Take our legendary political divide. Israel, we are fond of saying, has long been split between left and right-wing voters. But throughout the years of impassioned arguments, those on the Right have secretly hoped the Left was correct with its optimistic vision of peace. Simultaneously, those on the Left secretly feared that the Right was correct in its belief that the Arabs will never accept us, and that we are doomed to live by the sword. In our shared misery, there wasn't much difference between Left and Right.
Speakers routinely bemoan the lack of a national consensus about security and social issues.
Israelis are always looking back with fondness to the sense of kinship that pervades in times of war. This week we've had a blending of purpose and a show of unity. I got that old familiar feeling of amity, and I didn't like it. It felt familiarly terrifying. I grew up in a peaceful New England village but the small Jewish community maintained two synagogues, both too small to sustain a daily minyan.