What’s next for Israel following Hamas attack?

At the rally in support of Israel that took place on Boston Common on Monday, I saw a man in an orange T-shirt with the words “Jews don’t deport Jews” on it. It appeared to be a vintage protest T-shirt from the time that many Israelis—and in particular many in the religious Zionist community—opposed the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip in 2005.

I overheard him telling someone that the evacuation of Gush Katif—a section of Israeli settlements in southern Gaza that were evacuated in 2005—led directly to this moment. Putting aside the accuracy of that assessment, it seems likely that many in the community will be drawing similar conclusions.

After the Oslo Accords in 1993, the disengagement from Gaza was the main event that led to the alienation of many religious Zionists from the government and provided an impetus for new theologies that helped to produce the extreme fringes of the religious right. Though I hope it will not be the case, it seems possible that this moment will further empower the sometimes violent extremism of those fringe movements.

At the same time, there are religious Zionist groups who are holding on to the more compassionate teachings of leaders like the late Rabbi Yehuda Amital. In the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War of 1973, Rabbi Amital gave a remarkable speech in which he urged the religious Zionist community to engage in internal introspection about the causes for the war rather than rushing to point the finger of blame elsewhere. He also wrote about the religious meaning of the war and the State of Israel, while taking care to avoid the kind of dogmatic messianism of those who claim to know the precise ways of God’s working in the world.

I think this kind of ethos still motivates many in the religious Zionist community today. I can’t say they are the most vocal or numerous segment of the community, but they exist and have an important voice.