Israel's Thelma and Louise

With Israel's extremist Minsters Ben-Gvir and Smotrich at the wheel of the state of Israel, what are we doing to stop the zealots from driving the country off a cliff?

As I try to imagine where the messianic right-wing Israeli government of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich will lead Israel under the imminent Trump-Huckabee administration, I can’t escape the image of Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon punching the accelerator and heading for the cliff in the 1991 classic.

What’s so disturbing in this moment is – as I envision it – all of us who care about Israel are buckled into the backseat right behind them.

When Prime Minister Netanyahu formed the most extreme government in Israel’s history two years ago, he told NPR, “They’re joining me. I’m not joining them.  I’ll have two hands firmly on the steering wheel.”  Count me skeptical that that’s how it’s playing out.

Here we are, two years later, heading into Trump 2.0, and I fear that the Ben Gvir/Smotrich government will now have a green light to pursue unrestrained settlement expansion, annexation and perhaps worse – in the West Bank and Gaza too.

This government – formed by parties who received only 48 percent of the vote – spent the first half of 2023 trying to dismantle Israel’s independent judiciary and other foundations of its democracy. (By the way, that effort’s not in the rearview mirror, it’s, as Ha’aretz reports, “back big time.”)

It’s this same coalition that let the country’s guard down in the run-up to October 7, as suitcases of cash to Hamas transited through Ben Gurion Airport, key intelligence warning signs were ignored, and troops that should have been protecting the residents on the Gaza border inside Israel proper were instead deployed to protect illegal West Bank settlements.

Since October 7, this duo has helped steer a response to the horrific attack that has squandered any good will the world might have had on October 8 and zoomed through any of the stop signs outlined in international law (not to mention the warnings of their key ally, the United States).  

The people in the back seat of the car seem far too complacent for my taste, seemingly content to be along for the ride. In Israel, the country still reels from the trauma of October 7. While some portion of the public takes to the streets, there appears to be no leader galvanizing the political opposition to stop the car and change drivers and course.

And what of the rest of us in the back seat? Jews around the world?

The alarm bells are blaring about the danger ahead. Red lights are flashing.  Our friends around the world seem to see the disaster toward which Israel is headed – old friends in Europe as well as new ones in the region, from current peace partners in Jordan, Egypt and the UAE to future friends like Saudi Arabia and other Arab League members.

Yet it seems to me that much of the leadership of world Jewry is covering its eyes, putting fingers in its ears and refusing to hear the hard truths about the conduct of the war, the lack of a post-war plan and the refusal to address the fundamental issue at the root of the conflict, a multi-decade never-ending occupation of another people who lack hope and freedom.

What happens when the international courts tell Israel that it is violating the laws of war and international human rights law?  When the Security Council – including longtime friends of Israel such as England and France – vote resolution after resolution calling for an end to the war?  The Courts and the UN are attacked as anti-Israel, and American politicians look to sanction the judges and officials of the court and to cut UN funding. 

What happens when a sizable group of respected Democratic Senators who have spent their whole careers supporting Israel and voting for tens of billions in security assistance vote to send a message to their friends in Israel that the way the war is being fought has to change? They are mercilessly attacked as hostile to Israel.

What happens when the Minister of Defense in Israel tells the government he serves that all possible military goals have been achieved and it’s time for a deal to rescue the hostages? He gets fired by the Prime Minister.

What happens when young liberal Jews tell their rabbis, teachers and parents that the behavior of the state of the Jewish people doesn’t align with the values on which they were raised?  Our community leaders don’t ask where Israel’s leaders are going wrong, but where did we go wrong as parents in raising kids who have the temerity to question what Israel is doing?

Is no one reading or listening to what is happening in Gaza?  Have we not heard the stories, looked at the pictures, let ourselves bear witness to the hellish conditions the people of Gaza are living in right now?

And what about the West Bank?  This is where our 2024 Israeli “Thelma and Louise” Ministers are looking for the biggest score of their careers – the chance to claim the entirety of the West Bank all for themselves. 

The hour is late.  The car is pointed at the edge of the cliff.  The police have the suspects surrounded.

Those at the wheel have a frightening look in their eyes.  It’s the look of the true believer when the moment they’ve prayed for has finally arrived. If we look closely, we’ll likely see something similar in the eyes of Christian evalengicals whose imaginations are fired by End of Days fantasies.

It feels to me like a good time for our whole community to be screaming from the highest mountain: “STOP THE CAR.”

Instead, the silence is deafening.  The attacks are fierce on those pointing out the danger rather than those causing it.

Where will this end? In films, part of the magic is how much is left to the imagination. The car hangs in midair before gravity exerts its force.

Sadly, in the real world, we will all have front row seats to watch what happens if and when our Thelma and Louise get the chance to drive the Jewish state off the cliff in the months ahead.