Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Years ago, a rabbi I greatly admire confided in me how he worried that an Israeli government with Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm might lead to the destruction of the Jewish people. His concern surprised me. As a young ordained cantor at the time, I was not nearly as well-versed in Middle Eastern geopolitics or the internal workings of the Israeli government. Now, after the rise of Netanyahu’s authoritarian regime and its genocidal response in Gaza to the unconscionable Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, I have come to realize that this rabbi was prophetic: the elected government of Israel now constitutes the most existential threat to the safety of Jewish people globally.

Approaching Tyranny

With each passing day, Netanyahu seems to become more megalomaniacal, seeking new ways through genocidal belligerence, election obstruction, judicial overhaul, and socio-political oppression to remain in power and forestall his own arrest on corruption charges. He is effectively transforming his elected position into an exercise in tyranny. Netanyahu’s autocratic administration has displayed many of the twenty telltale warning signs that Professor Timothy Snyder outlined in his incisive work, On Tyranny. Those flares seem to have only further inflamed his followers. Rather than holding the government accountable for its crimes, they have doubled down on the perfect storm of unwavering nationalism, toxic religiosity, and vengeful bloodlust to which “Bibi” and his far-right cabinet members cater.

That tempest, combined with Netanyahu’s Machiavellian impulse to win re-election and avoid prosecution, now threatens to derail yet another peace proposal in Donald Trump’s fraught 21-point Gaza plan. Regardless of whether Israel and Hamas come to terms and finally end this round of killings, the Jewish world will still have to contend with the burden of the Netanyahu regime’s Gaza genocide. Humanity’s collective consciousness has permanently etched that legacy into the physiognomy of the Israeli prime minister and his government.

Deflecting Blame

Far too many well-meaning individuals misconstrue and deflect the primary source of concern for the safety of world Jewry. They invoke the likes of Trump and Netanyahu himself in asserting that the recognition of a Palestinian state by the governments of Canada, the UK, France, Australia, and others constitutes the greatest danger for Israel and the Jewish people. This conclusion is misguided at best, delusional at worst. Critics feel this symbolic gesture emboldens Hamas’ terrorist objective of eradicating the state of Israel, disregarding the fact that the abandonment of Hamas is a prerequisite for many of those nations’ endorsement of statehood. In actuality, this step offers one of the brightest glimmers of hope in nearly two years for peaceful coexistence and for the possibility of moving the elusive needle of compromise away from the deadly supremacist extremes of Jewish messianic fundamentalism and Islamic jihadism. Instead of endorsing this aspiration, the Israeli government has elected to quash it by threatening again to annex portions of the West Bank in a clearly inflammatory, retaliatory response to this international olive branch.

Others more understandably point to Hamas terrorists themselves as the most imminent danger to Jews. Hamas has unequivocally proven itself to be vicious and merciless. The incomparable horrors of October 7 – like Hamas’ genocidal mandate calling for death to Israel – demonstrate this beyond any doubt. Yet, as incalculably awful as that fateful day and the ensuing hostage crises have proven, Hamas has now all but exhausted most of its resources and no longer poses the same level of threat to Israel’s existence. The Israeli government has ignored this reality—along with the safety of the remaining hostages and the yearnings of family members—by pursuing a vengeful, genocidal campaign of mass death and starvation in Gaza. Shai Hermesh, father of October 7 murder victim Omer Hermesh of Kfar Azza, poignantly lamented this reality, commenting that it is as if “all 10 million Israelis are being held hostage by the government.”

The Impact of Genocide

The Gaza genocide not only decimates innocent Palestinian lives, but it also endangers Jewish civilians the world over. Violent extremists are eager to cast a wide net against anyone they assume supports the actions of the Israeli government. Many of them conflate the zealous followers of Netanyahu and his minions with Jews everywhere, no matter their opposition to the Israeli regime. They blame all Jews—and Judaism itself—for the genocide in Gaza.

As Netanyahu continues to pursue his crimes against humanity, conditions for world Jewry will only deteriorate. By the time the International Criminal Court officially rules in the coming years that the actions of the Israeli government qualify as genocide, entire Jewish communities likely will become even more inundated with deadly threats and attacks than they are in the present day, which already witnesses an exponential rise in anti-Jewish violence.

The Israeli government’s genocidal actions also jeopardize Judaism’s future by fomenting sinat chinam (”baseless hatred”) – the Rabbinic term for the internal strife that polarizes adversarial factions within the Jewish community. A growing number of Jews – particularly among younger generations – are aghast that some of their coreligionists condone a genocide that the government of Israel commits in the name of their shared Jewish tradition. Many respond by abandoning Judaism altogether, unable to reconcile following a spiritual practice that, for so many, seems to justify such criminal actions. One dear Jewish friend recently confided that he could no longer even conscience reciting the customary Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) greeting of “L’shanah Tovah” (“For a good year”) in the wake of the actions of the Israeli government. His reticence is indicative of a growing number of contemporary Jews.

“Am Yisrael Chai”

A renowned battle cry for Zionists is “Am Yisrael Chai!” (“The People of Israel Live!”) To do just that, more Jews must recognize the clear and present danger of Netanyahu’s genocidal rule. Precisely 250 years ago, Thomas Paine penned Common Sense to delineate why the American Colonies needed to separate from the British Empire. What will it take for Jewish compatriots to similarly realize the magnitude of the current hazard? What might inspire them to engage in peaceful protest and take legal action to finally remove the Netanyahu government? The answer appears to call for more than just common sense; it demands a common incentive: survival. That moment has arrived. One of the primary motivators for the establishment of Israel in 1948 was the hope that it might provide a safe harbor for Jews facing persecution in other nations, particularly in the wake of the Holocaust. Now, for Judaism to continue to thrive, it must rid itself of the tyrannical regime at the helm of that same Jewish state. While hundreds of thousands of Jews in Israel and the diaspora have understood this menace and have raised their voices vociferously, success will require millions more to speak out in protest.

My first journey to Israel occurred decades ago on a sponsored trip called “Birthright Israel: Israel by Foot.” I vividly recall how our tour guides for that trek ushered our group into a massive stadium for a passionate Zionist rally during which the then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke to the gathered masses. His speech, along with the entire experience, seemed to scream the need for unflinching support of the Israeli government. I distinctly remember the instinctual distaste that arose in the pit of my stomach as I discerned this implied call for unquestioning solidarity. I have a similar visceral response whenever I hear Hamas chants threatening to wipe out all Jews “from the River to the Sea.” In a synchronicity not lost on me, on that trip years ago, I accidentally cut open my heel while hiking across the Jordan—the very same river that the ominous Hamas slogan references. My own blood flowed down that famed body of water that day. It coalesced with the lifeblood of slain Palestinians and Jews—among others—that has long contaminated those waters, crying out to the living to stop the killings.

Rather than halting that bloodflow and the ongoing genocide, the Netanyahu government is perpetuating it. International governments have responded to Hamas’s sanguine ledger by demanding that the terrorist group not be included in any future Palestinian state. Jews the world over must model this when it comes to Netanyahu’s government. We fail to do so at our own peril.

A Yom Kippur Appeal

With the arrival of Yom Kippur – the Jewish Day of Atonement in the new year of 5786 in the Hebrew calendar – we must do more than atone for the sins of the Israeli government. We must instead take peaceful action now to end Netanyahu’s reign of terror. That is the only viable path forward for Israel to reach the next century—and for Judaism to achieve a new millennium. Otherwise, the coming year promises to be the antithesis of a “Shanah Tovah.”

The traditional greeting that Jews exchange ahead of Yom Kippur is “G’mar Chatimah Tovah.” This statement reflects the hope that the Divine will seal all souls for goodness in Sefer HaChayim—the Book of Life—for the coming year. In 5786, may this salutation also inspire within us renewed vigilance, lest we allow Netanyahu’s regime to seal Judaism’s fate, marching its people in lockstep on a course to extinction.

This first appeared on The Jurist.

The post Netanyahu’s Government Poses a Greater Danger to Jews Than Any External Enemy appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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