“There’s them, and there’s us. Them: A strange combination of nationalist fanatics, an ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist leadership, corrupt, power-hungry people who breed those who will run over protesters. Less than 20% of the public. Us: All the rest who want to live in a normal Jewish-democratic state. There’s no need to build bridges between the groups. Only to break their stranglehold on the levers of government.”
The Oct. 7 massacre brought Israelis together. Most of us understood full well that we need to hurry up and heal the wounds created by the bitter struggle over judicial reform so that we can pool our resources together for the momentous task we now face.
But the far left, and certainly the hardcore of the permanent protest, does not share the sentiment. After a short lull at the beginning of the war, in which they too felt obliged to offer lip service to unity, their strategists, cheerleaders in the press, ringleaders and advertising wizards, were back at it.
Though much smaller in size, the demonstrations became wilder and more violent, pushing ever closer to violent insurrection. It felt like the war had only increased their desperation and sense of urgency in fighting Israel’s right-wing government.
In recent months, we’ve seen all this: The protesters flew paragliders over the private Caesarea residence of the Netanyahu family. Police found they had a military-grade aerial photograph of the vicinity, on which they had drawn IDF-style battle plan markings, detailing a strategy for storming the house. The house itself was circled with a dotted red line, the way IDF maps designate enemy targets.
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