WhatsappWhat a powerful image, an IDF soldier heading into battle in Lebanon carrying a specially designed backpack to bring a Torah scroll with him into the field, so it can be read on Rosh Chodesh, on Shabbat, and other applicable days.
What is fascinating, is seeing the intense reactions online, from Israel’s political left and our enemies watching from across the border.
At the center of it is a simple but powerful scene: an IDF soldier holding a special army backpack created to carry a Torah scroll into the battlefield. For so many Jews, this image is incredibly inspiring. For a few, it’s unsettling. And that tension reveals something deeper about the moment Israel is in.
For so many Jews, seeing this image that represents Israel strengthening its Jewish character, openly, confidently, without apology, is deeply inspiring. It feels like a return to authenticity, a reconnection between our national strength and our ancient identity, and a needed recalibration for the direction of our Jewish homeland.
But for a powerful, small, elite massively influential in the media, cultural institutions, Universities, and the legal establishment, this same image is unsettling, even frightening.
Their vision has long been for Israel to be a state for Jews to live that looks and behaves like any other Western liberal nation, carefully separating its Jewish identity from its public expression of power.
When those two come together, when Jewish identity and national strength are fused in a visible, unapologetic way, it challenges the very model they’ve spent decades promoting.
On an international level, for years, many believed that Israel’s main challenge was how it explains itself to the world. If only the government of Israel did better “hasbarah”, explaining our situation.
But after October 7th, that theory has been squashed. Despite projecting ourselves as a Western liberal country, abiding by the norms and values of the Western progressive world, the global reaction to the horrific massacre of Oct. 7th was an exponential growth in Jew-hating antisemitism, against Jews worldwide. No explaining, or polished “hasbarah” campaigns can overcome the deep seated Jew-hatred in the world.
That doesn’t mean communication doesn’t matter, but it does suggest that how Israel projects strength, identity, and purpose may matter just as much.
It might be time to stop projecting to the world the image that we are a Western liberal country like all the rest, devoid of our unique Jewish identity and values.
This image goes straight to the heart of that question.�For all the West’s emphasis on authenticity and diversity, there is a clear discomfort when it comes to seeing images of strong, proud, religious Jews, especially involved in shaping policy in the Jewish state. It doesn’t fit the Western liberal version of Israel that official state institutions have carefully projected to the world for decades.
This image blends military strength with Jewish identity in a way that few are familiar or comfortable with.
For many proud Jews, it reflects a people reconnecting with their roots while defending themselves.
For those who believe Israel should mirror other Western nations, a visibly strengthened Jewish identity raises real concerns, both about the country’s internal direction and how it will be perceived on the international stage.
That’s why the reaction is so strong. Because this isn’t just about one photo, it’s about competing visions of Israel’s identity.
Is Israel first and foremost a Western-style democracy—believing it will earn global acceptance by emphasizing liberal values while downplaying its Jewish identity? Or is it a nation rooted in thousands of years of history, faith, and purpose? Or perhaps it is trying to navigate both—seeking balance in a harsh region, surrounded by enemies that support killing our children and destroying our country based on a 1,400+year old Islamic ideology?
There are reasonable people on all sides of this debate. But what’s becoming harder to ignore is that the old assumptions, about deterrence, about diplomacy, about how Israel must be viewed as a nation like any other nation, are being challenged by reality on the ground.
Personally, I find this image profoundly inspiring, because it forces a conversation we can no longer avoid. Not just about how Israel is seen by the world, but about the emergence of a proud, authentic Jewish spirit within our country, one that is no longer trying to win approval by imitating Western nations, but is choosing to stand firmly in its own authentically Jewish identity.
Am Yisrael Chai!!!
