Sebastien Levi's recent op-ed castigating Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s recent call for unity as disingenuous, on the one hand, misses the point, and on the other hand, is simply disrespectful.
Levi referenced, but did not quote word for word, Herzog’s remarks to the delegation of the Democrats Party and, by not doing so, thereby easily misrepresented the thrust of the president’s remarks.
As reported by Ynet News, Herzog asked representatives of the Democrats Party, who arrived at the president's residence as part of the consultation rounds prior to his decision on to whom he should offer the opportunity to form a government, "Is it always about Netanyahu? Isn't it time to move toward unity?"
Herzog added: "What will come after Netanyahu, what will stand in the parties' campaigns?" MK Gilad Kariv responded: "The question is not personal but a question of policy." A vapid response, to be sure, given the importance of the question.
Levi interpreted Herzog’s remarks, in my opinion, wrongly, as a statement in support of a unity government headed by Netanyahu. Yet it does not appear that Levi actually asked Herzog or his office for a clarification.
I would submit that not doing so is disrespectful of the president's office, and may very well reflect a personal bias of Levi’s given his position as a French Jew now living in the US with dual US-Israeli citizenship while professionally representing French Jewish Radio (Radio J) and the French paper LibreJournal.fr there.
For the record, the Democrats were the sixth of 10 delegations with whom Herzog met over a two-day period last week. By the time he met with that group, he, no doubt, had already heard a mouthful of complaints from each of them about the other parties, why they would or would not serve with party A, B, or C, and the like.
Knowing what we do about our current president, his commitment to the unity of the Jewish people, his successful convening of the Voice of the People project directed toward unity and the like, we might very well expect that from time to time he would admonish the people with whom he met about the need for Jewish unity and the meaning of Jewish peoplehood.
Netanyahu's call for unity
I would agree with Levi’s assessment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's most recent pleas for unity when Levi writes about Netanyahu that “He did not call for unity when he had a majority, as in 2022, when he preferred a full right-wing government.”
Implicit in the most recent call for unity on Netanyahu’s part is an attempt to stay in power and head any unity government that would be created. But to surmise, as Levi does in his op-ed, that this approach is being supported by Herzog with no clear evidence to back it up makes Levi the disingenuous one, not the president.
It seems to me that Levi has misjudged the framework in which we find ourselves after the recent elections. Perhaps, looking at us from his perch in the US, his vision is a bit cloudy.
As I see it, at this difficult point in time for Israel, someone must be the adult in the room. It would be amazing if the party leaders and their minions who met with Herzog last week could rise to the occasion and do the responsible thing.
However, they each have their personal as well as political interests, which make that expectation on our part nothing more than a pipe dream. The responsibility to be the adult in the room during this period of negotiation falls squarely on the shoulders of the only apolitical elected official in Israel today, and that is Herzog.
We, as loyal and responsible citizens of Israel who live and work here, who send our best and brightest to fight on our behalf, who have chosen to raise our families here and proudly bear the burden of statehood after 2,000 years in exile, we owe an obligation to support and encourage our president during this coalition-building period.
Concomitantly, we have the right to expect that he will carry out this task responsibly and without prejudice, and he has a right to expect that we will all support him in this work.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks of blessed memory wrote: “To be a leader, you do not need a crown or robes of office. All you need to do is to write your chapter in the story, do deeds that heal some of the pain of this world, and act so that others become a little better for having known you. Live so that, through you, our ancient covenant with God is renewed in the only way that matters: in life.”
Herzog’s experience, knowledge, and ancestry will help to guide him through this eventful period in our sovereign history. Let us all do what we can to guarantee his success on our behalf and reserve the barbs for our enemies. They do not need our assistance.
The writer, a 42-year resident of Jerusalem, is a former national president of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel, a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and a Board Member of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM).