22 | NOVEMBER 17 • 2022 

OUR COMMUNITY

T

hough it appears that Israel will 
form a new government after five 
elections in four years, Israeli soci-
ety’s deep divide shows no sign of getting 
better anytime soon. While the divide 
exists on many levels and issues, Yossi 
Klein Halevi, Jewish thinker, 
award-winning journalist and 
bestselling author, believes, at 
its core, it is because Israelis 
deeply disagree on what kind 
of country they want.
“For Netanyahu supporters, 
the Nov. 1 election was about 
preserving Israel as a Jewish state. For 
Netanyahu opponents, it was about preserv-
ing Israel as a democratic state,
” he says.
Halevi, a senior fellow at the Shalom 
Hartman Institute in Israel, will explore 
Israel’s challenges as it approaches 75 years 
of statehood at 6:45 p.m. Monday, Nov. 21, 
at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield. The 
community program is free and aims to 
bring together Jews of different generations 
and backgrounds for learning and dialogue. 
Registration is requested.
A native New Yorker, Halevi moved to 
Israel in 1982 at the beginning of the First 
Lebanon War. He remembers it as a time 
of deep division that deepened as Israel 
stayed in Lebanon for 22 years. But now, 
rather than war and peace, as important as 
they are, he says the divide is about the very 
future of the country and how it relates to 
its citizens, fellow Jews and the world. 
“Israel at 75 still isn’t confident about its 
identity as a Jewish and democratic state,
” 
Halevi explains. “We haven’t convinced 
ourselves that these two identities, which 
our Declaration of Independence defines 
as foundational, can work together. The 
real divide in this election is between those 
who see democracy as a system of values 
and commitments, and those who see it as 
a simple situation of majority rule without 
much concern for minority rights.
”

Halevi says Itamar Ben-Gvir, head of the 
far-right Jewish Strength Party and admirer 
of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane who was 
barred from serving in the Israeli Knesset 
by anti-racist legislation, advocated for 
a non-democratic, right-wing religious 
Jewish state. His party may end up with 14 
seats in the 120-seat Knesset and would be 
a significant component of a Netanyahu 
government. (Halevi himself was a Kahane-
connected activist as a younger man, 
chronicled in his 2014 book, Memoirs 
of a Jewish Extremist: The Story of a 
Transformation.)
“What was unthinkable until this 
election — that the far right would 
become a mainstream party — has 
happened,
” Halevi says, “but, more 
deeply, I think that this time Israelis 
voted from a place of fear — most of 
all, fear of the rival camp.
” 
This fear has led to demonization of 
those with opposing views, something 
not unlike our own uncivil discourse in 
America. Halevi, who is in the anti-
Netanyahu camp, feels it.
“Netanyahu succeeded in convinc-
ing large numbers of Israelis that ‘the 
left’ — his term for his opponents, 
who are largely centrist, not leftists — 
is virtually anti-Zionist. That denial 
of the Zionist credentials and Israeli 
patriotism of Netanyahu opponents is 
one of the tragic consequences of these 
elections that will be with us, I fear, for 
a long time to come,
” he said.
He also sees a negative impact on rela-
tions with segments of the American Jewish 
community and the U.S. government. 
“If far-right politicians become part of a 
governing coalition, I fear that we will see 
large parts of the Jewish community boy-
cott those ministers. And it will, of course, 
increase the alienation of some young Jews 
from Israel. As for the American govern-
ment, I imagine that, formally at least, the 

message will be: We respect the right of the 
Israeli people to choose their democratically 
elected leaders. But the tensions that will 
arise in the relationship will quickly become 
evident.
”
Don’t come to this event simply expecting 
an analysis of election results and a primer 
on how Israel forms a government. Halevi 
will address and dialogue about the charac-
ter of that government and Israeli society.
“His insights and reflections about what 

the results tell us about the future of the 
State of Israel are most important,
” says 
Rebecca Starr of Southfield, director of 
regional programs for the Shalom Hartman 
Institute of North America. “This specific 
moment in history cannot be considered 
without taking Israel’s last 75 years into 
account and understanding this past is the 
best way to imagine what the next 75 years 
holds.
” 

Israeli election shows Israelis divided on preferred vision of the future.
Divided We Stand?

Yossi Klein 
Halevi

DON COHEN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

BY RACHELGR713

“What Israel’s Election 
Tells Us About the State 
of the State at 75”
Monday, Nov. 21, 2022
6:45-8:15 p.m.
Temple Israel
5725 Walnut Lake Road 
West Bloomfield
Dessert reception to follow

To register, and for more informa-
tion, visit: shalomhartman.org/
Israel75Detroit

This program is presented in part-
nership with Temple Israel, with 
support from the JCRC/AJC, JCC 
(JLearn, Seminars for Adult Jewish 
Enrichment) and Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit.

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