The Sorrow of Israeli-ness, Version 2.0
Ari Shavit argues that the 2026 elections are the last battle between Israelis and Jews. According to him, the trauma of October 7 created a cultural stress test that weakened Israeli-ness failed, turning the 2023 protest into the swan song of secularism. The 26th Knesset will be distinctly Jewish, and Israelis will be a negligible minority in it.
Ari Shavit argues that the 2026 elections are not just a referendum on October 7, the war, the judicial overhaul, the conscription of Haredim, and Netanyahu's rule, but the last great battle in the struggle between Israelis and Jews. According to him, the Israelis, who founded the state, were struck again on October 7, and the trauma created a cultural stress test that weakened Israeli-ness failed. The great protest of 2023, he says, was the last roar of Israeli-ness, but the Hamas attack turned it into a swan song. Shavit claims that the 26th Knesset will be distinctly Jewish, in which Israelis are a negligible minority, and the attempt to rebel against the Jewish fate has been sealed. The article concludes with a reference to Doron Rosenblum's article from thirty years ago on the sorrow of Israeli-ness.