Forget Iran. Forget Hizballah. Forget Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Brigade, rogue terrorists and anyone else.
Forget Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the rest of the Arab world.
Forget 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973. Forget Lebanons I and II. Forget the Intifadas. Forget Cast Lead
It started with protesting. The yelling, marching and banner waving didn’t seem threatening. When the protest became violent during the disengagement four years ago we chalked it up to the pain of removing Jews from their homes and prayed that it would subside when the process finished.
It didn’t. In September 2008 the New York Times ran an article about settlers turning against the IDF and planting bombs near the residences of liberal activists. About a month ago the JTA ran a series on Settler violence against Israeli forces, reporting that the trend is only growing, that the “Price Tag” strategy of extremist settlers, formulated in response to the increasing threat to their homes, is itself gaining popularity and posing a mounting challenge to Israeli forces.
Then reports emerged several weeks ago that a group of ultra-Orthodox, or haredim, were staging protests at a Jerusalem parking lot that is open on Shabbat. The protests continued week after week. Today the JTA has reported that members of that same group “mobbed Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and threw stones at his car.”
This is not a diatribe against either settlers or haredim. Neither should be condemned as a group and both have elements constructive to Israeli society but the extremist elements within both pose a greater threat to Israel’s national security than any of the external destructive threats harped on so much by the media both here and in Israel.
The state has faced external enemies before and defeated them. They’ve come back and Israel has felled them again. Those enemies won’t need to work hard, however, if elements within Israel’s society do the job for them; that’s what’s happening now.
Make no mistake: the external threats are serious and Israel needs to come to terms with them but an Israel coming apart at the seams with its own citizens attacking government officials stands no chance of surviving as a viable entity, especially in such a percarious international position.
Israelis need not and should not have the same opinions. Dissent is a cornerstone of democracy and when the national conversation dies so will the free institutions of the state. Internal violence, however, cannot be tolerated, not only because it is morally reprehensible but also because it threatens the survival of the state where these people live their lives and express their beliefs. The Jewish state is not yet so secure as to tolerate such internal discord.
To paraphrase Ben Franklin, Israelis must all hang together or they will all hang separately.
