The exchange of opinions, criticism, and arguing between the two main camps in Israel has become one of disrespectful talk.
Last week, Sigal Attiah Kraunick, the widow of the head of Kibbutz Be’eri’s emergency intervention unit, Arik Kraunick, killed on October 7, appeared before students of Jerusalem’s Hartman High School, at their invitation.
She began, as she related in her Facebook post, to address the loss of trust in neighbors from Gaza some kibbutz members were feeling and quoted Avida Bachar, a survivor of the Be’eri massacre who lost his wife, Dana, and his son, Carmel, and was injured himself.
A lesson learned
Bachar had said “I wonder, if this had happened in Gush Etzion, what I would have said at that moment? I would have said, ‘What do they live there for?... I would have said, maybe, ‘They deserve it,’ I would have said all the harshest things in the world... It’s lucky that I learned this lesson.”
Sigal Attiah Kraunick addressed some 400 students who were sitting in the school hall. The woman who invited her approached, motioned for her to stop for a moment and whispered something in her ear. She was told the principal considered her words not to be the message of the school and if possible, would like her to skip directly to her personal story.
Kraunick, to her credit, told the messenger out loud, “This is the lecture, this is my truth, and if the principal doesn’t like it, I can stop right now and go home.” She didn’t even finish her sentence when suddenly there was tremendous applause in the hall from the pupils.
When she saw the principal signaling that she could continue, she added, “Thus was born the victory of the spirit! Educating children should allow them the path of choice. Democracy gives room for every opinion and free choice.”
The Hartman High Schools, according to their website, “promote critical thinking, religious tolerance... and social responsibility.” In addition, they “focus on democratic values, openness to new ideas, and respect for diversity.” One can only hope that this incident will improve the attitude of the administration and that what they claim are their goals will be what will be instilled in the pupils. We cannot afford wokeism here in Israel after its failure abroad, especially among Jews.
Two-tiered assault
What is currently happening in Israel is a two-tiered assault, not only on the basic values of the state as the Jewish democratic polity but also on the very fundamental quality of the forms of exchange of opinion between groups of citizens who disagree. We are turning into a mob that shouts but does not talk; berates but does not argue; that despises rather than respects differences of opinion.
Shelley Tapiero is the law and court affairs reporter for Channel 11 news. After mistakenly publishing restricted details of the Kaplan Camp anti-Netanyahu leader who had allegedly sexually abused a border policewoman, an editor at Walla, David Wertheim, wrote on March 30, this year: “It must be said honestly and with the required European restraint, that the ‘journalist’ Shelly Tapiero is Bibi-groupie scum. In a world where there was no Bibi-ism and no need to please a despicable regime, she would have long been a waitress at the Ashdod branch of Aroma Big.”
Many more examples of such unnecessary personal attacks on Tapiero, along with the viciousness of the language employed by those supposedly presumed to be the bearers of our cultural merit could be presented. The fact that politicians engage is such verbal contretemps is assumed, regrettably – although I have on my shelf several books on the art of the British insult that prove attacking your opponent could be done in a more refined fashion and with much better results. Do media figures need to employ such language?
No one is listening
However, it is not so much the language used but the content and the obvious attempts to manipulate the public via the desired messaging. What is happening is that people are not listening to each other. Each side seeks to out-shout the other while demeaning their opponents. Various social media accounts are currently highlighting Assaf Agmon.
Agmon attained the rank of brigadier-general in Israel’s air force and was a decorated pilot. He has been active in the Ein Matzav (“No Way”) protest group that began at the Balfour Street demonstrations. He promoted the so-called “voluntary cessation of volunteering” of reserve air pilots and referred to Netanyahu as the “enemy tyrant.”
Following the tragic death of his grandson in Lebanon, together with Ze’ev Ehrlich, killed in a Hezbollah ambush at an archaeological heritage site being surveyed, Agmon has been videoed confronting and berating female soldiers in public, mostly shouting at them regarding the continuing battles in Gaza. He does this at cafes, grassy areas, and other recreation locations, inserting himself into their personal private spaces, and calling them as “smartut” (“floor rag”). His wife is left trying to drag him away.
Malevolent motives
This is no longer a matter of manners. The April 26 cover of the Shabbat newsletter of the Smol Emuni (“Religious Left”) Kaplan camp group was a picture of Sara and Binyamin Netanyahu smiling at their son’s pre-wedding party above a snap of the hostage Elchanan Bouhbut in a tunnel taken from a Hamas clip.
The quotation from that week’s portion was “Drink no wine nor strong drink." As if no religious leftists have celebrated weddings this past year! Another dart-to-the-heart theme being adopted is that Netanyahu is simply “sacrificing hostages for power.”
Malevolent motives are becoming more and more prevalent in our public discourse. The messaging seeks to be cynical and insulting as an end in itself.
Both sides of the political divide are engaged in a “diss-coarse.” All could temper their tones, moderate their callousness, defang their linguistic claws.
The writer is a researcher, analyst, and commentator on political, cultural, and media issues.