Israel’s schizophrenia

Has the country’s illness passed the pathological threshold or can it still be treated?

Israelis have been absorbed in two heated debates of late: one is whether the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was a saint or the devil; the other is whether Israelis who live abroad are merely emigrants or traitors. Taken separately as well as together, these questions reflect the magnitude of Israel’s schizophrenia.

Can one have a viable state in which women fly fighter jets but are sent to sit at the back of the bus? Can one have a halakhic, racist, nationalistic state which guarantees equal rights for women, gays and minorities? Can one have an educated, cultured, science-oriented society when many of the citizens don't know English or even the multiplication table? In short, can one have a modern, progressive, peace-seeking, war-mongering, racist and primitive state, all at the same time?

Make no mistake. The division between progress and darkness cannot be determined, as many might find convenient, by ethnic or any other racist guidelines. The schizophrenia can be found in all groups and sectors of Israeli society, and even within every individual, without regard to race or country of origin. Just recall how it was Shas, the “unenlightened” party of Jews of Middle Eastern descent (Mizrahim), and its so-called primitive leader, the late Yosef, who supported the Oslo Accords, hoping for peace and equality between Jews and Arabs in this land. On the other hand, the leaders of the settlement drive, the very “progressive and cultured” Ashkenazim, led by high-tech entrepreneur Naftali Bennett, are doing their very best to derail any possibility of a peace deal with the Palestinians, leading Israel to an all-out, permanent war against the rest of the world.