By Alex Gordon in Haifa, Israel
The Chosen People don’t know how to elect a government. To elect the current government, Israelis went to the polls five times. These elections cost them approximately 15 billion shekels. In 2022, Israel’s budget was 573 billion shekels. October 27, 2026, election promises a new deadlock: the chances of electing a ruling coalition are slim. The reason: boycotts that prevent parties from joining forces. The proverb “divide and rule” (or “divide and conquer”) works well in the Israeli political arena.
The exact author and time of the first appearance of the phrase “divide and conquer” (in Latin—divide et impera) are unknown. It is quoted in Latin because it is considered a maxim of the Roman Senate, but the source is not specified. In French, it is “diviser pour régner,” and it has often been attributed to French King Louis XI (15th century). In the form “separa et impera,” it appears in a letter from the British philosopher Francis Bacon to King James I Stuart dated February 15, 1615. In English, the expression “divide and rule” first appeared in the work Meditations and Vowes (1605) by the English bishop, satirist, and moralist Joseph Hall.
In politics and sociology, “divide and conquer” is a strategy for gaining and maintaining power by breaking up a large concentration of power into groups that individually have less power. Most often, small groups are prevented from uniting and becoming more powerful, since it is usually more difficult to break up existing power structures. Effective use of this technique allows a small group to control those who, collectively, hold great power (or would hold great power if they were able to unite).
It is believed that Gaius Julius Caesar was one of the first to put this policy into practice, attempting to pit individual Germanic tribes against one another by enlisting some into his service and granting them privileges, while simultaneously neglecting others. The application of the “divide and conquer” principle played a very important role when India was part of the British Empire. The British used this strategy to gain control over a large part of India by subjugating its people—who were divided by religion, language, and caste—and establishing control over the small states of India one by one.
In these examples, there was an external factor that pitted peoples and countries against one another for its own gain. The factor dividing the Israelis, however, is not external but internal. There are heated debates among Israelis over who is right, but at the same time, all parties are contributing to the creation of a new political impasse—even those calling for unity while excluding those who governed the country on October 7, 2023, that is, the current governing coalition. Knesset elections are a very expensive undertaking, but Israelis are willing to pay enormous sums for the futile pursuit of determining who is right. The current coalition and the current opposition agree on only one thing: they do not wish to cooperate with one another and are jointly contributing to the creation of a political impasse. Boycotts serve the function of “divide,” while chaos serves the function of “rule.”
In Judaism, the idea of national and spiritual unity is considered one of the fundamental pillars of the Jewish people’s existence. The principle of “Kol Yisrael areivim ze ba-ze” (All Jews are responsible for one another) is the legal and ethical cornerstone of Judaism. According to the Talmud (Tractate Yoma), the Second Temple and Jerusalem were destroyed by the Romans not because of military weakness, but because of “Sinat chinam” (unprovoked hatred) among the various Jewish factions of that time. This period has remained in the collective memory as a major lesson in the catastrophic consequences of division. In the modern Jewish state, Jewish values have taken a back seat to the pursuit of power.
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Alex Gordon is professor emeritus of physics at the University of Haifa and at Oranim, the Academic College of Education, and the author of 12 books.