A Look at the 5781 Riots (Column 388)

With God’s help

Disclaimer: This post was translated from Hebrew using AI (ChatGPT 5 Thinking), so there may be inaccuracies or nuances lost. If something seems unclear, please refer to the Hebrew original or contact us for clarification.

This column is dedicated to my dear son, Shlomi,

and no less to the naturalistic fallacy and the failure to distinguish between values and facts that surfaced for me in our debate.

In the previous column I discussed the Meron disaster and its implications, but I didn’t touch on the question of responsibility. I could now address our present-absent Minister of Public Security (who knows where he is? Has anyone heard anything?) and our Prime Minister—both of whom get to sign off on another fiasco within two weeks (who today even remembers Meron?): the 5781 riots. True, at the same time there are currently intense coalition negotiations as well as the latest round with Hamas, rockets flying at Jerusalem and the Dan region for the first time (a red line crossed?), but none of that is actually the important issue these days. That’s just a return to routine after COVID. What is truly new are the internal riots now raging inside the country, mainly in the mixed cities and not only there, while no one is doing anything. The State of Israel is on fire and the government and police are not with us. Last night we witnessed mutual lynchings of Jews and Arabs, together with heavy (relatively) and futile (as usual) bombings in Gaza, and of course barrages of rockets and civilians confined to shelters across the country (at least up to Netanya and the Jezreel Valley). This is an unprecedented situation, and it feels like an earthquake that puts COVID in the shade (though the time scale is much shorter). Signed with both hands on all this is the collection of the corrupt and the dwarfs currently at the helm. They built themselves a non-functioning platform (and are, these days, working on another one) that carries us on its palms to the situation I described here. I postponed some columns I planned to write, since the current events demand some response. But I won’t address responsibility directly here, since those fellows are the last people interested in responsibility (and my columns don’t really interest them either). Here I wish to present eight insights that arose in me during these events. Of course, we are still in the thick of it and things may yet develop. There hasn’t been enough time to think and process, thus no perspective. Still, I can’t let this pass in silence. So everything here is true as of now (at most).

Background: The Dead and the Killers of Lod

By way of background, as a resident of Lod—one of the main hotspots—I’ll try to sketch the situation. In recent evenings, battles and civil wars have raged in the streets. Firearms so far only at the margins (though they’re starting to appear), but there’s plenty of cold weapons and arson. Groups of people roam the streets armed with cold and hot weapons, seeking contact. Hundreds of cars have already been burned, several synagogues and the pre-military academy. The streets are full of smoke and fire everywhere and sometimes it’s hard to breathe. Needless to say, various outside actors, Jews and Arabs, arrive and join the party and even fan the flames. Arabs from Jaffa and East Jerusalem on the one hand, and elements from Yitzhar and La Familia on the Jewish side, are very happy to participate and stoke what’s happening. The scene looks like gang and gunslinger wars in a lawless Wild West, only unlike there I don’t see the Texas Rangers who, in the movies, always come at the end to restore order. Here they don’t exist. For now there are mostly injured and few dead (as far as I know while writing, one Arab killed in Lod), but in my estimation if the vacuum continues, that too will change before long. I pinch myself to believe this is happening in the State of Israel in the 21st century. Until now I lived with the feeling that left-wing warnings about regime and democracy collapse were baseless hysteria. Here this won’t happen, cannot happen. Well—turns out it can. These days we’re not far off from it (though not necessarily for their reasons—perhaps for the opposite ones).

This is a colossal failure unlike anything we’ve seen, with clear parties responsible and to blame. This time even Ohana, the Minister of Public Security, the demagogue and the present-absent man, won’t be able to deploy his well-known erudition and distinguish between responsibility and blame, as he did so elegantly with respect to the Meron event. Here the blame is directly his, not merely ministerial responsibility. But as noted, I’m not dealing here with that collection of incompetents. I presented the situation only as a general description of the failure, to serve as background for several principled points worth noting (some I’ve addressed before).

A. The Wonders of Social Media

First I return to column 335. The penny dropped for me after a debate I had the day before yesterday with my son, Shlomi, about the events. I described to him, with excitement and full confidence, everything that happened around the incident that ignited the blaze in Lod (the shooting of an Arab on Jerusalem Day), and he kept asking me, rightly, how I knew those details. Until finally I realized I actually didn’t know, and then I understood something important about turbulent situations like these.

In these frantic days, people around me (including myself, of course) are all living in movies. WhatsApp and the social networks are arenas that generate feelings and modes of thinking that affect our entire perception of reality. We can all claim to be savvy media consumers who know how to sift wheat from chaff, but that’s not entirely true. Even experienced consumers inevitably fall into the traps of social media. Every WhatsApp group (I’m exposed only to that network, and even that in limited fashion) is naturally made up of people who think alike and belong to the same milieu. Thus the militant right (which is expanding around us) is fueled by “facts” all pointing to Arab rioting and pogroms against Jews who are merely trying to defend themselves, and of course the evil police arrest only them (there isn’t a single Arab detainee!! so WhatsApp says). The militant left and the Arabs also feed off WhatsApp and present the same tendentious blindness, only they belong to a different milieu. There, the picture that forms is the exact opposite: settlers rampage with weapons against innocent Arab passers-by and there is no one to stop them. And the police—surprise!—collaborate with them and harm Arabs.

So who’s right? I assume both, to a degree. The police truly do nothing, but I gather they don’t act very evenly. They mainly try to do the bare minimum and on the way buy a few minutes of quiet (for themselves, not for others). They tend to use force against the weak but do nothing where they’re truly needed. It’s not just that the police don’t fix the situation; they are primarily responsible (mainly by scandalous neglect) for the chaos raging here. Hear me, Ohana? (I don’t know if my words reach the bunker where he’s hiding these days.)

In WhatsApp-world, every small incident becomes a worldview and a general natural phenomenon. A picture of a destroyed house (who knows if it itself isn’t fake) becomes a sweeping claim that every home abandoned by Jews is destroyed by Arab invaders (so everyone—come fight for the house! We will not go like sheep to the slaughter!). You see a photo of police evacuating Jews from mixed buildings with Arabs, which naturally arouses great frustration and anger, and this immediately turns into a general picture: this is what’s done in Lod. Evacuating Jews, aiding Arabs. Practically the British Mandate police. As is known, a picture is worth a thousand words, and a rousing slogan that accompanies the picture’s “analysis” is worth a thousand arguments.

In short, I suddenly noticed I was describing to my son Shlomi, with excitement, what happened around the shooting in which the Arab was killed the day before yesterday, as if everything were crystal clear. I passionately explained that the police again arrested people who were merely defending themselves. Don’t tell anyone, but I even found myself—contrary to my usual policy—driving to the Rishon LeZion courthouse to show support for the detainees brought for remand. I still feel sympathy for them and understand their actions, but I’m less sure now about what in fact happened. Needless to say, when Ben-Gvir and his colleagues took command of the scene there, I felt clearly I’d made a mistake.

When I pull myself together and try to dig deeper, I usually discover the picture is a bit more complex. Indeed, Arabs are rioting and incited, indeed this doesn’t necessarily relate to facts (see: “Al-Aqsa is in danger”), indeed different players stir the pot and fan the flames, and indeed the police are utterly non-functional—but not very different phenomena occur on the Jewish side too. We also have racists and rioters, violent nihilists who harm innocents for no reason (see the shocking lynch that happened this evening in Bat Yam), or just normal people making mistakes under pressure and fear. It turns out it’s not so clear what really happens in each such event, even though everyone is so certain and knows the facts for sure. Agenda gets mixed with facts, and the mutual reinforcement group members get from each other generates a dangerous sense of certainty and dangerous frustrations not always built on a solid factual basis (see that column). Both sides are driven by feelings of absolute justice and palpable danger, and then a collision is inevitable.

From the Jewish side, the facts are unequivocal: Arabs are rioters and Jews are arrested for nothing. Jews go out to defend their lives, in real danger from a mob of incited, masked rioters, and they are the ones the police arrest, while Arabs go free. Ukraine and the British Mandate are here. But I’m sure that among the Arabs, that is precisely the picture (as noted, I’m not in their WhatsApp groups); just swap “Jews” and “Arabs” in the previous sentences.

Clarification: My principled position on such shooting

To sharpen the message, I’ll clarify my principled stance. You may be surprised, but I’m entirely in favor of shooting rioters, even before there is a concrete danger to life. Rioters who attack me and do not heed warnings, even if they threaten only property, can and should pay with their lives. I wrote similar things around the Shai Dromi affair, and argued there this is also the halakhah (contrary to popular interpretation of “ba ba-machteret”). Therefore I have no moral claims against those who shot that Arab, even if the danger he posed wasn’t unequivocal, and even if it was property rather than life at stake. I have no empathy for rioters—neither Arabs nor Jews—and I truly do not feel sorrow for the life of such a rioter taken (if indeed he was a rioter; I don’t know). Good riddance. My claim here is not about justifying the act or whether it is worthy or not, but solely about examining the facts that led to it and occurred within it. I want to remind you and myself, again and again, that the descriptions of reality circulating on social networks are not reality itself. My sympathy for the shooters still stands, but now I realize the knowledge of what happened doesn’t really exist for me. I suspect not many understand this—and even fewer internalize it.

Yet despite my basic sympathy and my fundamentally militant approach, it’s important to say I also think anarchy is a problem (which is why my anarchist tendencies usually don’t find practical expression). In principle, the police should have done this (shot rioters, Jews or Arabs), but when there’s a police vacuum, as in the 5781 riots or in Shai Dromi’s case, then in my view a private individual can take the law into his own hands. The police should long since have used live fire against rioters—Jewish or Arab. Yes, I’m talking about shooting to kill rioters, even if it’s not to save lives but to impose discipline. Entrust that authority to a senior officer, but it must be done. Anarchy is a tremendous danger to human life and to our existence here (see my essay here, where I show that undermining the state framework and its functioning has the status of pikuach nefesh, even if no one ultimately dies). As in many cases in the past (see: Intifada), so here, the excessive caution that allegedly spares human life—but mainly stems from cowardice—can cost us many more lives. A king can and must kill when his authority and rule are threatened, for without him, people devour one another. Today we see this with our own eyes. Not for nothing, a rebel against the monarchy is liable to death. If we’re told that a democratic government has the status of a king, we should draw the conclusions here as well.

But again, the problem I’m dealing with here is solely the description of reality. I suddenly understood that I, Michael Avraham—the rational and critical one who isn’t so immersed in the immediate and virtual environment—am becoming brainwashed in the heat of events. I realized I had adamant positions about the events when, in truth, I had no real clue about what actually happened. So I took a step back, I’m recalculating, and among other things, writing you these lines.

This is the first insight: Don’t believe any story you hear or see until you’ve checked well and heard from additional sources (preferably also from the other side). And certainly don’t draw general conclusions from that specific event, even if you’ve become convinced about it. This applies all the more in times of unrest and riots like these days. The virtual madness has lost what few brakes it had. People spread fabrications, sometimes even with good intentions (usually to spur private and institutional actors to act).

B. The Governmental and Enforcement Vacuum

One thing is crystal clear: it all begins with a governmental and enforcement vacuum. The justification I find for the shooting by Shai Dromi or by those involved in the riots here in Lod is solely because of this vacuum. When there’s no police, you have to be your own police. There’s no one else to do the job for you. Farmers like Shai Dromi, who lose the labor of their lives because of this governmental fecklessness—will testify.

At the root of police failure is governmental failure. There’s supposed to be someone running our abysmal police and setting its policy. There isn’t. The government doesn’t function and has no clue what to do, in almost every field. It doesn’t want to and cannot do anything. Add to that a police force that, in the absence of orders, only wants an easy life and a few quiet days, and unsurprisingly shows total dysfunction—and you have a proven recipe for riots.

The story in Lod escalated following a shooting incident the day before yesterday (mentioned above) where a young Arab was killed by a Jew’s pistol in Lod. I heard from friends that there was a confrontation between a group of Jews and Arabs, dozens on each side. There were cinder blocks and finally a Molotov cocktail. All along people were calling the police—some practically in tears—asking and begging them to come (recordings of the calls are circulating on WhatsApp). One acquaintance called the police and told them the Jews intended to shoot and demanded they come immediately. But the police didn’t arrive even after an hour and a quarter of pleading, even when told explicitly that shots were imminent. Afterwards I heard the excuses about stretched manpower across the country. Not buying it. Proof: after the shooting they arrived en masse right away, and arrested—surprise!—three Jews on suspicion of manslaughter.

Naturally, the Jewish narrative formed around the case is that these were people who bravely went out to stop Arab rioters in the absence of police, to defend their lives, their friends’ lives, and property—and when they had no choice they fired (into the air). Later I learned that at least partially this isn’t exactly the story. They first went out with flags to express sovereignty and governance (I can imagine the atmosphere), and I don’t know how clear and unequivocal the danger was at the moment of shooting (I truly don’t know). The claim was that the shooter felt a palpable danger and fired into the air, but somehow the Arab was hit and died. But I’ve already spoken about my grasp of the facts and my sobering up. I’ll only say that from there—especially after the Arab’s funeral—the Lod riots snowballed into the madness we’re now experiencing. Civil wars like the Wild West, where there is no law and no judge. The vacuum leads us straight from Lodz and Blue Ridge to Lod.

Such a situation causes frustrations to build and weapons and tensions to accumulate, making riots inevitable. Arab gunfire, almost always on a criminal background, is an everyday thing in Lod. The police threaten but do nothing (“We’ll operate with full force and zero tolerance, at the time and place we deem appropriate.” Sound familiar?). Arabs themselves complain the police don’t care because the weapons aren’t harming Jews—and there’s some truth to that. But when they’re required to cooperate, and certainly when required to pay any price (e.g., provide information to the police), you’ll always find them on the other side. They of course refuse to cooperate and even fight alongside their “persecuted brothers” (the criminal gun-holders) against the Zionist, occupying, hostile police. Enlisting in the police? Don’t even mention it (same on our side, of course; if you didn’t know—I didn’t enlist there either). But of course, in their view, the police are to blame for everything. The police must save them from themselves (a typical Palestinian claim)[1]. But we can’t deny they’re right. Despite all my justifications and critique of the Arabs’ stance, the police still should have acted—because the foreseeable results are already almost here, and worse lies just around the corner.

C. The Vacuum Doesn’t Stay Empty: Between Lod and Giv’ot Olam

Into this vacuum, of course, step all the world’s provocateurs, from all sides. Ben-Gvir and his fellows live off such scenes. Who came to that demonstration in Rishon LeZion? Ben-Gvir, of course. Who spoke and set the tone there? Ben-Gvir, of course. But he’s right, since the lack of governance here is indeed disgraceful. I didn’t see Meretz people step in to manage the vacuum, nor even Bennett. Although there’s merit to the claim that someone needs to act in place of the police, I’d very much prefer that that “someone” not be the Ben-Gvirs and the Yitzhar folk.

Thus, Yitzhar hooligans and La Familia arrive in Lod and other cities across the country, and anyone observing them can see they’re enjoying every moment. Anarchy gives them life, and they’re experts with experience in such situations. The curses those “righteous ones” hurl when they come to help God’s warriors in Lod and elsewhere would not shame the last of the beasts in a pigsty. They fight valiantly against two young Arabs throwing stones, and with my astonished ears I heard them, while doing so, bark to one another—as well as to the local Sancho Panza seeking to tag along and learn their holy ways—military commands like: “Align the line,” and so on. Their feeling (and that of their surroundings) is that this is a desperate battle of heroism on Ammunition Hill.

Needless to say, enthusiasm among city residents (those Sanchos) overflows. Everyone cheers the Yitzhar heroes who came to our aid and fill the void. Stories spread immediately of how the police don’t dare budge here and wait for Yitzhar escort vehicles. Needless to say, everyone quotes this urban legend (at least that’s my assessment) as pure fact, and the feeling is that the Yitzharites arranged matters for us here—kudos to them. True, all that was the day before yesterday (Monday). Last night (Tuesday), La Familia’s saints joined in, and this parade of beasts makes the Yitzhar people look like knights of law and morality. Everything is relative. I sense that at this stage quite a few Lod residents sobered up. Everyone now sees these are bipedal beasts by all accounts, lacking restraint but not knives (once again, a long-standing police and governmental failure).

The mechanism goes like this. Lod’s bourgeois don’t know how to handle such situations. They’re accountants and lawyers living in comfortable homes (like me), unaccustomed to street battles and riots. They’re even a little afraid of tangling with the police, heaven forbid (since when it comes to us and against us, the police do act). So it’s convenient to hand the task to the Yitzhar gangs and be led by them (Sancho syndrome). In the absence of police, when a sense of helplessness forms vis-à-vis Arab rioters (sometimes real, sometimes imagined), it’s natural for those savages from Yitzhar to “handle it.” They have experience, and they give a sense of security in the streets because they’re “ours,” even if that comes along with completely unnecessary incitement that doesn’t add anything for anyone (not even to security), and even if it’s clear they’re relishing every moment. Still, it gives a good feeling, and thus helps them secure a leadership status as a new, proud Jewish model that won’t go like sheep to the slaughter. For them, it helps create identification with the battles they wage on the hilltops over the years against the establishment, the army, and the Arabs. Now the bourgeois here will understand they are right and that only this way can it work. So no wonder they quickly arrive in Lod, seize leadership positions, and get to work, and later spread tales of heroism on social networks. I’m not claiming they lack good intentions, only that these are accompanied by a very problematic agenda and by an equally problematic exploitation of the opportunity.

We must understand that this rampage in the streets gives many here a sense of Jewish pride—especially against the backdrop of the accumulating frustration from ongoing humiliation. People feel like victims of a pogrom, helpless like our forefathers in Ukraine—only this is happening in sovereign Israel. Our local “Indians” riot against us—those in Gaza and, in parallel, those in Lod—while the institutions and security forces do nothing. Is this why we established a state? Shall we go like sheep to the slaughter? Hence a natural sympathy develops for these savages, and level-headed people turn before my eyes into a slightly milder type of hilltop anarchist.

From last night’s lynch images in Bat Yam, I sense the Lod phenomenon I described is broader and more general. There too, La Familia’s beasts dragged additional locals who joined and carried out a shocking lynch on an Arab who (apparently by mistake) drove into the area. The governmental and enforcement vacuum grants leadership space to any actor who enters forcefully enough. The riot-instigators, aside from the pure enjoyment they derive from the situation, know they’ll profit from it—and so they happily and zealously contribute their part. The Sanchos—meaning us—arrive right after.

D. What’s the Alternative?

At the margins I must add a factual note, beyond value claims. In my estimation, had these guys not come, even factually things would be much better—at least in the long term. Again, I don’t pity rioters, and I have no leftist pangs of conscience about a forceful, assertive civilian response—certainly when a governmental and enforcement vacuum reigns. But even if in the short term these savages act more sharply and quickly and even if they achieve some results (I doubt even that—certainly not as claimed), in the long term it brings mainly harm. In my view, their absence would have forced us—Lod’s bourgeois—to organize and handle matters with our own hands. That had already begun. If we had done it and not they, I suppose it would have been carried out a bit more balanced and measured, and perhaps wouldn’t have inflamed as it has now.

Therefore, with all due respect to their mobilization and idealism, I’m really not thrilled by the help of those “righteous” who came here. I must say it’s entirely possible, even likely, that there are truly good motives and devotion there—also in their Yitzhar activity. I’m sure part of it is a genuine desire to help people (excuse me—Jews) in distress and to fulfill the commandment of settling and conquering the land. But accompanying this are highly problematic motives and conduct, and the expected results are disastrous. So I would gladly forgo their “kindness.”

E. A Look at Sovereignty: On the Movement of Ideas in Israel

It’s worth remembering that the pogroms and these events began on Jerusalem Day—the day on which national/nationalist feeling bursts out proudly over our (non-existent) sovereignty in Jerusalem. It’s common that Jerusalem Day is almost a full consensus in the religious community, unlike Independence Day, which is disputed by the Haredim. As you can understand, to me Jerusalem Day is meaningless—unlike Independence Day. On Independence Day we merited a state and independence—certainly a reason to celebrate. But on Jerusalem Day we merited theoretical (and not truly realized) sovereignty in Jerusalem. I think theoretical sovereignty over a place is not a reason to celebrate—certainly not when it’s the sovereignty of the State of Israel, a secular state with no religious meaning (I don’t think it’s a Jewish state in the essential sense). That’s true even had we had sovereignty in Jerusalem. When it isn’t realized, it’s even more meaningless. At most, the victory granted us limited access to the Western Wall and ascent to the Temple Mount by permission of the Waqf for interested parties (no praying and no murmuring, heaven forbid). So what is there to celebrate? The theoretical sovereignty of the State of Israel—the beginning of our confusion—over Jerusalem? I wrote people two days ago that I don’t understand the point of celebrating Jerusalem Day when we haven’t yet conquered it. Why harness the horses before the cart?!

But following these days’ riots, I’m beginning to doubt—by the same logic—the value and meaning of Independence Day too. It seems sovereignty in the whole land isn’t really existent either, not just in Jerusalem. I confess and am ashamed that after presenting the spiritual developments here, I’m beginning to feel that these words are my version of a revised “Faith of Our Times.”

I’ve said and written more than once that flag-dancing isn’t truly celebration and joy, but a nationalist show of sovereignty. The more the understanding that we don’t really have sovereignty, that we haven’t truly returned to Jerusalem, penetrates people’s consciousness, the more frustration grows—and it’s no wonder it bursts out as nationalist bluster in the style of “We’ll show them who’s boss” (if the police and government won’t do it—we’re here. The eternal people aren’t afraid, etc.). It’s now easy to see what this means regarding the 5781 riots.

The riots across the country and in Lod broke out on Jerusalem Day itself, following Hamas rocket fire at Jerusalem (which also led to the cancellation of the flag march). I think once again frustration was created by an injury to our sense of sovereignty. Let them shell the Gaza Envelope and a few unfortunates die there whom no one really cares about—but to send a rocket to a supermarket or public garden in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv? That’s a real red-line crossing. And if they ruin our dance that expresses frustration over the absence of sovereignty—then the frustration doubles. We lack sovereignty even to express our frustration at the lack of sovereignty. The usual frustrations over non-existent sovereignty in Jerusalem expanded naturally to the rest of the country and inflamed greatly. People go out to demonstrations with flags to express sovereignty, and that elicits “suitable” Arab responses from the opposing nationalist camp. The events we’re witnessing are the result of that frustration. It’s a desire to show sovereignty and express frustration at its absence, wherever the state is missing—and that vacuum generates everything described above, and thus the sovereignty we had achieved to some measure is going to waste.

F. Futility

To be honest, the hardest feeling these days—beyond the colossal lack of governance and control—is futility, both inward and outward. Citizens are prepared to endure shelters, property damage, suffering, even loss of life—if it’s clear there’s purpose. If it were clear there’s a government that knows what to do, acts along a decided path, and after a day, a week, or a year we might reap fruits of our efforts. But everyone knows that what’s happening now has no purpose. Not that perhaps we won’t see fruits—people can err in assessments, expectations, and plans, and that’s forgivable. Here there are simply no expectations or plans, and thus nothing to realize. What’s happening today in Gaza is yet another round in a long series that have brought us nothing beyond the price in civilian and military lives and in property that drives people into distress. And at the end of each round, we pay “tax/bribe” to Hamas that further improves their situation, so they might deign to grant us a bit of quiet. The dumping of tons of metal on Gaza is nothing but venting frustration, not policy (remember: war is the continuation of policy by force). Everyone knows it’s meant to give citizens a sense of satisfaction from revenge for the injury to them and to the state’s sovereignty, and also to divert public attention and provide catharsis for their frustrations. None of this has any practical aim. We won’t achieve even quiet there (unless the Palestinians need a break and more funding for rearmament).

All that regarding Gaza and Hamas. As for the internal riots now raging, it’s even clearer. The context is clear: utter helplessness of the government and army, standing powerless before relatively weak actors and unable to move the needle. They don’t even have goals or expectations—so how are they to act to realize non-goals? There’s a connection between Gaza events and the 5781 pogrom—not just their proximity in time. Both result from the same helplessness and fecklessness, and thus they influence and feed each other. I’ve already noted (see e.g., column 149) that Israeli governments have no policy, no real aim in any field, apart from a heartbreaking wish to gain a few more quiet days. But our game-theory sages taught us: whoever seeks quiet will never get it. Or in another phrasing: he who desires peace must prepare for war. Helplessness creates frustration, the vacuum calls outside forces into it, and that’s a tried-and-true recipe for the disintegration we’re now witnessing.

G. The 5781 Events and the Joker

At the end of column 258 I referred to the film Joker, which for me was an instructive experience. It stirred in me not a few gloomy reflections about human society, especially about the bubbling lava beneath the organized and orderly outer layer that characterizes modern society. I thought that within every society lie so many tensions and different forces: crazy people, psychopaths, rigid and determined ideological forces, enemies outside and within, plain wicked folk, and more—that it’s a wonder that, broadly speaking, the various democracies function fairly normally. We have rules and institutions that organize our lives, and the feeling is that all those hidden threats don’t exist. Who even thinks about them? But the Joker’s director apparently did. He shows us how a small, random spark—an ordinary man at the margins—can bring that bubbling lava to the surface; suddenly the fabric of our calm, orderly lives turns into utter chaos, with violent street battles between groups of rioters and governmental paralysis. To be clear, I’m describing what happened in the film, not what’s happening now on our streets. Admit it: it’s very hard to tell the difference.

As citizens of a modern democracy, it’s very hard for us to digest that in the past diseases and plagues killed people and children before whom we stood helpless. It’s strange to us that violent people could then attack you and you couldn’t really call the police to arrive within minutes (?). At best you could recruit a militia, build a coalition of associates or mercenaries, and try to defend yourself. In illness you could perhaps pray and use grandma’s remedies—and that’s it. Infant mortality and life expectancy of thirty–forty were part of life. In trouble you might solicit donations to be saved, if you managed. If not—you’re in trouble. No wonder everyone then was religious! We have only our Father in Heaven. Today, by contrast, we have insurance and/or national insurance to help when needed; an army and police to assist us in an organized way; courts, laws, and a sophisticated central government; a decentralized food supply functioning astonishingly (wonders of the free market); organized welfare and education; technology and global logistics enabling us to move elsewhere if needed; communications and information flood; and more. Seemingly, we can cope with any calamity and our fate is in our hands. Today we have technology, advanced medicine, orderly government, power mechanisms and power-control mechanisms that control all this—and thus we feel calm and tranquil day to day.

That’s the angst COVID aroused in so many of us. Suddenly we returned to the Middle Ages and to strange, forgotten notions like plagues and mass death beyond our control. Even the all-knowing men of science stood helpless before the phenomenon, not always managing even to analyze what was—and certainly not to predict what would be. I feel the events of these days evoke similar feelings. They’re the result of a small spark and inattention that—like in Joker—reveals reservoirs of lava hidden beneath the calm cover that previously wrapped us. Suddenly we’ve returned from mid-21st-century life in an orderly state to the depths of the Middle Ages: pogroms in the streets, insecurity, pogroms against Jews (and Arabs), loss of livelihood, loss of control, lack of central government, and the like. Nothing is as certain as it was two days ago—including our very existence here. Our fate is no longer truly in our hands. No wonder people feel it’s time to take it back. If it’s the Middle Ages—act like the Middle Ages. In Rome, do as the Romans. I’ve noticed I’m so accustomed to the previous order and protection that these descriptions don’t even make me feel fear. I’m as calm now as I was three days ago, and the depictions I present above come from the head, not the heart. I don’t truly believe it can all fall apart.

H. So Who Is to Blame?

In my estimation, this failure utterly dwarfs the Yom Kippur War fiasco—they’re not even in the same league. These days I think there’s some risk (though currently not high) that the State of Israel won’t survive these events—but even if it does, it’s unclear what things will look like. Everyone knows that in Israel today there is no government, and we’re in a crisis unprecedented to date. The street battles raging across the country before the helpless eyes of our passive, clueless police are the result of years of eroding governance, where every power—executive, political, judicial, or media—does whatever seems right in its own eyes. From constitutional unraveling we’ve reached complete unraveling. It only remains for the weapons stockpiled in the Arab sector to come out and be used, for a change, nationally rather than “just” criminally—and if Hezbollah joins the party with its rockets, I truly don’t know what will be left of us.

But fear not—no one here will be held to account for this failure, nor for the previous ones. Not the corrupt one at the top, not the vanishing Minister of Public Security, nor the other dwarfs and incompetents around him who do nothing and brought us to this state. It’s hard for me to imagine a collection of creatures more pitiful—except perhaps the citizens who vote for them again and again and won’t let this fecklessness affect their choices. In the end, the blame is always ours—the citizens. We’re the ones who let this reality happen and let La Familia rule the day, and we do nothing. We’re the ones who repeatedly vote for the same incompetents and the same bleary-eyed dwarfs without noticing the costs and consequences. So I shouldn’t complain—we’re eating what we ourselves cooked.

[1] Just today I heard Arab voices in Lod claiming that the two Arab fatalities from yesterday’s Gaza rocket that landed in Lod are the direct fault of the Jewish, Zionist, occupying police and government. Why? Because they didn’t build them shelters. How can we allow their brothers—those who enjoy their support and sympathy in acts of terror and rocket fire against us—to kill them too, and not only us?! Truly we are to blame. We should have protected them well to allow them to cheer the rocket fire at us and rejoice at every death on our side. Shame.