![\"Actor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/tsahi-halevi-israel-mordechai-david-GettyImages-2229286690-2400x1350-1772232375.jpg\")
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Actor Tsahi Halevi speaks during a \u201cFamilies of Hostages\u201d rally calling for an end to the war on Aug. 9, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t![\"Dan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2024-04-14-at-11.30.36\u202fAM.png\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tColumnist In amateur video footage<\/a> circulated across Israeli social media in recent weeks, a disturbing scene unfolds. A young man in his mid-twenties, wearing a military-style jacket, looms over a silver car in the heart of Tel Aviv. Inside the vehicle sits an 89-year-old man, mouth agape, expression frozen.<\/p>\n \u201cDictator! Khamenei!\u201d the young man shouts, his voice sharp, emotional and aggressive.<\/p>\n The young man was Mordechai David, a provocateur who has been documented in a series of confrontations with public figures, journalists and protesters, adopting a style built on creating moments designed for virality. The elderly passenger was former Supreme Court president Aharon Barak \u2014 the man whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s propaganda machine has painted as a demon, blamed for building, during his tenure in the 1990s, an allegedly over-independent judiciary that supposedly obstructs \u201cgovernance\u201d by a government eager for unrestrained power.<\/p>\n David, raised in Bnei Brak as the son of a convert to religious life, has become something of a celebrity. His past includes multiple criminal highlights. Blocking Barak\u2019s car may have marked his peak. In a subsequent social-media video, David \u201capologized\u201d for not blocking Barak\u2019s vehicle \u201cmore.\u201d<\/p>\n Two different visions of Israel<\/p>\n David\u2019s stunt is one of several intertwined recent stories in Israel that, between them, outline the contours of a deeper struggle over the character of its society. It is a clash between two fundamentally different visions for the country. And Israel\u2019s fate hangs in the balance.<\/p>\n David\u2019s is a political culture where perpetual confrontation and boundary-breaking increasingly define public behavior. On the other side sits Lucy Aharish, a 44-year-old journalist who grew up in Dimona.<\/p>\n Aharish studied political science at the Hebrew University, and over the years has worked at a variety of radio and TV stations in Israel, including I24News in English, a channel on which I also frequently appear. Today, she hosts a current affairs program. The mother of a little boy, she is also a fierce opponent of Netanyahu and his circle.<\/p>\n That has attracted the ire of the Netanyahu machine\u2019s street rabble. This week, Mordechai David arrived at her doorstep with a megaphone. According to reports, David and one of his followers managed to enter her building \u2014 and at the entrance, a tense confrontation unfolded<\/a>.<\/p>\n This requires the introduction of another character: Tsahi Halevi, 50, an artist of unusual charisma. He is a singer and highly accomplished actor who portrayed Naor in the internationally acclaimed series Fauda, a character admired for intelligence, composure and moral clarity.<\/p>\n In a twist that could only occur in Israel, Halevi also partly plays himself. The son of a Mossad officer, he, like Naor, served as an officer in an elite undercover unit. On Oct. 7, 2023, he volunteered for reserve duty and rushed to the scenes of devastation, where he helped save many lives.<\/p>\n Matan Gendelman, a survivor of the Kfar Aza massacre, recently recounted in Israeli media that Halevi helped<\/a> rescue her trapped family members after being directed to the scene by his wife, who received the family\u2019s location through social media.<\/p>\n His wife is Lucy Aharish. \u201cPure gold, the salt of the earth,\u201d Gendelman said of the couple.<\/p>\n The likes of David would vehemently disagree.<\/p>\n Why? Because Aharish, in addition to being a Netanyahu critic, is a member of Israel\u2019s Arab minority. And because Aharish and Halevi are a mixed couple, the hostility against them burns even more intensely.<\/p>\n Back at their house, there was a scent of violence in the air as the decorated officer and provocateur traded barbs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou come to my home?\u201d Halevi challenged; \u201cI feel like protesting against your wife!\u201d David replied. \u201cHow far do you want this to go?\u201d Halevi asked, menacingly, as police separated the two. The police dragged David away, but he ensured himself another viral success; his future may hold a respectable place on the Likud list for the Knesset.<\/p>\n \u2018The affliction of Israeli society\u2019<\/p>\n Aharish chose to respond on television. \u201cBullying \u2014 this is the affliction of Israeli society,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is escalating. We see it in the streets, on the roads, in public discourse \u2014 and now it has reached my own doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n Worse, she added, \u201cThe spirit of this government is a bad spirit that encourages bullies. I will not bow my head before these inciters.\u201d She also addressed Netanyahu directly: \u201cThis is precisely your way, Mr. Prime Minister \u2014 not to see, not to hear, not to know what is happening under your nose. \u2026 One day, these bullies will reach your doorstep as well.\u201d<\/p>\n In the vision of Israel embodied by Aharish and Halevi, with their impassioned but civil approach, even the most fierce political disagreement remains bounded by restraint. An important distinction is drawn between rival and enemy.<\/p>\n In that advanced by David, those boundaries erode. Confrontation becomes personal. Intimidation is standard.<\/p>\n The first vision leads to an Israel that strives for peace within itself and with its neighbors, and remains a prosperous liberal democracy grounded in basic rights and openness to the world. The second leads to an unstable, isolated and increasingly theocratic state, which will be in constant conflict with its neighbors, and from which the most productive citizens will steadily depart. In short order it will be unrecognizable, and nothing will be left of \u201cStart-Up Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n The 2026 elections, which must be held by October, will not merely determine a government. They may decide with finality which of these two Israels prevails. And after four years of trauma under Netanyahu\u2019s far-right government, there is urgency in the air.<\/p>\n Dan Perry is the former chief editor of The Associated Press in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the former chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem, and the author of two books about Israel. Follow his newsletter \u201cAsk Questions Later\u201d at danperry.substack.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion<\/a>. To contact Opinion authors, email [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDan Perry<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 27, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n