Zealotry – not baseless hatred – will lead to Israel’s collapse

Any graduate of a respectable Israeli kindergarten has learned that the Second Temple was destroyed “because of baseless hatred.” Every adult Israeli knows to warn against its recurrence in our time. But history tells a different story. The destruction of the Second Temple – followed some 60 years later by the near-destruction of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel after the Bar Kokhba revolt was crushed – resulted chiefly from nationalist and religious zealotry. Then as now, this fanaticism imperils the Jewish state.

When the extremes set the terms of public discourse – and, more dangerously, of politics – they can bring renewed Jewish sovereignty to an end. Only the determination of a moderate majority, committed to the broadest possible common ground, can safeguard and strengthen Israel as it approaches its centennial.

The destruction of the Second Temple, the devastation of Jewish life in the Land of Israel, and the onset of 2,000 years of exile are well-documented historical events. Like every major historical event, there wasn’t a single cause. Still, if we distill the factors that ultimately produced the catastrophe from the multitude of surviving sources, two stand out: the collapse of internal Jewish governance and the religious and nationalist zealotry that eroded it.

These forces drove the process, made the destruction possible, and greatly accelerated it. The burning of one another’s food stores in Jerusalem by extremists from rival camps is the starkest symbol of their conduct over many years. Had we interviewed them, they would have insisted that nothing they did was “baseless.” Like rigid ideologues everywhere, each possessed a coherent worldview that drove them to fanaticism, civil war, and blindness to external threats.

The parallels with Israel on Tisha B’Av 5786 are frightening. Israelis plainly fear that cohesion is eroding and society is unraveling. According to JPPI’s Israeli Society Index, 55 percent of Israelis consider internal division the gravest threat facing the country, compared with 23% who cite the Iranian threat. No less than 80% are worried about Israel’s social condition. The good news is that most Israelis also believe that “on the issues that matter, most Israelis agree with one another.” In other words, at the heart of Israeli society is a broad public that regards our deepest disputes as solvable.

But today, too, the zealots are the problem. Across every hard issue dividing Israeli society – in foreign affairs and public policy, but above all in domestic disputes – extremists will do everything they can to thwart compromise or accommodation. The battle over the judiciary is a glaring example; it has already dragged us toward the abyss of civil war. Legal experts and experienced politicians know full well that compromise and solutions are possible – and could have been reached throughout the past several years. It was fanatics on both the right and the left who were prepared to “die” over every last jot and tittle.

Another example is Israeli policy in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Everyone familiar with the issue understands that the far right’s tacit backing of Jewish terrorism could cost Israel dangerously international isolation. Yet here, too, the zealots set the tone. And all this while the enemy is at the gates and Israel is fighting on seven fronts.

Just as Yom Kippur is the appointed time for personal self-examination, Tisha B’Av is the occasion for social and national reckoning. On the day when, twice in our history, Jewish sovereignty was lost, we Israelis should gather in the shadow of mourning and fasting to take stock of our national life. We must look into the mirror of both distant and recent history, recognize the terrible consequences of burning our storehouses – literal and symbolic – and choose a worthy path. This is not a call for bland centrism. It is a call to reject fanatical extremists and choose a national life grounded in fellowship and in a renewed emphasis on what unites us.