Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis

How badly has Israel lost the American public? Is there anything at all we can do?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comIt’s hard to quantify (though I suppose that there are ways that sophisticated researchers could manage), but it’s clear that Israel’s press is much more engaged than ever before with the attitudes of American Jews — but also the attitudes of American voters writ large — to Israel. There’s a reason that the Israeli press is suddenly paying much closer attention to Americans — Democrats and Republicans, young and older, the Evangelicals, the Jews and more. The reason, sadly, is that when it comes to how Israel is seen in the American electorate, things have simply never, ever been worse. The data is clear, but it needs explaining. Dr. Avishay Ben-Sasson-Gordis, a Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), has been researching this issue for quite some time, and recently, has done a deep dive into the Pew Center data on the subject. He’s also been writing about it a great deal for the Israeli public. But Avishay is also (as you may have divined from his name) my son-in-law. Thus, as much as I really wanted to interview him here, I was hesitant … until he was interviewed on Echad be-Yom — Israel’s most widely listened to podcast, by far. When that appeared, I thought, “no reason they should get to hear him and we shouldn’t.” So I asked Avishay to share with us what he spoke about on Echad be-Yom, and am grateful that he agreed. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Avishay Ben Sasson-Gordis is a Liberalism Rekindled postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ruderman Family Foundation Scholar in Residence and Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.His current work focuses on the democratic theory of coercive political institutions. His book project, “Not Just War”, based on his doctoral dissertation (Harvard 2023), offers a normative theory of democratic civil-military relations. In his empirical research he centered on Israeli security policy, governing institutions, and public opinion.His research has been published in Political Science Research and Methods and in Armed Forces & Society. He’s a frequent commentator on Israeli current affairs in international and Israeli media, and my commentary has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Ha’aretz, and World Politics Review.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.

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"Change" or "Tradition"? The JTS Graduates opposed to President Herzog speaking at Graduation have some history on their side.

2d ago00:15:19Tap to summarize

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comAs The Forward (and others) reported over the last couple of weeks, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has been invited to the Commencement Speaker at JTS, the academic center of Conservative Judaism. Not surprisingly, given the times in which we live, some students (albeit a very small number) have publicly objected, for reasons that you can see in their l…

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What if Bibi doesn't run?

4d ago00:00:21Tap to summarize

The little clip above, about “If the USA and Iran were people,” is cute. Not hilarious, but still cute. And what it reflects is a deep-seated frustration that after yet another war, this one a really long one in which our kids and grandchildren took much of the brunt, Israel may or may not have accomplished much. So the guy in the elevator is obviously Trump, with all his bravado. And the guy who enters the elevator is Iran. The US (Trump) threatens to kill him, to “break him into pieces” if he gets into the elevator, but he does it anyway. And what happens? Nothing. It is, in a nutshell, how Israelis feel about this war, and it is, in a nutshell, how increasing numbers of Israelis feel about Trump. A lot of bluster, without very much to show for it. General Tomer Bar, until recently the Commander of the IAF (Israel Air Force) recently retired at the age of 57, after almost forty years in the army. Bar raised some eyebrows when he personally flew several missions over Iran during the recent war—more than a few people wondered if that was very smart. What if he’d been killed? Or worse, captured? Did he really need to get into that cockpit? But that blew over, because Bar is so widely respected and admired. Yes, the Air Force failed miserably during the first hours (or days) on October 7 and thereafter, but it regrouped, and since then, Bar (who has entirely owned his failure on October 7) has had extraordinary accomplishments. So you might think that the headlines announcing Bar’s retirement would be about … well, Bar. But no. The headline below is very typical. In the headline, the part that is NOT highlighted reads:Tomer Bar takes off his uniformThat’s Israeli slang for retiring from the army. The part that IS highlighted reads,The IDF is making clear: without a solution to the uranium and the nuclear issue — this was one huge failure. It’s a comment not about Bar, but about the people he reports to. It’s a comment, in other words about Bibi. The Trump bromance, ostensibly one of Bibi’s unique assets, didn’t get us as much as we thought in the end. The mindset that gives birth to the video at the very top and to the headline above that can’t even focus on Bar without reminding Israelis that this war might have been a failure, isn’t good for Bibi. Bibi knows that. And the polls are reminding him of that. Ma’ariv publishes a poll every week about how Israelis would vote were the elections to be held right now, and though the numbers aren’t moving a lot, there’s a clear picture emerging.The RED is the opposition: all the Jewish parties that are not part of the coalition. They’re polling, according to Ma’ariv, at 61 seats, enough to form a government. The BLUE is all the parties that are part of the coalition — Bibi’s Likud, Ben Gvir’s party, Smotrich’s party and the Haredi parties. The GREY is the Arab parties. Why list the Arab parties separately? Because the Arab parties are not all Mansour Abbas. Even Abbas’ list, which had him at the top and a few other palatable people below him on the list, included radicals who are opposed to the existence of a Jewish state. The Arab parties include Balad, which describes its fundamental purpose as the “struggle to transform the state of Israel into a democracy for all its citizens, irrespective of national or ethnic identity". In other words, it seeks to end Israel as a Jewish state. One can certainly understand why Arab politicians would hold that view (though Abbas expressly does not — he is on record as stating that Israel will always be a Jewish state), but one can also understand why many Israeli Jews are unwilling to have Arab parties be part of the coalition. But it doesn’t really matter now. If the “left” (which is really the “center,” because there is essentially no “left” left) were trying to put together a coalition, the Arab parties could either vote to accept it, or just sit out the vote. Either way, with just 49 seats, Bibi cannot form a government. There are many reasons for Bibi’s poor showing. Deep dissatisfaction about the war is likely the main one, but the Haredi draft issue is yet another. For many people, continued Haredi exemptions are simply a pill they cannot swallow. The video (posted on Facebook, we’ve added subtitles) by Chaggai Luber, whose material we’ve posted on many occasions, shows once again the deep sadness / anger that has seeped into most of Jewish Israeli society about that exact issue. Add to that anger the deep, unending celebration of those who have made sacrifices, and Bibi’s continued flirtation with the Haredim has got him in trouble. Here’s the kind of video you see here all the time— when a badly wounded soldier gets out of the hospital or out of rehab, often after numerous surgeries and many months of hospitalization, it’s the custom that those who treated him line the halls as he gets ready to finally resume his life. The is a country of walking wounded and maimed — or worse. And many people simply have had it with the Haredim, and, because he’s their enabler, with Bibi, too. Bibi knows that. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.And that’s what led some very thoughtful people, like Aviad Stollman here on Facebook, to write the following. It’s way, way too early to count Bibi out — he is not simply the best campaigner in Israel, but is the best campaigner in Israel’s history. It ain’t over till it’s over, and it might not be over. But Stollman — and increasing numbers of others — think that the “end” might be getting close. Here’s his post, with an AI generated translation: For some time now, I’ve been making a claim that sounds completely far-fetched to my friends: Benjamin Netanyahu will not run for the Knesset in the next election. He will resign first. Most of them think I’m hallucinating—that Bibi is the last person who would take such a step voluntarily. But in recent days, what was until not long ago beneath the surface seems to be rising into view, mainly through the activity of the President’s Residence, which used to be quieter and is now far more out in the open.So why would he do it? From my read, there’s a not-implausible scenario in which, in the gifts case (Case 1000), Netanyahu is convicted of breach of trust. It’s not a charge that makes dramatic headlines, but it’s the kind of offense courts do convict on, and under certain circumstances it can also lead to a real sentence, including the risk of imprisonment. Incidentally, it is one of the offenses Ehud Olmert was convicted of as well. Netanyahu knows that precedent very well.I’m not getting into the question here of whether the cases against Netanyahu are justified or not. My personal sense is mixed: there are elements of obsessive, politically motivated pursuit, and at the same time conduct on his part that is highly problematic—even unethical. In my view, it’s not at all clear this whole story should ever have reached a courtroom, but that’s where things stand.And from here comes the truly important point. Netanyahu doesn’t need to be certain he’ll be convicted. It’s enough for him to assess that there’s a non-trivial risk it will happen. Once you’re in that position, you’re no longer running just a legal battle—you’re managing risk. The question stops being “how do I win the trial” and becomes “when am I in the best position to determine how it ends?” This isn’t unique to politicians; this is how a great many cases play out. In the end, you arrive at a settlement on the basis of a risk assessment.And the answer to that question, from his standpoint, is clear: now. As long as he is prime minister, he is operating from a position of strength. He has political influence, public legitimacy, and a real capacity to negotiate—both with the State Attorney’s Office and with Isaac Herzog. The moment he leaves that office, especially if it happens after an election loss or a political deadlock, that position weakens dramatically.There’s a plausible scenario in which Netanyahu does not win the next election. After all, he barely won the election before October 7. And therefore, if he wants to control the outcome, he has to do it beforehand. If he loses, he won’t be able to offer up his pound of flesh: his retirement.Within this, you also have to understand Herzog’s conduct. He understands that the continuation of Netanyahu’s trial is tearing the nation apart. Herzog has been working on this for a long time. Among other things, according to reports, he is enlisting figures like Aharon Barak for backing, while at the same time signaling to the State Attorney’s Office that he also has an extraordinary option in his arsenal: a pardon even before a verdict, similar to what his father, Chaim Herzog, did. It’s a complicated move and not legally clean, but as a bargaining chip it carries serious weight. The goal here, it seems, is not necessarily to use all these tools in practice, but to create conditions that will push all sides to the same table and toward an agreement.Netanyahu is broadcasting business as usual. He continues to govern, to appear, to act, as if there is no other horizon. But in my view, that doesn’t contradict the thesis—it’s part of it. Because anyone in that kind of negotiation cannot afford to look like someone searching for an exit. He has to look strong, steady, in control. Put it ...

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Does the West hate Israel because Israelis believe in themselves?

1w ago00:02:53Tap to summarize

Jimmy Bitton, a Canadian professor whose podcast is called “Echoes of Jewish History”(available on Spotify here) invited me to join him on his podcast, and then graciously granted us permission to share the episode with the Israel from the Inside community. My basic claim, in response to his question about why the West so detests Israel, is that Israel has implicitly issued to the West a sharp warning: the West has forgotten its own moral backbone, risking civilizational decline. Bitton and I discuss how the erosion of memory, pride, and language threatens the future of Western civilization and why Israel’s example holds a mirror to all of us. Western nations have lost confidence in their historical greatness, I argued, from the fading use of native languages to the decline of shared moral vocabularies, and Israel’s counterexample is too powerful to ignore. We discuss how civilizations preserve identity through memory and ritual and what happens when these mechanisms weaken; why contemporary discourse distorts the language of morality and history; and how the decline of patriotic pride and clear moral distinctions risks a civilization’s collapse. In our conversation, I sought to underscore how Israel’s resilience—its deep-rooted traditions of self-critique and collective memory—offers a vital example for the West.If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.You can watch the full episode via this link: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danielgordis.substack.com/subscribe

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Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin has built a museum to teach about the past, but is worried about Israel's future

1w ago00:09:12Tap to summarize

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comWhen I reached out to Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin, asking him if he might share with us some of the provocative ideas that he writes about in his fascinating Substack, “Rationalist Judaism,” he kindly agreed, but he also suggested that I come see The Biblical Museum of Natural History which he founded and directs.The Museum is a fascinating place, which I urge you to add to your list of places to see next time you’re in Israel, or — if you live here — your list of places to visit soon. Rabbi Slifkin shares with us the history of the Museum and his vision for it in our conversation. Then, because he is a man of many passions and pursuits, our conversation moved on to the issue of Haredim in Israel. What makes Rabbi Slifkin’s views of the Haredim fascinating is that he was once part of that community, but left for a variety of reasons, some of which he alludes to in today’s podcast. Having once been a member of that community — a community for which he still has great respect in many ways — he now argues that barring some major change in Israeli policy, the Haredi population will spell the economic demise of Israel. So, today’s podcast is about zoology and the Bible, museums and history, and Haredim and the future, and an opportunity to “meet” a truly fascinating individual. For the Biblical Museum of Natural History, click here.For more of Natan’s writing we invite you to visit his substack page in this link.If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin is the founder and director of The Biblical Museum of Natural History. He received his rabbinic ordination from Ohr Somayach Institutions, graduated from the Lander Institute in Jerusalem with an MA in Jewish Thought and Law, and received a PhD in Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University, with a dissertation on rabbinic encounters with zoology.Rabbi Dr. Slifkin has had a lifelong fascination with the animal kingdom and has kept many dozens of exotic creatures. He has published numerous books on different themes relating to Judaism and the natural sciences, including The Challenge of Creation and the Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom.Over the last twenty years, Rabbi Dr. Slifkin has run a number of educational programs at zoos and natural history museums worldwide, and is a popular scholar-in-residence at synagogues. He also leads African safaris, and was featured on Animal Planet’s documentary “Beasts of the Bible.” His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Jerusalem Post, and numerous magazines, television and radio shows.The link at the top of this posting will take free subscribers to an excerpted portion of today’s conversation.For paid subscribers, the link at the top will take you to the full conversation; below, paid subscribers will also find a transcript for those who prefer to read, as always.

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Are American Jews Really Traitors?

1w ago00:08:13Tap to summarize

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comJust before Yom Ha-Atzma’ut, Israel Independence Day, Hagai Segal, a leading Israeli journalist, author and former Editor-in-Chief of the Makor Rishon newspaper, wrote a column in which he expressly said that by virtue of their not having moved here, American Jews are traitors. It was an incendiary word to choose, and as one might have anticipated, it u…

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"Captivity was nothing. Without them, I am in hell now."

2w ago00:01:49Tap to summarize

There were days, days that almost of all of us remember, when photos like these were ubiquitous. On hostage posters on the news, on the internet. Everywhere. Then the living hostages returned home. The signs disappeared, but a few of the returning hostages offered a window into the horrors that they had endured. Some, Eli Sharabi hardly the only one among them, became very public figures. They traveled the world giving speeches, or wrote (often bestselling) books, or gave extensive interviews. And then, gradually, most of them edged away from the spotlight. Yarden Bibas, the husband of Shiri, z’l, and father of Ariel and Kfir, z’l, realized upon leaving captivity that his family had become, quite literally, the poster family of the movement to free the hostages. But his world had been shattered, and though people knew more about his kids than about many of the others who were lost, he did not speak. He did not write. He did not travel. He took, and is taking, time to heal. Now, Yarden Bibas has broken that silence. Channel 13 in Israel recently posted a long interview with Bibas, his first with the Israeli press, on the heels of a podcast in which he was also interviewed. So now that Channel 13 has released the interview along with English subtitles and put it on YouTube, giving everyone access, we’re posting it here, because it wouldn’t be hard for people to miss it.I think you’ll agree after you watch it: it’s something that we all need to see. If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danielgordis.substack.com/subscribe

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The kippah that roared (after it was assaulted)

2w ago00:13:28Tap to summarize

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit danielgordis.substack.comAlmost as soon as Alex Sinclair posted on LinkedIn the story of how the police detained him because they didn’t like his kippah, and then destroyed the kippah before giving it back to him, the incident went viral. Alex has appeared twice on our podcast before, once about his book Perfect Enemy (the posted interview is here) and once about his second nov…

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Far from the international headlines, Israel is mired in a frustrating war we don't know how to win.

2w ago00:00:19Tap to summarize

Imagine that someone asked you right now, “What would you guess are the main stories on the front pages of Israel’s papers?” What would you list? The elections and the merger of the Bennett and Lapid parties? The Strait of Hormuz? What else? As we’ll see below, while all the stories that appear on today’s front pages have made the international press, their place in the Israeli public’s mindset is quite different from what one might assume. So today, we’re taking a quick look at Israel’s papers to give a sense of what the country is thinking — and worrying — about. The (undated) video at the top, released by the IDF spokesperson’s unit (you can see their logo on the top left corner of the frame) is meant to communicate to Israelis that the army — in this case, the Golani brigade — is steadily destroying Hezbollah’s infrastructure. The people I’ve heard comment on the video have walked away with a different conclusion. What people are noticing is not how the IDF is blowing up Hezbollah’s tunnels, but rather, how vast the terrorist infrastructure is, and how now, there’s nothing to report, because the US is preventing the IDF from destroying it. If you lived in the north and you began to intuit that the threat just across the border is not going to be removed, would you stay there?As is often the case, it can take a personal interest story to get a country focused on an issue, and that’s precisely what happened this week. The role of Tatzpetaniyot (Field Intelligence Observers) has long been a part of the IDF, but became much better known after October 7, when many Tatzpetaniyot stationed near the Gaza border were among the first to see the invasion beginning and reported the suspicious activity leading up to it. Many were killed or taken hostage when their bases were overrun by Hamas; some of the highest profile female hostages — among them Liri Albag, Agam Berger, Daniela Gilboa and Karina Ariev — were Tatzpetaniyot. Tatzpetaniyot, in the aftermath of the disaster, is now a position people pay attention to. When Idan Fooks, z’l, was killed in Lebanon this week, he was tragically the latest in a series of IDF losses in Lebanon. What made the incident stand out, though, were two factors. First, Fooks was killed not by bullets, or a rocket, or an anti-tank shell or an IED, but by a Hezbollah drone, a threat the IDF has not yet figured out how to address. Second, Fook’s girlfriend, a Tatzpetanit, was coincidentally monitoring the very area in which he was operating, and on her screen, she watched him get killed in real time. It was that horror which brought the north back to the attention of the country—and the picture isn’t pretty. Today’s front pages give a sense of the frustration brewing in the country and the sense that we’re stuck on all fronts: Hamas is regrouping, Hezbollah is being protected by a cease fire that has citizens of the north enraged, Iran is jostling to keep its enriched uranium and its nuclear program intact, and the Prime Minister doesn’t have much say when it comes to Trump these days. The press can point that out in ways that Bibi cannot, which as we’ll see below, is precisely what it’s doing. We start with today’s Ma’ariv front page. In the large yellow rectangle, the main headline reads “The Declaration and the Retreat.” Ie, Bibi declared one thing, but reality is quite different. The smaller headline, black on white just below the yellow rectangle reads: “Despite the Prime Minister’s promises, several IDF units are scheduled to depart Lebanon for other missions ◼️ The decision to cut down on forces in Lebanon stems from the American cease-fire and American limitations on IDF activity which have yet to be lifted. ◼️ Head of Hezbollah rejects any option of negotiations: “Out of the question.” The story in the pink rectangle is about Idan Fooks, z’l, while the story in the green is about the murder of Yemanu Binyamin Zelka, a 21-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli who was killed in Petah Tikva on Israeli Independence Day. Zelka, who worked as a shift supervisor at the pizzeria, asked a group of teenagers to stop spraying party foam inside the restaurant and harassing customers. After he finished his shift around 1:00 AM, the group of teenagers waited for him outside. Security footage showed approximately 10 minors encircling, beating, and stabbing him. He was left critically wounded and died the following day at Beilinson Hospital.At least eight suspects, aged 12 to 17, have been arrested. Police reported that some of the suspects “acted like veteran criminals,” turning off their phones and hiding in an attempt to evade capture.Zelkah’s murder was not the only one in Israel this week, and not the only one committed by minors. What this is all about is not clear, but Israelis are worried about a deep social problem that has long been neglected.If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.Yisrael Hayom shows a photo of an exploding drone (due to the Fooks story above), with the headline that says “A Race to Develop a Response to Hezbollah’s Drones.”In the purple at the bottom, "Residents of the North say: There is a war going on here. Don’t hide it.” And in the light blue: “Almost without school since Covid and all the wars: this is how violence among Israel’s youth has become a national plague.” Back to the murder of Zeklah, among others. Yedi’ot has a large white headline that says “We’re not moving from here”, which is a double entendre. Are we not moving the army out of Lebanon? Or are the residents of the north determined to stay? Or, given that the army is leaving Lebanon in dribs and drabs, are residents of the north going to head south, too? And then what happens to the county’s northern sector? Which is why the headline in the yellow rectangle says “This is how the cease fire in southern Lebanon has turned into a strategic problem.” In the red rectangle on the bottom right of the front page: AT THE FRONT: the IDF attacked the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon yesterday but the army is still being held back by the political echelons ⚫️ Dealing with the threat of IED’s and drones, the clash of interests between the USA and Israel, Hezbollah’s efforts to derail the negotiations, the close linkage between the various fronts and the deep frustration of the IDF’s senior commanders. In the purple rectangle at the bottom left: AND ON THE HOME FRONT: Mor Peretz received a photo in real time of her nine year old son lying on his classroom floor protecting his head ⚫️ Neta Senesh, eleven years old, and her friends lay down on the floor of the school bus while above them Hezbollah drones were flying: “I’m really afraid. Why do they send us to school when they’re shooting at us and we could be injured?” Ha’aretz looks at two major internal issues: In the red rectangle: “A crisis of trust between [David] Zini [head of the Shin Bet] and the heads of branches and units in the Shin Bet.” Zini’s appointment was controversial from the start and there are now widespread concerns that the intelligence community is suffering from deep internal divisions. In the yellow rectangle: “It’s essentially a revolt”: [IDF Chief of Staff] Zamir cannot ignore the enormity of the discipline problem throughout the IDF.Finally, Calcalist, one of Israel’s most important financial papers, ran this headline, in the green rectangle: Netanyahu put the security of the north in the hands of an unstable American President, and this is how things look. Not much comment needed there. When people around here see videos from the army such as the one at the top of this post (the IDF isn’t sending any out right now, because there are no real accomplishments to report), they tend to roll their eyes. “What we need,” they say, “is not videos of tunnels being destroyed. We need a plan. For the south. For the north. For Iran. For the handcuffs in which the Americans have placed us.” And implicitly, of course, they think, “We know who was at the helm when we got into all of this. Is there anyone who can extricate us?” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danielgordis.substack.com/subscribe

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A Haredi public intellectual arguing that (some) Haredim should not be able to vote?

3w ago00:00:25Tap to summarize

The war will end, sooner or later, likely sooner. Israelis will limp out of the war — a war with many accomplishments, but also a war that is likely to fizzle out with Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian regime still intact. It’s not what most people here hoped for. When the war recedes into the rear-view mirror, election season will start to take over. A critical issue in these elections is going to be in the issue of the Haredim, who continue to extort billions of shekels from the government in exchange for their not toppling the coalition, and who continue to insist that their sons should not serve in the army, at a time when a manpower shortage is literally crippling the IDF. One fascinating Haredi rabbi has regularly staked out surprising positions on these questions; two of his recent social media posts afford us an opportunity to introduce him to our readers. Rabbi Dov Halbertal is an Israeli Orthodox (Haredi) rabbi, attorney, lecturer in Jewish law, and public intellectual. A former head of the Office of the Chief Rabbi of Israel, he is both a Haredi leader and an advocate for a complete separation of religion and state in Israel. He regularly argues against continued government subsidization of the Haredi community — a strikingly dissenting voice within his own community. Brilliant and fearless, Rabbi Halbertal is a voice that deserves to be heard beyond Israeli circles. The video above (originally posted here on Facebook) needs no explanation. But to understand Rabbi Halbertal’s recent Facebook post below, one needs background on two recent incidences in which the army imposed religious standards on soldiers. First, the story, as reported here in the Times of Israel, about the soldiers who were jailed for barbecuing on Shabbat. And second, the story, as reported here in the Times of Israel, about soldiers who were punished for wearing “indecent” clothing when they had no obligation to be in uniform.If you would like to share our conversation about what Israelis are feeling and expressing at this unprecedented moment in our history, we invite you to subscribe today.With those stories now clear as background, we can now proceed to Rabbi Halbertal’s recent post, based (as he notes) on a piece he wrote for Haaretz: The shocking incidents involving female squad commanders who were discharged and then prosecuted over a dress code, as well as Border Police soldiers tried for grilling on the Sabbath, demonstrate once again the ethos of religious coercion — an insatiable, impervious compulsion to interfere in the lives and values of others. And still they call it a “dress code,” when it deserves to be called precisely what it is: a code of religious coercion. The following is what I published at the time in Haaretz:As an Orthodox Jewish man, I am about to write some sharp words — but I cannot refrain from writing them, out of a conviction that the time for radical change has come. I regret that I must focus on failures and shortcomings rather than on achievements and strengths. Just as occupation corrupts — as even those who see a necessity in it will admit — so too does politics corrupt religion. The union of politics and religion is a recurring cycle of moral injury and fraternal hatred. The religious establishment corrupts the fabric of the state, and the state corrupts the fabric of religion, and so it goes, endlessly. The only viable solution, for the sake of religion and for the sake of the state alike, is to adopt the First Amendment principle of the American Constitution: the separation of church and state.I do not believe that anyone is obligated to fund my faith. It is not morally defensible for the secular public to finance yeshiva students, or the blessed fertility rates among the ultra-Orthodox. Nothing is more galling than the spectacle of receiving generous sums from the hand of secular society while spitting in its face. The ultra-Orthodox community rails against the values of secular society — Zionism, creative endeavor, military service, gender equality, and more — yet harbors no hesitation whatsoever when it comes to demanding and receiving funding that only encourages further defiance. Let us be honest: there is no justification for a secular public to subsidize those who hold its values in contempt.The solution I propose serves the interests of religion even more than those of the state. I do not wish to belong to a coercive society. I do not wish to belong to a society that harbors inciters of racism, nor do I wish to belong to a religious community that is ungrateful. Distorted modes of thought are not part of Jewish law — they stem from distorted interpretation, rooted primarily in the corrupting alliance between politics, the establishment, and religion. The Jewish community in the United States would never dare to block streets or assault police officers over the opening of a shopping mall on the Sabbath. There, certainly, no rabbinic petition would be issued calling on Jews not to sell or rent homes to non-Jews.The time has come to say: enough. Enough of religious political parties. Enough of the shameful preoccupation with budgets for self-serving purposes while ignoring the state and the wider world. Enough of the moral and aesthetic corruption of religion. Enough of imposing laws upon a public that does not believe in them.To paraphrase Martin Luther King’s famous address, I say: I have a dream. I have a dream of severing politics from religion. I have a dream that a secular child will study the sources of Judaism out of love, rather than out of well-founded fear of what is reflected in the shop window of the religious establishment. I have a dream of belonging to a moderate, broad-minded ultra-Orthodox community whose motto is: live and let live.It sometimes seems as though the consciousness of ultra-Orthodox society is shaped by a sense of persecution — as if that sense of victimhood furnishes it with its identity and its raison d’être, as though the President of the United States or the Supreme Court had no higher priority than the eradication of religious Judaism. Is it any wonder that, with such a communal consciousness, antisemitism and Jew-hatred flourish? What would we ourselves think of an arrogant, self-absorbed religious sect that fancied itself a light unto others while sowing division and separation?Every person — Jew or gentile — must be free to live according to his or her beliefs, on the basis of civic equality and genuine recognition of the human rights that belong to all people, created as they are in the image of God. One thing is clear: there is no worse option than the union of religion and politics.Imagine a world in which that was the prevailing Haredi outlook. Shabbat Shalom. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit danielgordis.substack.com/subscribe

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Israel from the Inside with Daniel Gordis

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How badly has Israel lost the American public? Is there anything at all we can do?

"Change" or "Tradition"? The JTS Graduates opposed to President Herzog speaking at Graduation have some history on their side.

What if Bibi doesn't run?

Does the West hate Israel because Israelis believe in themselves?

Rabbi Dr. Natan Slifkin has built a museum to teach about the past, but is worried about Israel's future

Are American Jews Really Traitors?

"Captivity was nothing. Without them, I am in hell now."

The kippah that roared (after it was assaulted)

Far from the international headlines, Israel is mired in a frustrating war we don't know how to win.

A Haredi public intellectual arguing that (some) Haredim should not be able to vote?