On Purim, we are aware of the fact that people dress up as other characters. It is not necessarily the case that someone who appears to be a police officer, firefighter, or flight attendant is actually one. But in everyday life, we tend to accept the character we see as the image of reality, and do not suspect that it is actually a costume.
However, it turns out that the celebration of costumes takes place all year round, not just on Purim, and mainly in attitudes and worldviews.
People present seemingly beautiful arguments while hiding the true intentions behind them. This situation makes it difficult to have a real public debate, because you find yourself arguing with a disguise.
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An outrageous and absurd comparison
Take, for example, the recent campaign over refugees from Ukraine. We have heard a host of arguments that tug at the heartstrings, in an attempt to pressure the government to open the gates to uncontrolled absorption of non-Jews.
Even the Holocaust was mobilized for the benefit of the campaign, comparing war refugees to Jews who tried to escape the Nazi tyrant's decree of extermination.
Of course, one can argue with these arguments and prove that they have no basis in reality. The refugees who choose to fly to Israel are not doing so to escape death. After all, the flights to Israel are not made from within Ukraine, but from the European countries to which the refugees have departed. At that moment, they are no longer in danger.
The comparison to the Holocaust is particularly absurd and outrageous. The Jews fled a diabolical extermination machine, and almost no country agreed to open its doors to them. In contrast, the Ukrainian refugees are welcomed in Europe with open arms. They even receive conditions there that are many times better than those offered by the State of Israel. Therefore, their choice to fly to Israel is not related to escaping the threats of war, but rather to immigration considerations.
But as mentioned, this entire discussion is actually taking place under disguise, because the real motive is completely different. There is a struggle here over the very Jewish identity of the state, against elements that strive to dilute the Jewish component as much as possible, in pursuit of a state for all its citizens.
One line connects the campaign for the uncontrolled absorption of non-Jews from Ukraine with support for keeping foreign workers from Africa, and with opposition to the citizenship law, which is designed to prevent the naturalization of Arabs from Judea and Samaria.
Everything is aimed at one goal – to reduce the Jewish majority and increase the proportion of non-Jews.
The joke is on us.
The entities leading this struggle benefit from almost unlimited resources from foreign funds, and the very existence of a state defined as 'Jewish' is stuck in their throats like a bone.
A senior Amnesty official even stated this week that 'Israel should not exist as a Jewish state." So at least take off your disguises and say that this is your position, and that way everyone will know what the debate is really about.
Against this backdrop, it was hard not to laugh bitterly at the call from government officials to expedite the 'Conversion Law', so that it would be possible to convert the masses of refugees. The problem is that the joke is at our expense!
