Local opinion: Donning sackcloth and ashes in mourning for today's Israel

I am a Jew and a Zionist who has cringed over the years watching Bibi Netanyahu morph from being a charismatic and brilliant Israeli diplomat, who seemed to share glorious dreams of a prospering and exemplary democracy in a relatively hostile part of the world ruled by tribalism and rigidly religious concepts, into an apparently corrupt selfish egotist, like a Trump wannabe, facing legal charges for illegal selfish acts as he frantically and disingenuously foments hostilities, trauma and gruesome destruction upon his neighbors while he destabilizes his nation, its legislature and its judiciary system to avoid prison as he panders to extreme ultraconservatives of the prejudiced religious right.

I have agonized as Israel, under its harsh and insensitive bare majority leadership, has ignored the fundamental inherent humanity of Judaism, with its compassionate principles, its history of welcoming the stranger and the needy and its devotion to Tikkun Olam (striving to make the world a better place) which has ceased to maintain its formerly exemplary status as a Mideastern economic, educational and democratic marvel as it has become more like a crazed wounded beast lashing out blindly and wreaking havoc.

Of course, the Israeli response to the inexcusable attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, which coincided with the Jewish holidays of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, and the ensuing atrocities they committed against innocent Israelis was justified. Hamas had a history of attacking Israel, so that the Israeli determination to eradicate that militant enemy was reasonable.

The problem Israel faced in that regard was that Hamas was embedded deeply in Gaza and hidden within the civilian population, including in a widespread tunnel system plus hospitals and schools, so that the war became more like a guerilla conflict. That was a military problem that Israel was morally bound to solve in some alternative way than to wipe out all of the Gazans — which they have failed to do.

Jews need Israel not as it is under the current Netanyahu realm, but as our formerly modern biblical homeland, which has been an inspiration to the rest of the world helping all to aspire to the best that we can be rather than as the maniacal destructive force it has become. I pray that the Israeli democracy arises and determines to invoke a miraculous return to its past exemplary positive and constructive ways by ousting the Netanyahu government, rather than for it to become even more shunned and punished by its former allies.