When Ideology Trumps Common Sense

Leila Stillman-Utterback (JTA)

Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies. Instead of exercising caution and common sense in the pursuit of peace, some of us will go to the ends of the earth to advance our ideological goals. Regardless of the consequences. What makes matters worse is when supposedly respected rabbis step in to defend such behavior, motivated by their own ideological leanings.

More often than not (though certainly not always), pragmatism outweighs ideology. But don’t tell that to the extremists at either end of the left–right spectrum. For them, common sense and restraint are discarded, and the results are rarely the positive ones they intended.

A recent example - one that has surely done more harm than good - was reported by JTA:

Having spent the night in an immigrant detention center in Ramle, Israel, Leila Stillman-Utterback, still handcuffed, began to daven Shacharit, the morning prayers, as dawn broke.
“I think the police officers were very confused, because that was not the image of an activist that they had,” said the 18-year-old Vermont native. 

Now, after being deported and banned by Israel for 10 years, she is unsure when she will be able to confuse people in Israel again.

In two separate incidents this past week, the right-wing Israeli government’s conflict with the Jewish left, both at home and abroad, reached new heights as American and Israeli Jews attempted to accompany Palestinians during their olive harvest in the West Bank. Harvesters have faced repeated restrictions by the Israeli military and a string of threats and attacks by local Israeli settlers.

Here, in this short description, lies the entire problem. (I’ll leave aside the article’s biased framing and focus on the core issue.)

We have extremist right-wing settlers whose ideology - settling all the land of Israel - drives them to do whatever they can to expand into areas inhabited by Palestinians. Some of whom have lived there for generations. In a few cases, their actions have turned violent, prompting violent Palestinian responses that occasionally result in death of a Palestinian at the hands of a settler. Whether those deaths were deliberate or acts of self-defense is almost beside the point.

These settlers violated the law and, in many cases, provoked confrontation. They have no business taking such actions - ideology notwithstanding. Their claims of serving a “Higher Authority” reflect a false belief, rooted in ignorance or, at best, a narrow one-sided interpretations of the Torah. The damage they inflict on Israel’s reputation is immeasurable. Israel doesn’t need people like this to make it look bad in the eyes of the world’s antisemitic leaders, Chief among them those in the U.N. These misguided individuals only add fuel to the fire.

That same fire has now inspired extremists on the left to ‘stand in solidarity’ with West Bank Palestinians. Joining them in defiance of the ‘vile settlers’. Of which only a few are involved in actual violent acts.

Even if the particular Palestinians they accompany aren’t directly involved in terrorism, they often sympathize with it. And celebrate it when it happens. The media’s romantic focus on their ‘underdog struggle’ doesn’t change that reality. Standing in solidarity with them is standing in solidarity with people that would rather see you dead. Furthermore it projects a damaging image of Israel. Suggesting that the Israeli government actually supports violent settlers. And they are protesting Israel itself by standing with Palestinians.

In essence, , Leila Stillman-Utterback - a well-meaning but misguided 18-year-old believed she was performing an act of tikkun olam—social justice, surely educated to believe she was performing the ‘most important mitzvah in the Torah’. However, In reality she was giving aid and comfort to Israel’s enemies and reinforcing the false narrative of Israel as an oppressive apartheid state. A narrative championed by people like Zohran Mamdani. 

I don’t doubt her sincerity, but good intentions don’t excuse breaking the law or undermining your own people. Taking the law into your own hands is wrong. Whether done by the right or by the left.

Nonetheless, Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of Truah—one of the most far-left, self-described Jewish organizations - doubled down on that narrative, saying:

“These two incidents, one after another, are just evidence both of the danger of what’s happening, and that the Israeli government has made a decision that, rather than address the horrific violence by settlers, they’re going to … penalize American Jews who are here because they care about this land and the people who live here.”

(If she lives in New York, I can probably guess who she voted for mayor. But I digress.)

It doesn’t help that extremist members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition often side with these settlers out of shared ideology. They too are guilty of putting their political convictions ahead of common sense and thereby the welfare of the Jewish people. Thankfully, they don’t run the government. They’re merely influential voices within it. So far, Netanyahu has followed the lead of Israel’s allies. Most notably the US. Not the demands of his far-right flank.

 Kazakhstan Deputy Prime Minister,Nurtleu and Secretary of State Rubio (JNS)

Not that you’d know that from media coverage. Though they rarely say it outright, the press often portrays Netanyahu as every bit the ‘war criminal’ that ICC, Mamdani and his ilk accuse him of being. This portrayal fuels critics who claim his leadership has doomed Israel’s diplomatic prospects. And that - for example - no additional Arab nations will join the Abraham Accords under his watch. And even those that have already joined - may withdraw.

One might assume that, with the world so hostile, the Abraham Accords have reached their end. But that assumption would be wrong. JNS reports the following:

Kazakhstan is joining the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements between Israel and Arab states first brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump nearly five years ago.

“I just held a great call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan,” Trump said Thursday evening. “Kazakhstan is the first country of my second term to join the Abraham Accords—the first of many.”

So much for the doom and gloom from Netanyahu’s critics. Another nation has joined the Accords with a country supposedly led by a ‘war criminal’.

Which brings us back to the extremists. On both the left and the right. Each camp believes it’s serving a higher cause. Each vilifies the other. And together, they continue to be a thorn in the side of peace.

My advice to these ‘well-intentioned’ zealots is simple: Stop hurting your own people. Use your head instead of your emotions. Israel—and the Jewish people—will be far better off if you do.

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