Some Orthodox worshipers, arriving for morning prayers, have found dead pigs on the thresholds of their synagogues. Religious youth are regularly mocked and shamed by their secular counterparts in the military and in certain mixed schools. While some may say that such interreligious strife can happen anywhere, the serious and growing nature of this conflict is eating at the very vitals of Israeli society. In a sense, the conflict is inevitable. Presently, this is witnessed to most eloquently by the Law of Return, which bestows immediate citizenship on any Jewish person who desires to immigrate to the land of his or her fathers.
Conflict is inevitable in such a situation.
Perhaps it is a conflict endemic to that part of the world, a conflict that abounds without apology in situations that appear so contradictory to us in the West, who are accustomed to the doctrine of the separation of church and state. The answer of divine protection certainly cannot be disallowed. There are some factors, however, that must indeed try even the divine patience. For example, the religious divisions are not new. In the face of extremely hostile neighbors, however, there had to be at least the appearance of a united front.