Israel's Fourth Quarter

Do you also have intense arguments in the shower? In your head with an imaginary person, obviously.

I don't sing in the shower, I argue. And I always have time to make a full point, and I'm always well articulated and I certainly win. Sometimes I imagine a specific person, it helps if I already know what they think about the subject. Sometimes I'm on a podium shouting into the street. I guess if I wrote my opinions on social media it would be the same thing? But I don't, I barely write them here :)

So my most recent argument has been about the essence of "Q4," which is a movement I joined that's meant to try to ensure Israel's sovereignty for the next quarter of a century. And I think it's so important and I need people to know. Here's why.

*Why am I writing it down? Because maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are points I haven't thought about and information I don't know that will make me see things differently? If you have any such information, then please provide!

**What are my sources? Mostly podcasts. I listen to Israeli and American, and some other international, mostly about politics and the middle east, and mostly liberal. I tried listening to a conservative episode once and it was really annoying... But I guess I learned a lot from it and I should do that more. (Ok it was Ben Shapiro, more on him soon.)

We Israelis know that many people (/countries/organizations/movements) want Israel to cease to exist as a sovereign state. Like, no more Israeli government. No more Jewish state. The Palestinians, for one, haven't even accepted that the state exists even though it's been around for 76 years. The trouble is that they have a precedent. Two precedents: twice in Jewish history did the Jews have sovereignty in this land and both times the sovereignty ended after about 70-80 years. The first was at the time of King Solomon, where the empire fell apart when it split into two kingdoms (one was Solomon's son and the other came from outside the royal family). The second was the Hashmonian rule during the second temple, which fell apart when the Romans conquered Jerusalem (sometime after Jesus was crucified). And now, the third sovereignty is at risk.

But there are many ways to take down an empire! One way is to literally claim their land in a war, but the Arabs have tried that several times and it doesn't seem to be working. So let's think of other ways: internal fighting, like a civil war or some sort of betrayal? Like someone assassinates a leader and the country falls into chaos. Or maybe a country runs into financial problems and that's how it falls apart. If you want to bring down an empire today you would shoot in all directions:

• Cut off financial ties. This could potentially bring down an economy.
• Weaken their allies. If the USA can longer provide ammunition to Israel then Israel is more likely to lose a war.
• Shame them. If other countries think they're not worth interacting with, then they'll eventually keep them from entering their country, cut off business ties, things like that. UN and ICJ resolutions are one way to do this.
• All of the above: convince young people in other countries that this country should cease to exist, and they'll do all the work for you once they become leaders in 20 years. If you have patience, which the Arabs do, this can work.
• Cause a civil war. This one is interesting, because how exactly do you cause a civil war in another country? Well, get creative. Use media? Get people stressed and anxious enough that it happens on its own?

So the civil war part is the one I want to address, because I feel like we can do something about that. That's also the most dangerous one in my opinion. And that's what "Q4" are doing. So what exactly is Q4?

Well, it's a social movement. It's about getting people to talk about the things they disagree about, until they can reach some sort of understanding. There are meetings where we pick a topic to discuss, sometimes in big groups and sometimes with just one other person. Sometimes we're given a topic. We're always taught how to have a constructive argument, because that's key.

And then there's the political part: it's not a political movement, as in it's not affiliated with any particular party or politician. That's important. But it does want to affect politics because there's only so much you can do with grassroots. So Q4 takes people from all over Israeli society and puts them together to discuss actual political issues and try to come up with a solution that can work across the board. For instance, the current crisis between the Knesset and the Supreme Court. It's evident to just about everyone that the current system isn't working. Maybe the laws are bad, maybe the court isn't working like it should, or maybe the laws are ok but we just don't trust the decision makers any more. In any case, we need to fix this. So Q4 is writing up what they call the new set of rules. It's fascinating.

This is what I call being a part of the solution, so I recommend.