Tell me, have you lost your minds? Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked are "traitors"? It that how it is? Bennett, who served in the elite Sayeret Matkal unit? Shaked, who along with senior Likud member Yariv Levin, authored the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People? Or MK Col. (res.) Matan Kahana, who served as an F-16 squadron commander?
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You can support their choice to go with the "change" camp, or oppose it. There are valid and less valid reasons from each side in this extremely real, primal ideological debate. But there is one thing about which there must not be any argument – that violence, death threats, and use of any form of the term "betrayal" are out of bounds. Here, by the protesters outside the Prime Minister's Residence, and everywhere else. It is the start of a slippery slope down which we will fall blindly. Anyone who has already been burned – one prime minister has already been murdered – cannot say it will not happen.
The fact that reality on the ground and on social media compelled the Knesset Guard and the Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency to assign protective details to Bennett and Shaked is a disgrace to Israeli society, and unacceptable. A tiny bunch of zealots from the fringes of the Right has lost it. The vast majority of people on the Right and in the Likud are not participants in the violence, but to keep us on safe ground, they must not remain silent. They can protest Bennett and Shaked, but need to condemn any and all violence or threats of violence, from any side. We expect this from Likud MKs as well as government ministers and the prime minister, who not so long ago was the target of similar threats.
It's possible that Bennett and Shaked are making a mistake and it's possible that they are right. That doesn't matter. There are rules to political debate, even when it touches the core of our souls. There are also rules to political decisions, even if someone is convinced that we're talking about the "fraud of the century." In the end, a decision either way is made by a majority and a minority.
If and when the "government of change" is established, its fans and opponents will both have to wish it success, because its failures could be failures for us all. In synagogues, on Shabbat, the public will continue to recite the prayer – whether for this government or a different one – "Bestow your light and truth upon its leaders, ministers, and advisors, and grace them with your good counsel."
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