The greatest and most dangerous weapon of our enemies is not missiles or drones. It is the division within us.
National resilience during wartime relies first of all on unity. The State of Israel is deep into the third year of a multi-front existential war. Our shared destiny is tested every day in cemeteries and rehabilitation wards. In a week where we bury fighters and cry alongside families whose worlds have been destroyed, we must remember what allows us to live here.
When I returned from the shiva of the late Nave Habshoosh in Geva Binyamin, his father told me a sentence that stuck with me. He demanded that we, the elected officials, stop using politics to tear and divide. He demanded that we know how to respect everyone in our discourse. This respect does not ask us to blur disagreements. Quite the opposite. Disagreement is a natural thing. Debate is a vital tool in a healthy democracy.
I want to see MK Yisrael Eichler and MK Gilad Kariv sit down, discuss matters of religion, and come to an understanding. I believe MK Yitzhak Pindrus and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana can find common ground on shared ways of life. I also expect Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf to sit with me on the draft issue and reach real agreements together. This is possible.
The red line is crossed the moment one side forces its lifestyle on the other. Driving on Shabbat is a personal choice. Blocking the entrance to a street or paralyzing the country's roads in pirate protests, as we saw this week, led by extremist factions, is a violent strike against freedom of movement.
There is a very fine line between maintaining a lifestyle and coercion. Haredi politics tramples that line over and over.
The aggressive show of force that flooded the country's roads expresses a complete detachment from Israeli reality. While an entire nation fights for its existence, certain leaders choose to make it clear that the walls of sectarian isolation are more important to them than any national solidarity. The violent attempt to disrupt daily life is an open extortion attempt. The goal is clear: granting absolute immunity to draft dodgers and fortifying political privileges.
This escalation is a direct result of the haredi parties' failure. They tried to pass the original draft of the exemption law, designed to perpetuate a sweeping sectarian exemption. I strongly opposed it. It was pushed back thanks to the firm stance of a group of Zionist Knesset members from within the coalition. The haredi representatives realized that the direct route to draft evasion had been blocked. In response, they pulled out bypass laws.
We saw the Daycare Law, designed to guarantee government subsidies even for draft refusers. We also saw the Basic Law: Torah Study. These are moves that seek to disconnect the eligibility for benefits from the duty of military and civil service. They grant infuriating excess benefits to those who choose to shirk the state's defense. This is a cold and cynical attempt to get through the back door what the High Court of Justice and the public completely and justly rejected at the front door.
A danger to Israeli society
The worldview of the current haredi political leadership is dangerous to society, as it is based on exploiting the political system to secure large budgets. Religion has deeply entered politics and has become a financial burden on all Israeli citizens.
The haredi leadership demands we fund a separate lifestyle for one group at the expense of the values and lifestyle of the majority. The burden is divided in a distorted way. Our wonderful reservists are called up again and again to fight. While one sector protests for its right to dodge the draft, the public that actually serves in the military pays unimaginable prices. Families collapse. Businesses close. A combination of demanding that a serving public sacrifice its lives, alongside passing budgets that encourage draft evasion, is a moral distortion.
We are losing our direction. The State of Israel was founded on democratic and Western principles. We are gradually becoming a classic Middle Eastern country where the tribe holds central power. Blind tribal loyalty replaces statesmanship.
This tribalism encourages division, tears society apart, and weakens us from within. Knesset members from both sides of the aisle fall into this trap. They deepen the nation's tear for narrow political gain.
My vision is different. I want every person, in their own private space, to live their life exactly as they choose. Secular or religious, Jewish or Muslim. One person's choice will respect another's living space. Reality forces us to lead a deep structural change.
I say this out of reverence for the Torah and heritage, but with great pain: Israel must promote a separation that disconnects government institutions and public budgets from extortion. Turning religion into a tool of coercion and political wheeling and dealing fuels hatred. Israel must conduct itself as a modern, liberal democracy based on equal rights and an equal share of the burden of national service.
The only way to secure our future is by establishing a broad unity government. A right-wing government, resting on a solid Zionist majority that served in the military. A government free from dependence on extortionist fringe parties from both ends of the political spectrum. This will pave the way for a national leadership that will bring equality and justice. The public that serves in the IDF has proven it is the overwhelming and determined majority of this country. It is time we prove to our enemies that their weapon has failed, and that we choose true unity.
The writer serves as Israel's deputy foreign minister.