Gideon Levy’s furious,sarcastic Yom Kippur message
JVL Introduction
In his inimitable and furious style Gideon Levy has written his message for the most holy day in the Jewish calendar; for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement when all must seek forgiveness for their sins and transgressions and commit to doing better in the year ahead.
But, argues Levy, there is surely no further need for a Day of Atonement in Israel since Israel can do no wrong so what possible sins do Israelis have to atone for? Rather it is those of us, in JVL, Global Jews and European Jews for Palestine, all on the Jewish Bloc who support Palestinians, who are critical of Israel who need to atone.
Amongst the many “guilty” of this sinning, Levy calls himself out, of course, as well as, for example, the film makers Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham for daring to show IDF soldiers’ own testimony of what the Israeli military was doing in Gaza. Before you read Levy’s words of frustration and fury, however, do take 30 seconds to watch this video thanking the film makers by children in Gaza’s orphans camp. Their thanks are surely more important than the 25 minutes of standing ovation they received in Venice.
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Sun 20 Sep 2026. Read the original here.
This Yom Kippur, the Whole World Must Apologize to Israel
If penitential prayers are heard in Israel on this Day of Atonement, then we have learned nothing from the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The misconception that Israel is capable of sinning is still deeply rooted
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thank you for this savage indignation in th Swiftian tradition… It hardly feels like sarcasm any more. Nothing will move these monsters.
Whatever the intent, Israel has resorted to barbarism and should not longer exist as a UN-recognised State.
Israeli governing party lawmaker: ‘We are not like everyone else,’ laws that apply to others ‘cannot apply to us’
Likud lawmaker Hanoch Milwidsky
With respect, as a life witness to the Yom Kippur war, but not to what followed as I decided that I could not stay, I don’t think this an occasion for satire. This is too serious. Yes, I understand what Mr. Levy is saying and I agree with his sentiment and opinion . . but please leave satire out of it
Thank you.
I applaud the writer or this perfect comment on Israels position.
brillant . I’m sure many Zionist Israelis actually believe the world should apologise . That shows just what a sick creed ZIONISM IS and has been for more than 100 years .
Marius van Andel, I can understand how you feel. However this is not satire but sarcasm which is very fitting. Sarcasm appears to agree with or praise, or even both, actions and achievements. Whereas Satire parodies the people carrying out the actions and can be an Art Form. sometimes the line between the two is blurred both are a form of highlighting behavior that is in some way odd or unacceptable. This is clearly aimed at the unacceptable behaviour and attitude of Israel. I love it because it itemises each offence against humanity, but then I have not been directly involved so do not have the same intensity of feeling as yourself. I think it may be a peculiarly British thing that we attack aggressors in this way.
Two points:
First, the Balfour Declaration was well intended: to give the survivors of Hitler’s Germany a homeland in which they could recover and rebuild a Jewish society;
And second, it now appears, to me at least, that the state of Israel, in its constant attacks on the Gaza and blank refusal of international calls for a two-state solution, that one of the things that Israel has learned from WW2 is, ironically, how to behave like Fascists.
Just for information, the Balfour Declaration was made in 1917 predating Hitler’s Chancellorship by 16 years and the Final Solution by 25. It was also opposed by Lord Montagu who was the only Jewish member of the Cabinet at the time.
The problem is a lot of people don’t get sarcasm.. I’m sure there will be thousands ( most Israelis as well) who agree with Gideon LITERALLY.. having seen so often this mistake in online posts & comments..
An addendum to my comment in response to Tim.. The Balfour Declaration was NOT well intentioned.. 1) Britain had been selling land in Palestine to Zionists because Lord Rothschild had been bribing UK politicians since the 1920s & 2) US & UK didn’t want the 1 million Jews coming to THEIR countries so between them decided with casual Colonial arrogance to carved up Palestine ( after promising Palestinians Independence if they fought with Britain ) & gave most of it to the European Jews ( who have NO DNA or Historical links to the region whatsoever as they are ASHKENAZI converts to Judaism) .
We need to apologise to the planet for having spawned this abominable distraction from what we need to be doing.