Israel's election highlights an identity crisis

It's been less than 48 hours since national election voting stations across Israel have closed. All ballots have been collected. As of this writing, some 95 percent of votes have been counted. 

Although the dust and the political dirt-clouds from this most recent election season have barely settled, we can nonetheless begin to see, for perhaps the first time (?), what this election was really all about. It certainly wasn't about Left vs Right or the efficacy of a two-state solution--or even, at some level, about Netanyahu vs Gantz.  


Yes, on the surface, we were voting for either a politically Right-leaning Benjamin Netanyahu or for a politically Center-Left Benny Gantz. But some of today's post-election rhetoric suggest that this election was actually about something completely different (here).

It seems that in this election, Israelis were actually voting either to make Israel a Liberal, Progressive, secular and anti-religion modern 'Democracy'--or, to make Israel 'more Jewish'.

The choice of Netanyanhu or Gantz for Prime Minister was the surface debate. It's what we saw most of the time. It's what dominated our three-month-long campaign news cycle. But the underlying reality beneath that surface involved a far different theme, one that appeared not as consciously rational or intellectual, but as mean-spirited political slander--the kind of near-hate-speech we occasionally experience and then quickly ignore as simply too raw, too impolite to think about.

This election wasn't a political election. Apparently, it was a religious election. 

The question which Israel's media framed for Israel was both clear and biased, if not downright bigoted. This question was, what kind of Israel do you want to live in?

This question wasn't framed as a debate. It was framed by religion-denouncing politicians who went to the gutter to say/ask, 'hey Israelis, do you want to live in an Israel that's Liberal, secular Progressive and free like everybody else in the West? Or, do you want to live in an Israel that's run by religious 'extremists and 'messianics' who will (in essence) take away your freedoms and ram their god-stuff down your throats? 

 Well, Israel has voted. Israelis have made their choice. With their votes, they've said--loudly and clearly--we aren't sure what we want.

By voting for what amounts to a stalemate, voters have basically split their vote between Netanyahu (I'll give you a Jewish, Zionist state that will include religious factions) and Gantz (I'll lead you to a secular state that will deliberately exclude the religious) (here). 

Israeli voters have used the voting booth to say, 'look, we like our Judaism. We really do. But we love the supposed freedom and unrestraint we see everybody else in the West has'. 

Israelis, in essence, voted for both religion and the secular. But it seems they're not going to get both. They could get instead a secular government many of whose leaders and members appear to hate most things religious. 

This stalemate leaves Israel with a uniquely Jewish national identity crisis. The Israeli craving to 'be just like everybody else' creates a political mess. It leaves Israel with no definitive choice for Prime Minister--and a strong post-election anti-religious atmosphere that threatens to linger above us like a poisonous cloud, capable of descending upon us with little advance notice.  

The unwanted truth is, our religion teaches us we are destined to be a 'kingdom of priests'. But in these days preceding our Final Redemption, Israelis have not chosen to embrace their Destiny. They've chosen instead to encourage (perhaps without intention) to boost the morale and power of those who want to remove our religion entirely from the marketplace--and from our lives. 

This curiously anti-religious election result leaves us with a quandary: who are we? Are we to be the world's only truly 'Jewish' state, or are we to become just another non-Jewish nation?

Apparently, Israel's voters don't know.

Yet this inconclusive election has had one conclusive result. It has empowered those Jews among us who spit on our religion--in public. It has emboldened Jews among us who appear to hate our G-d, and appear to want us to hate Him, too.

This is not a good thing. If our long and bloody history has taught us anything, it's that denouncing our Faith never leads to anything good for the Jewish people. 

Can we pull ourselves out of this crisis?  Can we show our G-d that we stand steadfast for Him--or will we slip further into crisis?

 Stay tuned. This ugly drama has only just begun.