The national wakeup process

People are realizing that the pre Oct. 6th protest movement was not really about judicial reform and the protest movement today is not really about saving the hostages.

Avi Abelow | Sept 5, 2024

Avi Abelow   Courtesy

We are navigating through a profound moment of pain and change, but despite the immense sadness and the attempts by some to sow division among us, the reality today is markedly different and more promising than in the days just before and after October 7th.

The tragic events of October 7th did indeed shatter us, but they also awakened many to a crucial understanding that too many Jews and Israelis have ignored for decades, that we are up against a genocidal enemy called the “palestinian national identity”.

This realization has clarified for many that there is no distinction between combatants in Gaza and non-combatants, as they both took part in the Oct. 7th massacre, rapings and kidnappings, and that there is no difference between those in Gaza and those in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, when it comes to the threat they pose. This clarity is a significant shift from the pre-October 7th period when divisive rhetoric and political maneuvering obscured the true nature of the existential threats facing us from an entity that too many people were told to think of as a “pragmatic peace partner”.

On October 6th, Israel was mired in division, with a small elite pushing protests against judicial reforms. This was not merely a debate about the judiciary; it was a struggle over political power. The protests were manipulated to maintain the power of a select few leftist ideologues over the democratically elected government. The divide was clear, with those protesting the judicial reforms often portraying themselves as the protectors of democracy, while others saw them as undermining necessary changes to strengthen Israeli democracy.

In contrast, today’s Israel is awakening to the reality of the threats we face and the necessary steps to confront them. The trauma of October 7th has led many to see the dangers of the terrorism in the name of the “palestinian national movement” more clearly, transcending previous political and ideological divides. The collective consciousness is shifting towards a more unified stance on security and defense, and there is a growing recognition of the need to address the existential threats we face more effectively.

Looking back, the period following the Yom Kippur War was marked by a dangerous naivety, exemplified by the Oslo Accords, which whitewashed Yasser Arafat and his PLO terrorists. This era saw a tragic miscalculation by leaders who, blinded by their vision of peace, ceded land, guns and power to those who would only use them to further terror against us. The leftist media and judiciary of the time stifled dissenting voices, labeling critics as “enemies of peace” and suppressing legitimate concerns about the dangers posed by these concessions.

The early 2000s presented another grim chapter with the Gaza disengagement, where 10,000 Jews were expelled from Gaza and 21 Jewish communities were destroyed in Gaza. Again, dissenting voices were marginalized, and the right-wing perspective was effectively silenced. The media’s one-sided narrative contributed to a dangerous misapprehension of the disengagement’s impact, which only led to increased terror and instability.

Fast forward to today, and there is a noticeable shift. Although the political left still holds considerable sway in most establishment and government media and institutional sectors, there is now a more robust presence of right-wing and religious voices in the media landscape. This shift is crucial as it provides a more balanced perspective on the issues facing Israel to the Israeli public.

Since October 7th, there is a growing recognition of how the justice system has been manipulated to prioritize the rights of terrorists over the security of law-abiding Israeli citizens. The right-wing media outlets have played a significant role in exposing these issues, and many who once protested against judicial reforms are now re-evaluating their positions and admitting their mistakes in participating in the anti-judicial reform protests.

The protests of October 6th were not just about the judiciary; they were part of a broader struggle against the democratization of Israeli society, which includes the growing population of religious and right-wing Jews in Israel. The protests underscored a deeper agenda to maintain the dominance of the ideological left’s political and ideological power over Israeli government policymaking, in squashing the influence of the religious, right-wing public, despite the basic rules of democracy and a democratic political system.

Many people might no longer remember, but the Oct. 6th protests were not just against the judicial reform, but also against the right of Jews in Israel to celebrate the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah in the public sphere in Tel Aviv. So much hatred was spread by the media and the justice system in forbidding Jewish service in the public square. Many were outraged by this outright hypocrisy, as the municipality of Tel Aviv allows Muslims to pray in public, with segregated areas, in the Charles Clore park every year in Tel Aviv, historically called the First Hebrew City, yet the municipality and the courts were forbidding Jews that same right in that same city.

Now, even after the announcement of the murder of the 6 Israeli captives in Gaza blaming their deaths on Netanyahu and the religious, right-wing government he leads, despite the attempts to reignite division in society, with a resurgence of public protests in the name of “saving the captives in Gaza”, there is a significant shift away from the previous pre-Oct. 7th leftist dominance.

The failed strike attempts by the Histadrut Labor Union on September 2nd, is a powerful sign of the growing rejection of the political left’s influence, and signifies a positive sign of change. Even with the failed strike attempt, the justice system exposed its political agenda to the public. Labor strikes are only allowed if they are regarding worker’s rights. This strike is totally political, anti-government, and it was deemed political by the courts. However, the court did not order the labor union to end the strike immediately or punish the labor union or the labor union bosses for calling for an illegal strike. No, the judges ruled only that the labor union boss has to end the illegal strike earlier than planned. (On the positive side, not stop;ping the strike until 2:30 pm showed what a failure it was – many municipalities, regional councils and workplaces were business as usual).

With each day, more of the Israeli public are waking up to the ideological agenda of the justice system and the media. More people are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of leftist political manipulation via the courts and the media. Even more importantly, since Oct. 7th, more are internalizing the necessity for robust security measures to protect Israeli citizens, measures that the justice system and media have systematically tried to stop for decades.

More and more Israelis have stopped viewing the demoralizing TV channels 11, 12 and 13 run by the ideological left, and instead are tuning in to the more patriotic and proudly Jewish channel 14, in order to receive a much better understanding of the reality of the war, the hostage issue and the overall newscycle.

The existence of the State of Israel is, in itself, a miracle. Surviving decades of wars and terrorism despite being surrounded by an enemy population in the billions, while also growing in Jewish character despite the efforts of a predominantly socialist, secular Labor Zionist movement that tried to minimize the Jewish character of the State of Israel. Both of these miracles are a testament to the resilience of the Jewish people connected to our ancestral identity. The recent changes in Israeli society reflect a breaking free from the previous ideological constraints and a more genuine engagement with the realities we face.

And that is exactly what the divisive protest movement is all about. As a Israeli leftist influencer named Yossi Melman recently tweeted his real feelingns on X “The protests are not just about the captives or Hamas, they are about the future of the character of the country. Will the country be a Western liberal country with democratic modern values or will it be a country like Iran. Israel is experiencing a battle of civilizations and internal cultures. That is the whole story. The hostages are just the trigger”.

It is important that people internalize this context as we see and hear about the growing voices and protests of division once more. The pre Oct. 6th protest movement was not really about judicial reform and the protest movement today is not really about saving the hostages.

Thankfully, the Jewish people in the Jewish state of Israel today are not in the same place that we were on October 6th and October 7th. Even though we are still in the middle of a war with lots of losses, and we are still living with the reality of captives in Gaza, the wakeup process we are going through is leading us toward a stronger, more unified Israel. Though hard to internlize for many, this wakeup process is positioning the nation of Israel to be in a better position than we have been in decades, better connected to reality, and disconnected from the political left’s agenda driven media and justice system. This renewed awareness and unity will guide us toward overcoming the challenges ahead.