Even those who try their hardest will find it hard to ignore the difficult remarks, verbal violence, and even calls for physical violence on social media that accompanied the process of establishing a "pro-change" government last week.
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In a piece titled "'Traitors'? You've lost your mind" that ran in this paper last week, I warned of what was taking place. I wrote that while both sides have made valid arguments, there can be no use of violence or threats of violence.
In the five days that have since passed, the Shin Bet security agency has received intelligence that seriously increased concerns violence would spill over from the internet to the streets. Security has been beefed up for the potential targets of this violence – Yamina head Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid Yair Lapid.
Such an attack, were one God forbid to be carried out, would be ethically and morally invalid and would break the rules of the democratic political game.
The almost instinctive understanding among members of the "Right" that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the focus of hate, threats, and similar attacks for many months without sparking any kind of similar response is completely understandable. Yet hatred, violence, threats, threats of violence, and murder by one side do not justify their use by the other. Anyone who God forbid physically harms a political rival, regardless of which side they are on, harms not just Jewish morality and democracy but does severe damage to the very camp they purport to represent.
Shin bet chief Nadav Argaman acted appropriately when he issued a severe and unusual warning cautioning against playing with fire. We all must pray the Shin Bet succeeds in nipping any such attempt in the bud.
Another source of tensions, seen by one side of the political map as a threat to the "democratic process," is the Flag March in Jerusalem's Old City set for Thursday. The original march was cut short when Hamas fired rockets at the capital on Jerusalem Day. That rocket fire led Israel to launch Operation Guardian of the Walls in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is now once again threatening to strike Israel if the Flag March goes ahead. This new equation that Hamas has for months tried to create between Gaza and Jerusalem must now, too, be rejected outright on the Temple Mount, the Tomb of Simeon the Just, as well as the Flag March.
The march should go ahead as planned. It should make its way through the normal route, just as it has every year for decades. This is essential for both ourselves and Hamas.
Nevertheless, holding the march after a new government is sworn in next Monday won't detract from the event. It will prevent politicians like Yesh Atid MK Ram Ben Barak, who interpreted the planned march for next Friday as an "attempt to set the area ablaze and prevent the establishment of the expected government the following Monday," from offering their two cents.
They can carry and wave the Israeli flags through the Old City the day after the swearing-in ceremony. It just doesn't have to be this week.
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