ROSH PINA, Israel — I woke early yesterday morning in Tel Aviv to swim in the Mediterranean before dawn.
There were others on the beach — some enjoying a dip before the heat of the late summer day, others ending a night of revelry. Among the latter were two couples — rather, one couple and one pair.
On one beach chair, a woman rested her head in her lover’s lap as the sun rose. On two other chairs, young religious students contemplated the waves.
Both pairs had stayed up all night. The lovers had exhausted their passions with one another. The students had, I imagined, contemplated the mysteries of the Torah all night long. These are two different kinds of love, and two different kinds of pleasure. But they coexist, and they both cultivate a sense of the beauty of the world, and they quietly reinforce each other, for the path to loving another human being is loving the spark of divinity within them.
I came to Israel partly because I wanted to learn more about the country’s political divisions. And I have certainly learned a great deal in the few days I have been here.
On Thursday evening, I attended a large demonstration by the supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reforms. They are not usually heard, or seen, because like conservatives in the U.S., they tend not to live in dense urban areas, and they often have other things to do.
Two major themes emerged from their rally.
First, Netanyahu’s supporters are united in their rejection of the tactic adopted by his opponents of encouraging military reservists not to show up for duty as a form of protest. The rally showed a video of soldiers taking their oaths, set against the prideful statements of the activists. Using the military to pressure the government, and to threaten national security, is a profoundly undemocratic and dangerous act.
Second, Netanyahu’s supporters feel they are disenfranchised by the Supreme Court, which is dominated by the left and frequently overturns the laws enacted by the conservative legislature. One man held a mock ballot box, with one side cut away to reveal a paper shredder inside, tearing up ballots. On the side was written: “The Supreme Court will not shred out votes.”
There is a sense that the Court’s legitimacy is at stake if the status quo continues.
Still, the mood was jovial. One set of protesters dressed as bananas and tossed fake bananas into the air while shouting, “Banana Republic!”
And then, of course, there were the flags — a sea of blue and white banners. Some brought their own; if you needed one, there were plenty to go around. It is remarkable that both sides in the fight have adopted that symbol of patriotism. They still love their country, even if they don’t always like each other.
The brilliant writer David Hazony noted earlier this year that one elegant way the current crisis could end would be for Israeli leaders to sit down and write a formal constitution, which the country does not have. That would be a best-case scenario.
But the best-case scenario almost never happens. More likely, Israel will continue to improvise its constitution after this. What must be avoided is an escalation — beyond reservists, for example, to the draft itself.
Israel’s greatest resource — beyond its military, beyond its high-tech sector, even beyond its religious heritage — is the love that remains at the core of Israeli life.
Over the decades, as the religious population has grown and become more insular, and the secular population has become jealous of its own privileges, Israelis have forgotten, perhaps, that they share the same love.
You may have to wake up at dawn, or stay up all night, to see it. But it is still there.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
