editorials
Political Fluidity in Israel
I srael’s recent deadly skirmishes with Islamic Jihad
— known as Operation Shield and Arrow — have
been driven by very real security concerns. At
the same time, the defense effort supported by
Iron Dome and the offensive pursuit of precision
targeting of terror leaders and facilities have
provided a meaningful political boost for Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Because of the rocket attacks on Israel, many of
the mass street protests against the government
and its planned judicial overhaul that have energized
the opposition were canceled, thereby providing a
reprieve for the prime minister. That was followed
by even more good news for Netanyahu when
new polling reflected voter trust in Netanyahu to
protect the country’s security, even as his personal
popularity has fallen.

Things looked very different just a couple of
weeks ago.

Early May polls indicated that if an election had
been held then, the right-wing governing coalition
would have lost its majority in the Knesset. The
polls predicted that Netanyahu’s Likud party would
fall from 34 to 24 seats and be replaced by former
Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s center-right National
Unity party as the country’s largest party, with
29 seats. Those polls projected that the current
opposition parties would win a combined 63 seats, a
majority, with Gantz as the likely choice to head the
government. The revival of Israel’s center-left, and
the growing popularity of the opposition, reflect the
impressive success of the orchestrated opposition
to Israel’s most extreme right-wing government
in its history, and alarm over the government’s
promised policies. That success was helped by the
impatient aggressiveness of right-wing leaders and
their overreach in rushing to enact legislation to
accomplish their goals all at once, rather than doing
so more patiently. Had they moved incrementally —
even if gradually toward their goals — the level of
opposition and concern would likely not have been
as intense.

At least as of now, Israel’s right-wing leaders have
failed to deliver on their promises. The vaunted
judicial “reforms” have not gone past a first vote in
the Knesset. Extremist National Security Minister
Itamar Ben-Gvir has been visible and vocal but has
largely been sidelined by Netanyahu in government
decisions. And the haredi Orthodox parties have
seen no progress in their coalition demands to
exempt their schools from teaching math, science
and English or their effort to exempt haredi men from
military service.

All of this will almost certainly come to a head in
the next couple of weeks as all eyes focus on the
Knesset’s budget vote at the end of this month. By
law, a failure to pass the budget would bring down
the Netanyahu government and force new elections.

That will not happen. With knowledge of the early
May polling results no one in the current majority
wants to risk new elections. Yet Ben-Gvir and haredi
leaders have threatened to use the budget vote to
gain leverage against Netanyahu. They will fail.

Netanyahu has decades of experience in the
blood sport of Israeli politics. He knows the game
better than anyone else and is a master of political
manipulation and orchestration. He will do what
it takes to remain in power. And he will drag his
coalition partners with him. ■
T here is nothing quite like Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s
Memorial Day. It is observed on the day before
Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, and is
marked by a profound level of reverence and respect
shown by the entire nation for the fallen soldiers of
the wars of Israel. The day is deeply emotional, and
its seriousness and solemnity are felt throughout the
country, at every age level.

While Yom Hazikaron is best known in the Diaspora
for its countrywide moments of silence while air raid
sirens are sounded and for the annual memorial
ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, similar
memorial ceremonies and services are held in every
city and cemetery throughout the country as Israelis
mourn and remember fallen family members, friends
and legendary national heroes.

The Israeli government expanded Yom Hazikaron’s
scope in 1980 to include victims of the pre-state
underground movements, the Mossad and the Prison
Guard Service. And in 1998, it added civilian terror
victims killed in Israel.

Last week, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs
and Combating Antisemitism announced that it was
forming a committee to study a recommendation to
expand the Yom Hazikaron observance to include
Diaspora Jews who were felled by antisemitic terror.

12 MAY 18, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Yom Hazikaron, 2015
The recommendation was made by the U.S.-based
Ruderman Family Foundation and the World Zionist
Organization as a means for the State of Israel to
mark, observe and act in solidarity with Jews around
the world.

Until now, terror attacks against Jews in the
Diaspora memorialized on an ad hoc basis. There is
no single date upon which our community remembers
the 2018 attack on the Tree of Life synagogue in
Pittsburgh, the murder of four people at the Hyper
Cacher (Kosher) market in Paris in 2015 and the
1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in
Buenos Aires. Nor is there any coordination beyond
whatever local observance is planned to remember
those victims and numerous others.

The proposed policy is a good one for two reasons:
First, it will provide a uniform date for world Jewry
and others to remember victims of antisemitism and
serve as a springboard for expanded programming
and engagement on the issue of antisemitism in our
communities. Second, it will provide an opportunity
to bring Jews of Israel and the Diaspora together in
marking the memories of those who were targeted
and fell simply because they were Jewish.

We share a common history and heritage with
our Israeli family. And just as we join with them
in celebration, it is appropriate that we also join
together to remember victims and to mourn.

We will wait to see what the Israeli government
decides and whether the idea will gain traction in the
Diaspora. From our perspective, however, anything
that brings our Israeli and Diaspora communities
closer together is a good thing. ■
Photo by Israeli Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit / CC BY-SA 3.0
We Are One in Mourning