The Eternal People at a Crossroads

Over the past month, I had the privilege of going on an extensive journey across North America in partnership with the ATID Program of the Israel Policy Forum. I met Jewish communities and groups from across the political spectrum in Los Angeles, Toronto, Chicago, Washington, and New York — and in the midst of this journey, war between Israel, the United States, and Iran broke out. My personal wanderings thus merged with deep concern for home and for Israel's future. It was, for me, a profoundly unsettling Jewish experience.

I returned with a deep appreciation. The Jewish people are remarkable in their creativity, their resilience, and the depth of the questions they ask. In both communities — in Israel and in the Diaspora — I encountered people wrestling with weighty questions of trust, identity, democracy, and the future. Our hope is not yet lost. But alongside that appreciation, I also returned with concern. For what I saw clearly was a profound perceptual failure in our collective Jewish consciousness: we find it difficult to grasp the full magnitude of the crisis in which we find ourselves, and we find it difficult to plan and act for the long term.

The Magnitude of the Crisis

Let us begin with the facts. We are in the midst of a multidimensional crisis — in Israel and in the Diaspora alike.

On the security front, since October 7th, Israel has shifted from containing terrorism to fighting a regional war of attrition. Israeli society is attempting to eradicate and weaken terrorism, but the multiplicity of fronts and the prolonged nature of the war are exhausting our military and societal strength, while our international standing continues to erode. Reserve duty cycles stretch endlessly from one combat round to the next; the international community increasingly constrains the IDF's freedom of action; and a new Sunni-radical axis led by Turkey and Qatar is taking shape before our eyes. Under these conditions, even if the unlikely scenario of the Iranian regime's collapse were to materialize — we would still be left without the capacity to contend with every arena.

In the Diaspora, a survey recently published by the Jewish Federations of North America reveals a troubling picture of multigenerational fracture. 88% of American Jews believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state — yet only 37% identify as Zionists. This means the majority is not opposed to Israel as such, but to the historical policies of Zionism. Among younger adults aged 18–34, approximately 32% hold non-Zionist or anti-Zionist positions — an unprecedented figure. In my many conversations with various communities, I was struck by the degree to which Zionism has become a fault line that divides Diaspora Jewry. The precise inverse of Herzl's vision.

Within Israel itself, the constitutional crisis deepens. Our single-ballot electoral system conflates issues that bear no necessary connection to one another — and so debates over Haredi conscription, the settlements, judicial independence, and the conduct of the war are bundled into an indivisible package. Under these conditions, extreme minority factions gain disproportionate power, contrary to the will of the majority.

 A visit by the President of Israel to Arad during the war, 23.3.26 | Photo: Maayan Toaf / GPO

The Perceptual Failure

Facing this historic crisis stand two camps with opposing blind spots.

The right, characterized predominantly by a religious or traditional identity, maintains a determined pattern of long-term thinking. Most on the right believe that every setback is merely a waystation on the road toward the ultimate destination. History is built from milestones. In the upcoming Israeli elections, for example, it is self-evident to the Israeli right that it cannot win outright — yet its political leadership understands equally well that the left cannot win either. From their perspective, therefore, the coming elections are merely the first round of a prolonged campaign. From my childhood to the present day, the principal activity of the Israeli right has focused on establishing schools and settlements — investment across generations. These are the central advantages of the Jewish right.

Yet alongside these strengths, the Jewish right remains in denial of the crisis's depth. When many rabbis speak of "miracles" rather than a change of course; when political leadership promises "total victory" while ignoring realities on the ground; when military and moral failures cannot be openly discussed — the right loses its capacity to awaken and self-correct. When the prophets of the Bible foresaw the approaching destruction, they did not speak of miracles; they spoke of changing direction.

The left, by contrast, fails to think in long-term horizons, yet understands with full clarity the depth of the crisis. The despair in its circles is genuine and justified. Many have grown disillusioned with the long-standing two-state vision, but they have no alternative vision to offer. The left also holds a legitimate understanding of the injustices generated in Gaza and the West Bank — humanitarian restrictions, the seizure of Palestinian lands, and the encouragement of "voluntary emigration". These injustices contradict Israel's Declaration of Independence and undermine the rule of law and Israeli cohesion. Yet the left finds it difficult to formulate a real alternative — one capable of integrating genuine security with moral vision. They watch with tearful eyes as Zionism gradually collapses, and they cannot stop the process.

Lessons from the Field: The Lebanese Front

To understand the path forward, we must integrate the right's long-term thinking with the left's recognition of the crisis. We must formulate a long-term strategy of many milestones as our path out of the crisis.

To illustrate this, let us examine the current dynamics on the Lebanese front. The previous round of fighting, which concluded in November 2024, produced a successful arrangement: the Lebanese government took concrete steps against Hezbollah, and the IDF continued striking the organization's infrastructure. As a result, Hezbollah refrained from intervening in the twelve-day war between Israel and Iran in June 2025. But as was to be expected, that arrangement too did not hold. Hezbollah ultimately reconstituted itself and has now resumed attacking communities in northern Israel.

Now, like a broken clock, Israeli leadership has returned to sounding calls for "the destruction of Hezbollah" and "control over southern Lebanon". Experience has demonstrated that this will not happen. Israel will weaken the organization only temporarily; it will recover; and the cycle will repeat. In every round of fighting, additional soldiers are dispatched to Lebanon and drawn away from other fronts in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Jordan Valley — while our international standing is further eroded. The unlearned lesson is that a regional minority cannot win a war of attrition.

We must therefore adopt a different strategic approach: the IDF should enter Lebanon, strike the infrastructure Hezbollah has rebuilt, and then withdraw — seeking a broader arrangement with the Lebanese government. Thus, through recurring cycles of combat and agreements, the Lebanese government will be strengthened and Hezbollah will be weakened. This is a process that will take many years, but at its conclusion Israel will have survived and extricated itself from the crisis. There is no other viable strategy. The same logic applies to all arenas: we must continue fighting those who will never accept our existence, while simultaneously pursuing cycles of agreements with the majority within the Arab world and the Palestinian people.

Participants of the IPF ATID meeting in Chicago | Photo: Anachnu Movement and meeting participants.

The Courage to Think Differently

In my childhood, I learned a phrase engraved at the heart of my Jewish identity: the Eternal People does not fear a long path. This is one of the great ideas of the Jewish people — without it, we would not have endured.

Yet the biblical prophets taught us that a long path is not sufficient. If Israel continues to rely on military force, occupation, and disregard for the rights of the region's peoples — then there is no greatness in that path, only destruction.

The majority of Israeli society and Diaspora Jewry share far deeper values than the ongoing public debate would suggest. The time has come to bring them together. We must unite the right's resolve with the left's clear-eyed recognition of the crisis. We must build a new coalition — not of total victory that is out of reach, and not of peace now that is equally out of reach — but of a long, determined, and moral path that will draw us out of the crisis, slowly and steadily.

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