Two very interesting processes took place on the war's sidelines. One is the erosion of the Holocaust, and the other is a welcome renewal of an old ideological skirmish.
Let's start with the Holocaust. It appears that throughout the eight months of this blood-soaked war, the process of its effacement has been completed. It, how shall we put it gently, has fallen from grace, lost its power, its armor cracked. Over 75 years of groundless overuse, the state has managed to transform the horrors of the Holocaust into one big yawn.
The grotesque pinnacle of mobilizing the Holocaust for other purposes appeared when a brilliant Israeli jurist was asked to join the tribunal of judges in The Hague, not for being a genius in legal matters, but for being a Holocaust survivor.
And thus, as increasing number of people, including international judges, tone deaf politicians, journalists insisting on being objective, comedians and prime ministers, no longer shy away from reading emails or tweeting, when the Israeli preacher on duty pulls out the stale gimmick and tries to extort mercy from them.
They no longer falter at treating Israel as it rightly deserves to be treated. Without fear of the Holocaust, without favoritism, with the intent of helping it in its hour of need, while judging and condemning its actions when it shakes off any legal and moral restraints.
Is that bad? No, it's good. It's encouraging. It's good for the country's health. It may bring about the demise of Israel's reflexive adoption of victimhood. By now, after seeing what Gaza has become, this sounds quite hollow. Without the protective vest of the Holocaust, Israel will have to stand on its own legs. To look itself in the mirror and contend with its actions, without repeatedly rushing to the protective shadow of striped Nazi garments.
And now to the second process, the welcome renewal of a historical squabble. This has actually been on the back burner for some time, but has now come to a boil. It happened with a ruling by the High Court of Justice on the conscription law. The petitioners demanded that all Haredi men of conscription age be drafted. The government suggested drafting 3,000 of these men, but in its usual convoluted manner. The ultra-Orthodox themselves said they would die before being drafted.
The pleasing surprise was provided by Justice Noam Sohlberg, a religious right-wing settler to his fingertips, something usually expressed in his rulings. This is what he declared in an emotional and angry voice: "I was disappointed with the number 3,000…I wish it were three or four times higher." In other words, yes! Draft them! In large numbers!
Supporters of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu demonstrate in Jerusalem in April. The sign says: 'Netanyahu, you will never walk alone.'Credit: Naama Grynbaum
And I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally. After too many years of an alliance between the ultra-Orthodox and the ultranationalist religious parties, of a reciprocal corruption of values, of the existence of a homogenous block of the ultra-right and the Bibi-supporters, the two religious camps once again face off against each other. The violent chauvinism of the religious ultranationalists against the historic anti-nationalism of the Haredim.
This is how it was in the past, and this is how it should be. After all, God bestowed them with eternal enmity. And justifiably so. The two camps have no common values. Only avarice and Netanyahu's spinelessness united them. It's time they went back to squabbling.
In fact, comparing the two camps is insulting. The religious ultranationalists are a mutation, the fate of which is to fall off the tree of Judaism the way toxic branches do. Haredi Judaism (woe unto us, not in its Israeli form) has had and perhaps will have a role in Jewish history. Who knows, perhaps the renewed infighting with the West Bank Cossacks will bring our local ultra-Orthodox to reflect on their ways. Perhaps to move away from government troughs, from unimportant attention to trivia while focusing on deep thinking, values and Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). One can only wish.
(What can I do. I occasionally allow myself to drift into unfounded optimistic dreams. It helps me fall asleep).