The gates are still open: The reckoning Israel owes itself | Dan Perry

Dan Perry offers an Israeli reckoning in light of the Ten Commandments, four years after the formation of the Netanyahu government, against the backdrop of October 7 and the war. The column examines how each commandment reflects a contemporary moral failure: turning the Land of Israel into an idol, exploiting God's name for politics, religious coercion on Shabbat, neglect of the elderly, numbness to death in Gaza, betrayal of the civil covenant, land seizure, false testimony in politics, and a desire for the disappearance of Palestinians. The central message: the gates to repentance are still open.

Dan Perry, in a personal column for Yom Kippur, offers a national reckoning in light of the Ten Commandments. He writes four years after the formation of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, against the backdrop of the events of October 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza. The column examines each commandment as a lens for examining contemporary moral failures: turning the Land of Israel into an idol at the expense of human life, exploiting God's name to sanctify political agendas, turning Shabbat into a tool of coercion instead of a gift, neglecting Holocaust survivors and the elderly, numbness to the number of civilian deaths in Gaza, betrayal of the civil covenant of the Declaration of Independence, seizure of Palestinian lands in Judea and Samaria, false testimony in politics that turns disagreement into treason, and a desire for the disappearance of Palestinians. Perry argues that the state has become one that does not have to decide which state we choose to be, and calls for a return to a Judaism that loves the land without worshiping it, observes Shabbat without coercion, and protects Jewish lives while mourning innocent lives. He ends with hope: the gates are still open.