Political hatred, sign of the times in the West

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON

On September 25, Yom Kippur day, there were incidents in different towns in Israel. The most notable occurred in Dizengoff Square, the secular heart of Tel Aviv, where a rally had been called to perform a segregated Jewish prayer, that is, with women separated at a certain distance from men. However, at the agreed time, groups of secular liberals appeared in the square and prevented the ceremony from taking place, alleging that its segregated nature is contrary to democratic values. They exchanged blows and insults without blood reaching the HaYarkon River.

Some media have described the event as an “unusual event” in the history of the country, but although it is indeed unusual, it responds to the new times that are running amok with intolerance as the main reference. Every day there are more people tired of democracy who demand direct and quick gestures to shore up their political or religious position. Naturally, some link what happened in Tel Aviv with the political crisis that is shaking Israel, but we must not forget that a no less profound religious crisis is developing in parallel.

Mayor Ron Huldai has denounced that the religious have drawn up a plan to invade Tel Aviv, the secular stronghold par excellence. “They want to put us in a religious state and if we don't wake up soon…” Huldai warned.

But the religious opposite denounce that the secularists hypocritically boast of being democrats when in reality they are not. The fact that they are not allowed to pray segregated in Dizengoff, which is what the Jewish religion strictly requires, proves that liberals are not democrats, in their opinion. “It is not democratic not to allow people to pray as they want,” that is, segregated by sex, the religious argue.

The altered faces, full of violence and hatred, of the people who were pushed, shouted and beaten in the popular square of Tel Aviv were clearly visible. But let no one believe that they are exclusive aspects of Israel. Similar faces are being seen these days in Argentina with the emergence of Javier Milei, among people who until recently seemed sensible and sane; They are seen in Spain with the resurgence of identity nationalisms; They multiply in the United States, a country fractured into two antagonistic halves, and are seen in other latitudes in the West.

The person who organized the Yom Kippur prayer is a rich builder, Israel Zaira, leader of the “Jewish Head” organization, a builder who builds homes in cities and ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, such as Bnei Brak or Mea Shearim. Zaira is in contact with influential rabbis in those communities and in fact some rabbis participated in the segregated Yom Kippur prayers. The objective of those who support Zaira, as Mayor Huldai points out, is to infiltrate the non-religious areas of Tel Aviv and the rest of the country, a phenomenon that is not new, but that is becoming more intense every day.

The resentment reflected in these faces in many countries constitutes a serious warning for Western society. Every day there are more people calling for authoritarianism, in Israel, Spain, the United States, Argentina and other Western countries. Puzzled by the complexity that the world has been acquiring, a complexity that continues to grow, these people ask for immediate and simple solutions to complex problems, creating a dizzying whirlpool that we do not know where it will lead.

Many Westerners want to simplify a complexity that is increasingly difficult to manage from a political point of view, a complexity that creates fertile ground for political extremism, including nationalism. The enormous complexity has become an obstacle that seems insurmountable for Western democracies, which ironically are the ones that have created this very complex society that Westerners themselves are no longer tolerating.

What many secular people in Israel see as religious coercion, many other religious people see as a contradiction of the elites of liberal societies that do not respect the popular will of those who want to perform prayers segregated by sex. The two groups are not simply critical of each other, as was the case before, but have taken a qualitative step and now hate each other without a reconciliation seeming possible.

It is a vitiated atmosphere that permeates the entire West, not just in Israel. And with growing intolerance it is not sending a good signal or creating a better future, quite the opposite.

Eugenio Garcia Gascon has been a correspondent in Jerusalem for 29 years. He is a Cirilo Rodríguez journalism award winner.