1.
A statesman is someone who respects the state ("The kingdom") and its institutions. But what happens when a certain institution doesn't respect the state? Worse yet, doesn't respect its citizens – should we continue to pretend? And suppose that despite our rights being trampled, we made an effort to reach the kingdom's honor. Did we hear any remorse or change?
Justice Isaac Amit has crowned himself president of the Supreme Court. In his speech, he extended a hand for "dialogue, discourse, and substantive cooperation" with the government, for the sake of "the public" and "service to citizens." As of now, the Supreme Court doesn't just serve as a check on the legislative and executive branches. It effectively manages the state by expanding its authority to all political, security, economic, and certainly value-based issues – which should be discussed and decided by the public through their elected representatives.
Unlike other authorities, there are no checks on the Supreme Court, not even a restraining hand, to decide as it wishes, except for the judges' goodwill (and perhaps public outrage). In the reasonableness ruling, the court crossed even the red line it had drawn until then: invalidating basic laws that, according to its approach, are part of a future constitution. Theoretically, could Amit and his colleagues invalidate the Law of Return claiming it contradicts Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty? The answer, regrettably, is yes. Justice Amit extends a hand to the legislative and executive branches after trampling their authority? Very well. Please keep the court from intervening in non-legal matters and limit its ambition to manage the entire state . This will be the beginning of restoration.
2.
Those invested in the idea of a Palestinian state on the mountain ridge, a spitting distance from the heart of the country, are disturbed by the idea of population transfer. In their frenzy, they've reached the comparison with the establishment of the "Central Office for Jewish Emigration" in Nazi Germany. Fine, Israel in the Nazi role while Hamas in the role of the Jews. During my tenure in Italy, I saw similar malicious responses toward Israel; I used to call them "intellectual laziness." Not in this case. First, if only all Jews had emigrated from Germany in time, their lives would have been saved. But German Jews were German patriots and sacrificed themselves by the thousands in the German army.
The correct comparison is between the Allies' treatment of the Nazis and Israel's treatment of the new Nazis in Gaza, who raped and beheaded and burned people alive and even filmed and boasted about it; whose reason for existence isn't normal life but killing Jews; who educate their children to glorify October 7 and raise generations that will continue to murder Jews the moment they can; who declare their murderous intentions toward us, from the Hamas charter to these days. October 7 finally sealed the possibility of living alongside these barbarians. A nation that desires life must remove this population of murderers and transfer them to other places, and the sooner the better.
We don't live by the words of those horrified by the idea of population transfer, nor should we learn morality from them. Our sages taught that in a case where the dilemma exists of what comes first – "your life or your friend's life" – the answer is: "your life comes first." This is regarding friends. All the more so regarding preferring our lives over an enemy who has sworn to destroy us and has proven it thousands of times. Population transfers were carried out among tens of millions worldwide in the last century. This is a moral (stately) action to save our lives and theirs.
3.
And what's happening in Kritayalivka (the old Shtetel of Jewish author Sholem Aleichem)? Business as usual. In the midst of a crucial battle for our existence, supposedly serious people gather weekly in the courthouse in the first Hebrew city to examine whether the one commanding the battle received a bribe in the form of foolish news items on an insignificant site. In its haste to accuse, the prosecution didn't pay attention to details and submitted to the court 315 "proofs," many of which turn out to be negative coverage. During the discussion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to leave to approve critical security matters and then return to discuss bottles, hairstyles, and slander. Blessed is the kingdom that has such concerns. This is how the Bible describes the brothers' hatred of Joseph: "And they hated him, and could not speak peacefully to him... And they continued to hate him more... And his brothers envied him."
