APRIL 20 • 2023 | 9

agree upon the majority of 
issues. One of our biggest 
problems is we are held 
hostage by leaders who create 
a culture of catchy, divisive 
and power-driven discourse. 

HOPE AND DESPAIR
Am I hopeful? Of course, I 
am. Is this the first time our 
society is in danger? Hell no. 
We fought with one another 
for thousands of years, and 
have been able to overcome 
and establish our own state. 
We are the “start-up nation.” 
We will figure this out. 
But will we? And if we will, 
would it be another status 
quo that will hold for several 
years, hiding our deeper 
wounds? What will be here 
in 20 or 30 years? What will 
Israel look like when my 
children Ella and Gili have 
their own families? 
From far away, living in 
Detroit, there is something 
very hopeful in seeing the 
passion people have for the 
state of Israel. In the past 
three months, we have seen 
more Israeli flags in the street 
than ever before. Patriotism 
has been expanded to a 
wider lens and is possessed 
by diverse (and opposing) 
communities. 
At times, this is very 
exciting and gives me much 
hope! But unlike Daniel 
Gordis, who wrote the article 
“What you just witnessed was 
one of the greatest weeks in 
Israel’s history” — We don’t 
feel so great. 
Many of those going to 
protest and waving the flag 
are feeling that our nation 
is declining to a place of no 
return. If my father, who 
has always been our family’s 
Zionist guiding star, who 

fought as a paratrooper in the 
Six-Day War and Yom Kippur 
War, who was a shaliach and 
served the Jewish people for 
his entire career in the Jewish 
Agency, speaks today mostly 
words of despair — I am 
concerned. I am scared. Very 
confused. 

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 
AND ANARCHY
One specific group of people 
has been in the headlines 
more than others: Reserves 
Air Force Pilots (just like me).
In several different 
occasions, some Air Force 
pilots claimed they will not 
come to serve if the judicial 
reform passes as planned. 
Some have accused them 
of being anarchists and some 
call them heroes. This is not 
to be taken lightly. Refusing 
to serve has been a taboo in 
Israel, and the IDF usually 
remains outside of any civil 
or political discussion. 
This widespread discussion 
between Air Force pilots just 
tells you how serious this 
situation is. Some political 
leaders and thought leaders 
quickly claim that these pilots 
are doing this as a political 
act, using their power to 
overturn the elections, 
creating a dangerous situation 
where a soldier can decide 
not to follow orders based on 
his/her political point of view. 
As a reserves pilot myself, 
that is completely misleading. 
The only reason these 
pilots are saying they will not 
come to serve is that they 
are genuinely afraid that the 
orders they might get come 
from a government that is 
not functioning anymore as 
a true democracy, with the 
right checks and balances to 

ensure their orders are legal 
and moral. That is the red 
line those pilots draw — and 
that is completely legitimate 
disobedience and not anarchy 
like some would prefer to 
color it.

JEWISH AMERICA
Naturally, and from a caring 
attitude, American Jews ask 
us: “What can we do?” “What 
is our role in all of this?” 
The usual answer is 
choosing between supporting 
Israel no matter what or that 
it is OK, even important, to 
criticize. Those two options 
are actually more of the same. 
They represent somewhat of a 
passive or reactive approach. 
Israel does something, and 
we react to it. I think this 
community can allow itself to 
take a more active role. 
By saying active, I do not 
imply being directly involved 
in each political decision 
Israel has to make. 
Activism can be having a 
place at the table in a broader 
conversation — one that 
looks on into the future and 
helps define the vision for 
Israel and ways to achieve 
it. It’s not a privilege to have 
a seat at the table. We need 
you. We need our people 
from close and from afar to 
give us perspective and share 
the wisdom of the Jewish 
people, in a way that will 
revive Zionism and help us 
extract the potential of our 
tiny country to be the best it 
can be. 

Albert Einstein once said, 
“In the middle of difficulty 
lies opportunity.”
Let’s take it! 

Yiftah Leket is the community shaliach 

from Israel and works for the Jewish 

Federation of Metro Detroit.

suffer such a fate. 
However, when one wants to 
spread fear and hate, it doesn’t 
matter so long as the image 
serves the purpose to dog 
whistle constituents. 
Fear is a primal reaction to 
survival and to preserving the 
self/group/community. Hate 
is what comes out of the fear, 
directed toward the perceived 
threat. Humankind’s worst 
leaders have used and continue 
to stoke fear, directing hate 
toward an easy-to-scapegoat 
target. It is all too often used 
to rile up support of the mis-
informed and those in our 
society whose position and 
safety feel threatened in some 
way. The results are catastroph-
ic. Even since the Holocaust, 
genocide has been happening 
time and time again.
I believe that hate is very easy 
to evoke. It needs almost no 
effort. Though it takes emotion-
al energy, that energy is usually 
directed not toward the self but 
toward the other, the perceived 
reason of the threat. Love, on 
the other hand, is much harder 
to evoke since it requires con-
stant emotional and mental 
work. To be successful, you 
would need to allow yourself to 
empathize with the “other” — 
those who do not look like you, 
behave like you, believe like you 
… after all, we are all humans. 
Whether you believe that we 
were created by one Creator or 
if you simply believe in what we 
call humanity, we are still here 
together, part of this one won-
derful world. 
Let’s choose love and work 
toward it! 

Avishay Hayut is one of the 

co-authors of: “The Ones Who 

Remember: Second Generation Voices 

of the Holocaust” published by City 

Press. He lives in Ann Arbor.

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