Turn the calendar back to May 9. We had finally removed our COVID protective masks outdoors. Images of new travel destinations with unmasked vacationers enjoying beaches, outdoor cafes and concerts flooded the internet. Was this the start of the great unmasking after the pandemic and recovery of our lost freedoms? This optimism changed here, on a dime, on May 10 when Hamas launched its deadly rocket barrage, sending thousands of us scurrying back indoors to bomb shelters. Yet this latest "round" with Hamas provided a great unmasking of another sort. The flames of riots and the thuds of bombs laid bare many of the myths that grounded our lives here in Israel. The policy of reactive versus proactive military posture has been unmasked . Heroic Israeli pilots achieved excellent results in destroying much of the Hamas infrastructure, including the metro tunnel terror network, all without risking IDF boots on the ground. Yet Israel's political echelon Israel appeared surprised and reactive; it did not seem to control the narrative. Our lives revolved around Hamas' bombing announcements. On the diplomatic and economic front, the world paid Hamas handsomely for its terrorist aggression while Israel may have gained little or nothing except vitriolic censure for daring to defend itself. The notion of "purity of arms" as a public relations strategy has been unmasked. The Israeli military prides itself on being the only army in the world to warn its targets before air raids to prevent enemy civilian casualties. In an interview with MSNBC, Prime Minister Netanyahu accepted the interviewer's faulty premise that Israel has a "special responsibility" to Gazan civilians. Why? Because we are the Jewish state who developed a qualitative technological advantage with the Iron Dome? Hamas used women and children as human shields in a war of aggression that they began. Why does that put their inevitable civilian deaths at our feet? Such misguided virtue signaling helps protect Hamas hard targets and hurts our war against terror. It ensures a future of our citizens under repeated fire and our economy held hostage. Nor do we get the desired credit for this virtue of folly. Israel experienced unprecedented demonization around the world despite maintaining "purity of arms". The myth of uniform Israeli Arab loyalty has been unmasked . Of course, the overwhelming majority of Israeli Arab citizens did not engage in mayhem. Yet violent riots in mixed cities of Lod, Jaffa, Acre, Jerusalem, and elsewhere showed that Israel can no longer count on domestic tranquility from all of its citizens, particularly while under foreign attack. Local Israeli Arabs took a page out of the BLM play book and mixed protest with burning cars, tires, homes and synagogues. This escalated into personal, deadly attack against Jews. In some cities, the Israeli police acted like other corrupt, ineffective police forces around the world when it outright refused to protect Jewish property before Jewish life was inevitably threatened. We had Kristallnacht right here in Israel, and no longer need to spend thousands of shekels sending our middle school kids to Poland to learn about this brand of anti-Semitism. The myth of the "evil hilltop youth" has been unmasked . For years, Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria have been criticized because of vigilante hilltop youth seeking to "displace" Palestinians from land in Judea and Samaria. The Israeli media portrays these youngsters as sinister, primitive, and hateful. Yet, an interviewer on Israeli news asked a couple who fled Lod out of sheer terror, what they thought of the "Jewish gangs" who came to their city to "do violence to Arabs". Their answer surprised this TV interviewer, who expected an earful of hate. They replied they were grateful to these young people from the "hinterlands" of Judea and Samaria who protected them when their own police department abandoned them in their time of dire need. The myth of American bipartisan support for Israel has been unmasked . This game changer has been unwinding for a long time. For the first time in history, a significant faction of the Democratic Party withdrew its support for Israel and espoused Hamas talking points. The progressive faction of the Democratic Party, headed by the Jewish Bernie Sanders, submitted a Congressional resolution blocking a $735 million dollar weapons sale to Israel at the height of the latest round of hostilities. The Democratic "Squad" played right along with Hamas cynical optics painting Israel as the unjustified aggressor killing innocents with vast superiority. Progressive Democrats, who see everything through race colored glasses, now brand Israel as an aggressive white colonizer bombing innocent brown women and children. It is perhaps the biggest calumny since The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. We must demand creative solutions for weakening our enemies' hand while strengthening ours. It is too depressing to list all the assumptions that were shattered last week such as universal support from Diaspora Jewry, or celebrity neutrality about Israel's right to protect its citizens. The point of this review is not to wallow in self-pity and fear. In the coming weeks, our politicians and media will try to lull us back to sleep. They will change the news cycle to hide this unmasking. They will focus on political personalities, entertainment, tourism, and economic growth. The media will tell us that the American Democratic Party's hostility and our continued domestic unrest stem from the failure of Israel's right-wing national camp. They will tell us we have nothing to fear from Israel's Arab parties and our radical left. They will tell us we can forget about last week, get back to "normal". As our leaders attempt, yet again, to forge a government, whether through coalition negotiations, or new elections, we must keep their feet to the fire and demand first, an admission that waiting around for our enemies to attack on their terms is no longer acceptable. Second, our tone deaf politicians from all parts of the political spectrum need to wake up from the delusion that we care about their personal political careers and maneuvers. We will no longer tolerate their repeated political dysfunction that has now proven deadly. Fix the system or get out. Third, we must demand creative solutions for weakening our enemies' hand while strengthening ours. These solutions may lie partly in better pro-active Hasbara (public diplomacy). We cannot wait for the heat of war to start apologizing for defending ourselves. The solutions may be found in waging better lawfare in international institutions such as the UN or ICC. These solutions may be found in smarter economic war against our enemies. Whatever they are, these solutions must put us back in the driver's seat. Isn't that the reason for a Jewish State in the first place? These solutions must disregard the cadre of corporations, politicians, journalists, and others with vested financial interests in keeping the current seesaw going up and down in its deadly cycles. Last week was not just another military operation. It unmasked our remaining fantasies and gave us the gift of clarity. We better use this gift wisely because our neighborhood has precious little margin for error. Ann P. Levin is a lecturer in Israeli law schools who resides in Karnei Shomron. She is the author of Burning But Never Consumed: The Hebrew Bible in Turbulent Times , available on Amazon. You can write to her at TanachDefense@gmail.com .
