Political turmoil has been the case in Israel since its foundation. From the early days, when the ruling social democrat “Mapai” shunned the capitalist revisionists, to Menachem Begin’s famous victory in 1977. Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination resulted in a temporary de-escalation in political tensions, but division remained and has gained new momentum in recent years with Netanyahu’s latest term along with the Haredi and religious nationalist parties.

Today,  shortly after the fifth election in less than 5 years, Israeli division is slowly creating sub-factions within its society that refuse to recognize the underlining consensus that has glued them all together, Jewish self-determination and Zionism. 

Like most developments under the sun, this is not the first time Jewish and Israelite people have separated into inner factions on the basis of political and religious differences. During the Second Temple period and the years attributed to Jesus’s preachings, Jewish division was at its peak. Under Roman occupation, political issues such as collaboration with the foreign rule along with High priests' salaries and corruption led the god-fearing people to break apart into different parties that adopted strict philosophies. Jewish groups like the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes became just some of the many parties that made up the Judean mosaic. 

RT @APMiddleEast: Misgivings by American Jews with liberal political views over Israel's emerging far-right government led by Benjamin Netanyahu could have a ripple effect in Washington and widen what has become a partisan divide over support for Israel.… https://t.co/G13GO9pVQ2

— Michael Miller—5229 Cornell Ave, El Paso, TX 79924 (@CarnageMovie) December 7, 2022

These groups became so divided that separate villages for each faction were often necessary due to different forms of prayer and customs. Many small groups headed to the Judean desert to live their form of Jewish existence in solitude, preachers and priests were appointed within these many communities. These divisions only grow and became an identifying marker of the various Jews in Judea and Galilee. Jews were no longer simply Jews, but Essenic-Jewish, or Pharisees-Jewish. 

The animosity and separation continued to grow, until ultimately completely evaporating in a short few years, as the Bar-Kochba revolt came to an end and most Jews were expelled by the Romans to all corners of the empire. Due to their inability to cooperate as one unit, the Jewish people once again lost their Holy Land, only reuniting 2000 years later. However, it seems at the current rate the 2000-year-long sentence from God, as many Jewish traditions put it, is not far from recurring, perhaps for good. 

Some Jews celebrate the Sabbath by attending synagogue, eating festive meals and observing its laws. Other Jews celebrate the Sabbath by violating its laws, desecrating the day and calling for politicians to bash Israel. גם זו לטובה https://t.co/oDnh0kJehP

— David May (@DavidSamuelMay) July 1, 2019

Ultra-Orthodox Israelis feel strangled by Israeli secularism, seeking to reform their traditions while average left-wing Tel Aviv residents are terrified Haredi-Jewish birthrate will lead to the destruction of Israel. Religious Zionists are vilified as “Nazi-Fascists”, while Liberal Israelis are afraid Israeli pride parades and storefronts open on Sabbath will be canceled for good. 

These political divisions, like the Second Temple era, are no longer limited to dinner table conversation but have become physically separated geographically. Entire Israeli families refuse to visit each other since one lives in secularist Tel Aviv and another in ideological Efrat. Cities like Elad and Modi’in-Ilit have been created strictly for Ultra-Orthodox following Jews, and within those cities, neighborhoods are divided by cultural traditions. 

The “traitor” leftists along with “fascist” nationalists have stopped cooperating in any fashion, with the exception of their mutual contribution to Israel’s destruction. The terrifying results of this historically predictable conflict are millions of Israeli refugees, who don’t have 22 other countries with similar values to pick from; thousands of years of pogroms and persecution for the feisty Israelites. 

In recent years, Jews have grown accustomed to categorizing themselves as a certain type, such as Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Orthodox, or Reform. All these verbal distinctions perhaps are meaningful to its millions of users, but in the eyes of every single historical and modern persecutor of Jews, they make no difference whatsoever. 

@netanyahu The election is over and now it's time to end political division. It's time for Israel to show the world the left and right can come together. As long as we're divided the media will cause further division. A united coalition is something we never had in our history.

— Retired Judean (@retiredjudean) November 2, 2022

Perhaps, the wake-up call modern Israelis need is the same one Second Temple era Jews needed before it was too late; your destiny is intertwined with that of your neighbors.  This wake-up call should not be exclusive to Israeli Jews; American Jews and those few remaining in Europe will suffer even more if Israel is brought to its knees due to internal weakness. Sure, Israel’s destruction will erase every single inner faction, but it will unite all Jews under the mercy of the, typically not-so-merciful, Diaspora.

This is a path Jewery cannot afford to go down again.