Sodom and Gomorrah in Israel? A week of moral distortions and sparks of hope*

 

by Moshe Feiglin translated from Hebrew!

We are currently living in a chronicle of madness. The last week in Israel looks like it was taken straight from a Sodom and Gomorrah newspaper. Events that were previously considered unimaginable have become a daily reality, and reflect a deep moral distortion that has taken root in the government and legal systems. 

But in the darkness, there were also sparks of hope.

I'll start with the basics:

 today's heroic generation, of which my beloved grandson Yair Hy"d was a part, had to clean up with his blood the legacy of Oslo's confusion generation. The big problem is that we entrusted this horrible cleaning job to these heroic young people, but we left the leadership in the hands of the confused and corrupt leadership, of Oslo, which holds on to power with all its might, without vision and without direction.

In the meantime, the war is being waged as an equation of pressures -- on the one hand, the goal is to defeat Hamas, and on the other, to free the hostages. Two goals that do not go hand in hand. This leadership does not have the courage to tell the truth to the public. Everything turns into populism, and everything deepens the strategic defeat of the State of Israel.

When a full-on right wing coalition is leading  this whole mess -- devoid of any message, the reality is even more bleak. The Israeli Right, despite its absolute electoral majority, fails to translate its victory in the elections into real control. The reason? It has nothing to offer. The power to change comes not only from a majority in the Knesset, but from a real message. When there is no vision, there is no willingness to pay a personal price. And so the Right will always be the first to blink.

The legal reform was only an attempt to create a toolbox for correction, but did not present an alternative vision. Did the Right immediately say on October 7 "Conquest, Deportation, and Settlement because the entire Land of Israel is ours"? No. Even when talking about settlement in Gaza, the Prime Minister says it is "unrealistic".

The failure is that the leadership does not take the vision of the people of Israel, the Jewish vision, the vision that springs from our Jewish identity, and place it as a clear alternative ideology to Oslo and say, "The entire Land of Israel is mine from the river to the sea," and insist on ascribing equal importance.

But the Jewish vision and the weapon of justice are in the hands of the people who wake up and take responsibility for their destiny. Amidst the moral and legal fog that surrounds Israel these days, some sparks of hope were lit this week. These are apparently small victories, but they mark the beginning of a new trend -- the awakening of the people versus the establishment that has lost its way.

The most impressive victory this week was undoubtedly that of the Yudkin family, who won by the power of faith. Their struggle to add the inscription 'Hy"d' (May HASHEM avenge his blood) on their son's tombstone was more than just a struggle over letters. It was a battle over identity, over values, over the Jewish essence of the State of Israel.

The Yudkin family insisted on their principles, and was ready to pay a huge personal price -- even to exhume their son. They won not because of political power or connections, but because of their strong faith. Their victory shows that when a person or family stands by their principles with determination, even an entire system surrenders to them.

The impact of this victory goes beyond the specific case. The directive that came out as a result of the struggle will allow any family that wishes to add the inscription 'Hy"d' on the gravestones of their loved ones. This is a fundamental change in the landscape of military cemeteries, symbolizing a return to Jewish and national values.

The second victory in which justice won over bureaucracy was in the court in Tel Aviv, when the civilian fighters who defended civilians on October 7 were released. This case was one of the clear examples of the moral distortion in the legal system.

We are speaking about heroes who left home to fight terrorists, and saved lives when the army was not there. They traveled south on the morning of that dark Sabbath to fight for the country and save lives. What kind of moral perversion is it to arrest them because of a Nukhba terrorist who raped, murdered and massacred people? The magistrate and district court judges realized the depth of the delusion, released the fighters and threw the gag order in the trash. Their ruling was undoubtedly influenced by the presence of protesters in the court's corridors. It was the public pressure, the shock on social media and the demonstration in court that ultimately made the judges realize that the tide is coming close to them and the waves of the values ​​of the Israeli public are already washing their toes. This is a clear example of the power of the people to influence the judicial system.

The third victory was in the Supreme Court, when the petition to admit Gazans to medical treatment in Israel was rejected. The very fact that such a petition reached the Supreme Court during a war shows how far the legal system has become disconnected from reality. But this time, the public was not silent. People came to the courtroom and shouted the word "shame" in front of the judges.

As Knesset member Almog Cohen described, you could see the shame and comprehension in the eyes of the judges. This is another example of the power of the public to influence and change.

The fourth victory was the brave act of the mayor of Ariel. After pleading with the commanding general to block a road leading to a hostile Arab village that was endangering the city's residents, and he did not respond, the mayor decided to take matters into his own hands. He brought a bulldozer and blocked the road himself.

This act demonstrates the gap between the agenda-driven military leadership, and a local leadership that is willing to take responsibility and act for its citizens. This is an example of true leadership, one that is willing to pay a personal price for its principles.

These victories, however small, show that there is hope. They demonstrate the power of the people when they unite around common values ​​and stand by their principles. The thread connecting all the examples is the attempt to reassemble the moral coordinates discovered on October 7th. And it will gradually get worse and worse until it starts to moderate.

But the real change will not come from the elected leadership, but from the people themselves. And this, perhaps, is the most important point.

The change comes from the people, from the families, from the mayors who take responsibility after realizing that the expected change will not come from above, from the elected leadership. This is a wake-up call for every citizen -- to stand up, unite, and work for a better, more moral, and more Jewish future for the State of Israel.

And in the next step, replacing the leadership with a leader with a clear Jewish vision, who is willing to pay a personal price for its principles. Only in this way can we truly change reality and bring redemption to the people of Israel.