There are few things that unite nearly all Israelis like support for our young soldiers, or the collective mourning that accompanies battlefield losses. But even those sacred pillars of modern Israeli society are being assaulted as Israel’s Left and Right move further apart.
This is no secret. It’s been going on for a while.
See: Do Israelis Still See One Another as Brothers?
The curious thing about the incident we’d like to highlight here is that it involved an ultra-Orthodox progressive leftist.
It’s not unusual for ultra-Orthodox Jews to be anti-Zionist, but they are usually still conservative, even regarding security and strategic control of the land.
Not so with Israel Frey, a left-wing ultra-Orthodox journalist who has been arrested before over remarks that encouraged Palestinian terrorism against Israel.
Following the death of Sgt. David Yehudah Yitzchak at the tail end of the counter-terrorism operation in Jenin, Frey got offensive on Twitter.
While the rest of the nation was in mourning, Frey suggested that the young fallen soldier deserved his fate.
“I know they’ll call me provocative and that I’m dancing on the blood of another, but at a time when fascism is rising we must declare the naked truth,” Frey started the tweet before explaining why, in his eyes, Sgt. Yitzchak and his IDF comrades were the true villains of this tale.
“In his life and in his death, the soldier David Yehudah Yitzchak was a criminal,” asserted Frey. “In life as a resident of thieving settlements, and in death as a violent subjugator of a refugee camp and its hapless residents.”
Frey ended his shameful tirade by saying that Sgt. Yitzchak had made a “0 percent contribution to the security of the state,” and had given “100 percent barbarism in service to a messianic vision.”
See related: Orthodox vs Religious Zionist Jews
Jewish settlers like Sgt. Yitzchak are often referred to by their left-wing detractors as “messianic” over their belief that settling the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria is a fulfillment of prophecy that will eventually lead to the coming of Messiah.
Those comments by the ultra orthodox journalist were shameful and indefensible. Does he think peace can be attained by capitulating to terrorism? The slain IDF soldier was a true hero regardless of whether he was from a settlement or not. The fact that he was is perhaps testament to a Zionist vision but without that Israel has no real future.
Some liberal Canadian told me, it’s biblical that a “Christian should love his enemy”.
Well, Satan is my enemy.
I’ll just leave it at that.