Opinion | Jewish Memory and Israel’s Election

On egalitarian prayer spaces: “The Western Wall is long enough to accommodate everyone.”

On Israel’s security needs vis-à-vis Palestinians: “We should maintain security for a perimeter outside [Palestinian areas]. Conduct security inside. If we don’t, it will endanger Palestinians themselves. The economies should eventually be merged.”

On relations with the U.S.: “We share the same values and moral standards and we share the same interests. And it stands for both sides of the aisle.”

On whether he would serve in a coalition with Netanyahu, either over or under him: “No.”

On what distinguishes his party from Netanyahu’s: “We have left and right; religious and secular; Druse; ultra-Orthodox women. Unity is very important. We cannot agree on everything but we must agree on the framework. … Netanyahu currently lives off this separation [between various Israeli groups]. I’m talking about my priorities, but I’m talking to everyone. He’s appealing to his base.”

That last observation is the essential point. In many ways, Israel has defied expectations and done remarkably well over the past decade. Much of this has been Netanyahu’s doing.

But it has come at the cost of increasing divisions between Israeli and American Jews. And intense divisions between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. And embittering divisions between Jewish and non-Jewish Israelis. And between the hard-right and everyone it deems a sellout — an ever-growing group when one practices the politics of loyalists versus traitors, as opposed to the politics of friends and potential friends.

None of these quarrels are about Israel’s enemies, who are real, deadly, and growing in number. But the quarrels have become enemies in themselves. Israel is powerful enough to defeat any of its regional adversaries, in almost any combination. It can survive the challenge of the Palestinians and binationalism, too. Whether it can survive its own descent into sectarian and ideological tribalism is another matter.

Which is why the return of Baumel’s remains seems so propitiously timed. Israeli pundits think it will help Netanyahu’s re-election chances, on the view that it makes him seem more capable and statesmanlike.

I wouldn’t be so sure. Baumel’s short life, tragic death and hard-fought homecoming are potent reminders of all the ties that still unite the Jewish state, for all the differences. They are what commends Gantz’s candidacy, whether he wins this time or not.

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