiatives – should understand that their communities will feel the pressure if the crimes continue.
If New York could crush the Italian mafia, Israel, too, can tame its mafias, protecting us all.
David Ben-Gurion resurrected the French phrase: “The difficult, we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer.” Israel’s mood would change dramatically – no matter who is prime minister – if this new Knesset started solving these pressing “Herzl Street” problems, letting the impossible “Balfour Street” problems take longer.
The writer is a distinguished scholar of North American history at McGill University and a senior research fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute. He is the author of nine books on presidential history and nine on modern Zionism, including To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream, as well as his latest ebook, The Essential Guide to the US-Israel Partnership: the 250th Anniversary Edition.