By all intent and purposes, you would think that the menace continuing in the form of Hamas would be the prime existential threat to Israel. A torrid war has been raging for some two years to neutralize them and return the hostages that they have brutally taken and treated.
But you would be wrong.
The greatest threat to the Jewish state is internal unrest, so significant, that it could shatter Israeli society into fragments, of which, no one could put the pieces back together.
Witness the protests of last March when Netanyahu put a major effort into dismissing Shin Bet chief Ronan Bar, along with AG Gali Bharav. Or perhaps the protest over the judicial overhaul legislation.
Tel Aviv has been filled with protestors unhappy with the decision to continue the war in Gaza, rather than negotiating a hostage release with a cease fire.
And what about the Haredi community fighting against conscription into the IDF?
Additionally, the UN and European leaders declaring that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a “genocide”—stoking anti-Semitic hatred and threatening Jews all around the world.
The unrest has been amplified by world leaders telling Israel to “back down” in Gaza, or to quickly formulate the proverbial “Two State Solution.”
Meanwhile, many IDF reservists have expressed “doubts” about Israel’s objectives in Gaza itself.
The Israeli state was created after WWII as a haven for Jews who had been persecuted and banished from scores of countries, and who had survived the terrors of the Holocaust. The idea was that a Jewish state would insulate Jews from their persecutors whilst providing fertile ground for the preservation and growth of Jewish culture.
But like all things, people have differences and see things differently.
All societies, especially democratic ones, eventually experience turmoil of some sort. An obvious extreme example is the American Civil War, which many historians said produced 700,000 casualties.
It is not far fetched to see some kind of internal civil conflict in Israel seeing how the Left and the Right simply cannot agree.
As Netanyahu and the Right forge ahead with their plan for total annihilation of Hamas, the Left maintains the war has only one objective: keeping Netanyahu in power.
No one would argue that Hamas, et al, are a threat, if not to the very existence of Israel, at least to its peace. However, the chasm in Israeli society itself grows by the moment.
Israel has survived eight wars as a country surrounded by enemies. Now it must survive a bigger foe: itself.
The way forward, as obvious as it sounds, is for Israelis to remember why there is an Israel, and why they are in it.
Moreover, Hamas is simply just one issue; there is also Iran, the Houthis and, seemingly, a plethora of governments making the Jewish state miserable.
Every country will do what is in its best interests, and certainly defending itself is one of them. But in the war of international public relations, Israel has taken a torpedo as the press looks under every rock to question its motives.
It is hard to assess exactly what things will look like when the dust settles.
A disturbing trend is the number of Jews leaving Israel.
It is estimated that there has been a 59% increase in emigration since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack. Indeed, the month of the attack alone saw 12,300 Jews leave.
Did they leave because of the threat of terrorism and physical danger, or because they had decided that the Israeli experiment was becoming a failure.
Jews and Jewish culture are resilient, and no one is suggesting that the nation will disappear.
But like all nations, Israel must look within and find a way to unite as one.
Jews in Israel—and around the world—are depending on it.
