Jews Against Jews: Lessons from the Altalena in an Era of Internal Division

Eighty years after the ship sank off Tel Aviv, the deep fractures of the Altalena affair threaten to resurface in today's fractured society.

Altalena 2026

"Brothers, I call to you: Do not raise a hand against a brother. Only not a civil war!", shouted the commander of the Irgun, Menachem Begin, to his soldiers with tears choking his throat.

The story of the ship "Altalena", the remains of which were recently found at the bottom of the sea, was one of the most charged events in the history of the country, and its signs are visible to this day. Altalena was a ship of weapons and fighters that was brought to the country by the Irgun organization, about a month after the declaration of the state. The IDF had already been established, and the government refused to allow the Irgun to maintain separate units with weapons, and demanded that all the ammunition on the ship be handed over to the army.

Begin refused to hand over the weapons to the government, and this is how the struggle began. At its peak, Altalena was shelled by the IDF, on the orders of Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, off the coast of Tel Aviv. "Jews shooting at Jews," Rabin described in his book. In the exchange of fire, many fighters on both sides were killed and wounded, and the weapons taken from Altalena were destroyed.

Almost eighty years later, it would be a mistake to think that this was a passing episode. Such a rupture in Israeli society could repeat itself and cause a civil war to break out.

The division is unraveling and taking on a new form. While Israel is working to mobilize international support to combat the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda that floods social networks and the media around the world, it's being revealed that many Jews and Israelis are among the activists leading the clashes in the State of Israel.

But self-hatred among the Jewish people didn't start with the establishment of the state. Throughout the history of the Jewish people, we have had to deal with internal divisions, which often flared up into all-out war. For example, the Hasmonean revolt which took place 160 years before the Common Era, there was mainly a clash of Jews against Jews, the "Hellenists".

A similar process took place in Spain, a few years before the beginning of the Inquisition. Thousands of Jews converted to Christianity, mostly of their own free will, but anti-Semitic racism rose, and finally the Inquisition was revived. The "new Christians" were accused of no wrongdoing, and were burned. The Inquisition was also headed by Jews who had converted to their religion. It is known that the grandfather of Thomas de Torquemada, the "Grand Inquisitor of Spain" and one of the leading supporters and workers of the expulsion of the Jews of Spain, was also a Jew.

If there is a hatred more irrational than anti-Semitism, it is auto-anti-Semitism - Jewish self-hatred.

History is full of countless examples of Jews who felt alienated from their own people, developed an obsessive hostility, and dedicated their lives to the negation of the Jewish people. If there is a hatred more irrational than anti-Semitism, it is auto-anti-Semitism - Jewish self-hatred.

Along with the outbursts of hatred, we strengthened the bonds of love. Over the generations, the Jewish people developed the method of connection known as the wisdom of Kabbalah, and took care to adapt it to the spirit of the times. Love over hate was forever established as the principle leading to a good life, and only the wisdom of Kabbalah paved the way there.

The Talmud tells us that when a stranger came to the elder Hillel and asked him to teach him the entire Torah on one leg, Hillel replied: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor; this is the entire Torah." Later, Rabbi Akiva enunciated for his 24,000 disciples the rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself" - the essence of Jewish law. As long as the Jews kept this rule, they prospered and flourished wherever they lived.

But when egoism grew, hatred gnawed at them and separated them. As a result, the Jews divided into circles, classes, and sectors, closed in on themselves and became indifferent to others. The whole Torah and ancestral heritage became blurred, and the Jews began to assimilate or split Judaism into different streams, which gave expression to egoism. Many of them were swallowed up among the nations of the world, and sometimes, as in the case of the Hellenists, became sworn enemies of Judaism.

Jewish self-hatred has neutralized the role of the Israeli nation in spreading the method of connection to the world. But it's not possible to escape or ignore Jewish identity, not even through assimilation into local culture. No matter where we go we'll always be considered a foreigner.

We'll continue to be ostracized and persecuted until we cover the baseless hatred with brotherly love and mutual guarantee. Only when we recognize that the supreme value that connects us is unity, and that our entire destiny is to share the method of connection with the nations of the world, to be a "light to the nations," will we be welcome and sought after everywhere in the world.

Right before the ego takes control of us again to the point of civil a war and cause the ship of Israel, "Altelana 2026" to sink, let's connect together and sail towards a common future. The wisdom of connection is in our hands. Let's use it and do our best to be true Jews, united in love that covers all crimes, in brotherhood and mutual guarantee.