On the Eve of the Jewish New Year, Israel is entering a new lockdown due to the increasing numbers of positive diagnosed cases of Covid-19. In few months Israel reached 12% positive cases out of the daily tests for Corona. We are the first country among the western developed countries that declared a second lockdown since March 2020.
In the beginning of May the numbers were small. Less than 100 positive cases a day and a victory over the plague has been declared. “Go out and have fun” said Benjamin Netanyahu, our Prime Minister in his daily T.V. announcement to the people of Israel. And indeed, we did.
It took less than a month to realize that the Corona is still with us and spreading quickly. What to do now ? Who is in charge ?
When the virus entered our lives somewhere in February, Israel was on the verge of third elections in less than two years. The governing system was in stagnation, incitement and mistrust were everywhere.
Ego and power games led the parliament to somehow create a ‘unity’ government in-order to fight the plague. Forget unity. The ego and power battles got worse and the people of Israel lost faith in the leadership. Despair, 20% unemployment, domestic violence, closed schools, contradicting instructions every day. Politics dictates the management, or should I say, fail of management of the Corona.
Israel is in total chaos these days. Very sad situation for a country that is known for its innovation, creativity, and resilience. In-order to understand this crisis, one needs to understand the structure of the Israeli society.
Our very beloved president, Reuben Rivlin, once said that the Israeli society is divided to four tribes that, instead of embracing each other, split Israel to segments who fight each other for political power, benefits, and recognition.
The four segments are : (9,250,000 Israeli citizens)
• Religious Jewish people. (around 22%)
• Secular Jewish People. (around 45%)
• Arabs (Muslims and Christians).(21%)
• Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) Jewish (12%)
I could write a whole book about the structure of the Israeli society and what are the reasons for such a split between these four segments today. However, since I am trying to portray a simple insight to this complexity, I will try to be short and leave some aspects to further posts…
One of the major problems in the definition of Israel as a state is the fact that it was declared as a ‘Jewish’ state and a democracy. To remind you, the Independence declaration took place in 1948, just after the Holocaust in Europe. It was very important for the leadership in Israel to grant a ‘safe-haven’ to Jewish people wherever they come from. Israeli citizenship is automatically given in the Airport to anyone who shows documents proving their Jewish religion affiliation. Being born to a Jewish woman makes the child Jewish. The ‘Law of Return’ means that if your grandmother was Jewish, you become an Israeli citizen with all the rights, even if you practice Christianity.
There is no separation between state and religion in Israel. Marital status is only recognized when being a religious ceremony. This creates lots of problems for young liberal couples and you hardly find inter-marriages in Israel.
Israel has a parliamentary system. We vote every four years for a party, not a person. The person who leads the winning party, needs to form a coalition of at least 61 seats (out of the 120 seats in the parliament), and then he will be the Prime minister. The name of the Israeli parliament is “Knesset” which means assembly. This is to remind us of the legal body that existed in the Second Temple period, 2000 years ago, known as “Knesset Gedolah” – big assembly. You would expect that the size of the parties and the numbers of seats (mandates) they have in the parliament, reflects the size of the segment they represent. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The religious Jewish people vote only what their Rabbis tell them to vote and they all vote for the religious parties. 100% votes on election day. The secular Jewish people however, split their voices among several parties according to their ideology, and the average rate of voter is 56%. Historically, all coalitions (except one at 2003) in Israel had to rely on the religious parties. The agenda of the religious parties is to receive funds to their religious institutions, many of which do not teach English, Math and science. They also managed to pass laws which exempts their young boys and girls from the mandatory service in the Israeli army.
On the other end of the social spectrum, there are Israelis who believe Israel should be like all nations, a democracy for all its citizens. The party in power since 1977, called ‘Likud’ (unity), is mostly representing Jewish people who came from Arab countries. This segment in the population is generally called ‘Sephardic’ Jews. They believe in power, are used to corruption in the leadership and mostly hate the Arabs.
Over the years the segregation between these segments grew and caused a situation where there was no conclusive winning majority in our last three election. The Covid 19 crisis, only brought to extreme the diversity in the society Each group blamed another group for not keeping the rules of social distancing and hygiene. The summer is the big weddings season in the Arab community and the police was pretty helpless when it came to enforce the rules. The Ultra-orthodox Jewish communities live in very dense and poor neighborhoods with the average of 9 children to a family. All of that brought Israel in September to a new Pandemic outbreak.
We are divided and the politicians are fighting among themselves. Only days will tell how Israel will emerge from these challenging times.
On the eve of ‘Yom Kippur’ – Day of Atonement, it is time to re-think where we are heading to as a nation. As people. To embrace, yet again, the famous saying: “All Israel are responsible for each other” "Kol Israel Haverim"
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