On Tisha B'Av, Israel's politics must reject hatred over unity - editorial

ByJPOST EDITORIALJULY 23, 2026 05:54The video opens in a field of flowers. An AI-generated Gadi Eisenkot runs forward with his arms outstretched. Ahead stands a young man in a white shirt bearing the words “Israeli unity.” For a moment, the scene appears to show a reunion: a father moving toward a son, a bereaved nation moving toward the unity it has invoked since October 7.Then Eisenkot turns away. He leaves the young man standing and embraces Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas instead. The Likud campaign message: Eisenkot speaks of unity, but will supposedly abandon it to form a government dependent on an Arab party.Many Israelis saw something else. They saw Gal Eisenkot, the former IDF chief of staff’s son, who was killed fighting in Gaza in December 2023. The resemblance, whether intended or produced through carelessness, turned a political attack into something cruel.Likud denied that the figure was meant to represent Gal Eisenkot. A revised version replaced him with a woman. That did not answer the central question.What were you thinking?Itamar Ben-Gvir at the Western Wall during Tisha B'Av. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)Upcoming election first since October 7 Hamas massacreIsrael’s election campaign will culminate on October 27, the first election since the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023. It should have begun with humility and reflection. Instead, an opening image appeared to use a bereaved father’s grief as political ammunition.The timing makes the incident more disturbing. On Tisha B’Av, Jews mourn the destruction of the Temples and recall the rabbinic teaching that the Second Temple was destroyed because of sinat hinam, baseless hatred among Jews.The phrase is repeated so often that it risks becoming ceremonial. Its warning remains urgent. A nation can confront powerful enemies and still weaken itself through contempt, humiliation, factional hatred, and the conviction that political opponents fall outside the legitimate community.October 7 should have forced a national reckoning. The terrorists who crossed the border did not distinguish between Right and Left, religious and secular, coalition and opposition. Soldiers and reservists from every part of society fought together. Civilians rescued strangers. Families opened their homes to evacuees. Israelis discovered how deeply they depend on one another.Where is that reflection now?Every party entering this election must ask what it got wrong before October 7. The government must account for the failures that preceded the massacre and for decisions made during the war. The opposition should examine its rhetoric and its role in deepening mistrust. Leaders must consider whether years of portraying every dispute as an existential battle damaged the bonds holding Israeli society together.That reckoning cannot take place while bereavement becomes campaign material.Gadi Eisenkot is a political candidate. His policies, alliances, decisions, and record deserve rigorous scrutiny. Likud has every right to challenge his ability to form a coalition and ask whether he would rely on Ra’am. It has no right to create imagery that evokes his fallen son to wound him or mobilize voters.Netanyahu and Likud should apologize plainly. Removing the image was appropriate, but insufficient. Leadership requires acknowledging harm without hiding behind denials about what an artificial-intelligence program produced.The same standards must apply to everyone. Opposition leaders should reject language portraying Likud voters as primitive, corrupt, or morally defective. Coalition politicians should stop branding critics as traitors, anarchists, or supporters of terrorism. Arab citizens must not become a symbol of political contamination. Religious and secular Israelis must not be encouraged to despise one another for electoral gain.Unity allows sharp disagreement. It requires accepting that political opponents remain members of the same nation, entitled to dignity and a voice in its future.Tisha B’Av demands memory with consequences. If politicians recite the lessons of sinat hinam and return the next morning to campaigns built on degradation, the fast becomes an empty ritual.The first election since October 7 should show that Israel learned something from the catastrophe. It should produce serious arguments about security, responsibility, military service, the economy, the judiciary, and the country’s future. It should also establish boundaries that no political advantage can justify crossing.Israel has buried too many sons and daughters. Their memory should summon humility, responsibility, and unity. It must never become ammunition in another campaign of hatred.Follow us on Google