By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Venezuelan documentary film maker Jonatan Jakubowicz made the 108-minute Soul of a Nation with a decided point of view. He had witnessed the transformation of Venezuela from a democracy to an authoritarian state in league with narco-terrorists. The Jewish Jakubowicz feared that polarization in Israel similarly might lead to that country’s dissolution.
He and a team flew to Israel in 2023, several months before the October 7th massacre and mass hostage taking led by Hamas and other terrorist organizations from Gaza. Interviews and archival footage were collected prior to the day that changed everything for left-wing and right-wing Israelis alike. Approximately 1,200 of their countrymen were slaughtered, and an estimated 250 Israelis were taken hostage.
Faced with the task of determining the origins of the greatest tragedy to befall Jews since the Holocaust, Jakubowicz’s documentary roved from Ariel Sharon’s dismantling of Jewish settlements in Gaza; the Gazan electorate’s choice of Hamas over rival Fatah to govern the 25-mile long coastal enclave; the subsequent murder of Fatah supporters by Hamas; and in Israel, the ascendancy of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party fueled by Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews who resented previous political domination of Israel by Ashkenazi Jews.
Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews, generally speaking, are darker skinned than Ashkenazi Jews, so the polarization to some degree had not only cultural but racial overtones, according to the documentary.
When several charges of corruption were brought against Netanyahu, Israel’s liberal parties refused to join his governing coalition in 2022. This forced Netanyahu to turn not only to traditional right-wing allies, but also to more extreme right wingers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, whom he made Minister of National Security, and Bezalel Smotrich, whom he appointed as Justice Minister.
When Netanyahu and such allies proposed giving the Knesset the power to appoint Supreme Court justices, who currently have the power to declare Knesset-initiated laws unconstitutional, secular Jews became alarmed. The Knesset is equivalent to two branches of two government branches in the United States — the legislative and the executive. If the court were to come under the Knesset, then one body, in essence, would rule Israel without the division of power that America’s Founding Fathers built into the U.S. Constitution.
Political parties representing the Haredim, nicknamed “ultra-Orthodox” in the media, are part of Netanyahu’s coalition. Secular women protested that in exchange for these Orthodox parties’ votes–and the continuation of Netanyahu’s coalition–restrictive dress codes might be adopted as well as other impingements on women’s rights. They were a significant presence in the mass protests that filled the streets in Israel prior to October 7th.
Israel Defense Force reservists threatened not to report for military duty if the judicial restructuring bill was adopted. Labor unions declared a general strike. Israel’s President Isaac Herzog made a speech warning that civil war was a distinct possibility.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas fighters trained for an invasion of Southern Israel, centered on the communities just east of the Gaza border with Israel including San Diego’s sister municipality of Sha’ar HaNegev. Hamas prepared for war openly, but the government of Israel seemed too preoccupied to pay attention — with disastrous consequences.
Israel’s diplomats were focused on the proposed normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, the most influential country in the Sunni Muslim world. Israel’s military was more concerned with the restive West Bank (Judea and Samaria) then with Gaza.
Netanyahu spoke of post-normalization cooperation between Israel and most of the Muslim world. Hamas would be left with Iran and such proxies as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, but diplomatically, many other countries stretching from Kuwait to Indonesia would take a more tolerant view of Israel, Netanyahu forecasted.
So, Israel’s domestic polarization and the prospect of a negotiated settlement between Israel and Saudi Arabia prompted Hamas to pull the trigger on invading southern Israel. This led at first to expressions of official sympathy for Israel from countries around the world. Yet, antisemites around the world expressed sympathy for Hamas, saying the massacre was justifiable.
Israel responded militarily. As the war wore on and images of Gaza’s destruction played on worldwide media, sympathy for Israel dissipated. Some western nations, traditionally Israel’s allies, announced they would vote in the United Nations General Assembly to recognize Palestine as a fellow nation.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.
“When Netanyahu and such allies proposed giving the Knesset the power to appoint Supreme Court justices, who currently have the power to declare Knesset-initiated laws unconstitutional, secular Jews became alarmed.”
How can the Supreme Court declare Knesset-initiated laws unconstitutional when Israel does not have a constitution?
Its a real conundrum
To stop short of decimating Hamas is suicidal.
Worry about the world popularity contest after Hamas is gone.