Over the last several days, I’ve taken particular note of developments at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. As you may know, Israel is headed to an election at the end of October. The current Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been in power for about 15.5 of the last 17 years in Israel, including on 10/7. He is facing his greatest challenge yet as the elections loom.

Of note this week were the departures from the governing Likud party of two Members of Knesset, former Speaker of the Knesset and former refusenik Yuli Edelstein, and the much younger Daniel Illouz, an articulate, energetic immigrant from Canada. Both of these members of the ruling Likud declared that they could no longer support the government as it pushed through legislation that by all analyses deepened the manpower crisis in the IDF, and continued with several changes or reversions of the law relating to Judicial reform and oversight.

These moves resonated particularly with me because I spent a lot of time in Ottawa and Washington and at numerous rallies and demonstrations in my hometown and far beyond advocating and lobbying for my government to work to free Soviet Jewry, among whose imprisoned leaders was Yuli Edelstein. I became an activist as a teenager after meeting Avital Scharansky, and the direction that my life would take was set by this fight. And later in life I spent countless hours on University campuses across the country working with hundreds of student leaders advocating for Israel and challenging hate.

I worked on advocacy projects with Dan Illouz - and more so with his friends, colleagues and contemporaries - while he was a university student and I was Director of Israel Affairs for National Jewish Campus Life in Canada. I didn’t know him well, other than he was reliable in ways most student activists had challenges being, and that he was committed and utterly competent.

Coming from different angles, I have immense respect for both of them. Neither is performative, or radical, nor are they ideological beyond a deep commitment to Jewish ideals, to Zionism, and to Jewish peoplehood.

Now, I’ve been watching as new movements have formed within the opposition to the current government - like HaMiluimnikim, who speak for reservists, their needs and their families, as well as many others who look at the established opposition in Israel and don’t see too many new ideas and few fresh faces. These groups are demanding to be heard, and some like Bennett and Eisenkot are listening in ways they never have before.

What I take away from these developments is the following: Many Israelis are fed up with the status quo - and I’m not describing this in terms of left or right, religious or secular, young or old, sefaradi or ashkenazi. Many observers are looking at the polls and saying they think the deadlocks of previous elections remain. Perhaps so. I will dare to say that I don’t think it will pan out that way. I have faith in Israelis, of the right and of the left, who draw conclusions from the last three years that fundamental change has to take place in all corners of Israeli society.

Whether that change comes through this election or in the years that follow, I don’t know. But I do know that the Jewish people and the Jewish state have been fundamentally changed over the last three years, and most of us are certain that there is a better way to be, both as a state for the electorate I’m describing, and for the Jewish people that I love and have devoted my passion and my professional life to serving.

That better way begins with unity and with love of our fellow Jews. It rejects utterly the hatred that empowered the Romans to destroy our Temple and exile us. It elevates the Jewish knowledge, Torah values, and consequentially strong Jewish identity that sustained us in that exile for almost two thousand years. And it is as stubborn in its unrelenting fight against those who would destroy us as our stiff-necked people can be.

As we observe Tisha B’Av in the upcoming week, let’s remember that overcoming that which divides us is the basis of our physical and spiritual redemption, and that the observance of mourning is followed days later by Tu B’Av, celebrating love and binding us together. And it is no coincidence that our tradition tells us that the final redemption will come on Tisha B’Av.

May those of you who fast on Tisha B’Av have a meaningful experience, and may it be the last one we ever need to observe.