The Recovery of the Israeli Covenant

When the Israeli government introduced judicial reforms to limit the Supreme Court’s authority, widespread demonstrations demanded a halt to the legislative changes. Protests escalated, and demonstrators clashed with the police and disrupted daily life. Israel was in a state of civil unrest – perhaps even en route to civil war.However, on October 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups attacked southern Israel, creating chaos and committing atrocities. Israeli civilians reacted immediately, swiftly switching from protest to mobilization, from internal turmoil to unified patriotism. This paper grapples with the question of how this rapid transformation was possible. Relying on Jonathan Sacks’s notion of covenant and Henri de Saint-Simon’s idea of avant-garde groups and individuals, it sheds light on Israeli society and its patterns of behavior.