I found myself bristling as I read some of the news coming out of Israel these past couple of days.
Of course, the security situation and navigating it in all of its complexity is at the forefront. But a few news stories caught my eye that were truly so upsetting.
Among them, a nun was knocked to the ground. As appalling and wrong as that is, I knew it was an outlier, an aberration. Overall, that terrible incident is not representative of my beloved Israel.
But then I saw a photo of a minister in the Israeli government. Someone who for decades was also an outlier, yet in recent years became part of the government. At first glance it seemed all but an innocent photograph — a couple smiling as they hold up his birthday cake. I skipped it, but the photograph kept reappearing in my feed, accompanied by negative remarks.
I took a second look.
Right there at the center of the cake, in thick gold frosting, was a noose — yes you read that right, a noose. Not a unicorn or a rainbow, a butterfly or a flower design — or any other more benignly cheerful image normally associated with frosted birthday cake designs. It certainly wasn’t a visual of a dove of peace with an olive branch, or a menorah or Star of David, things that one might expect on the birthday cake of a minister in the Israeli government.
The script accompanying the noose said, “Sometimes dreams do come true.”
This is apparently was in reference to this minister’s advocacy of, and the Knesset’s recent passage of, the death penalty for convicted terrorists
Of course it is anyone’s right to believe in the death penalty for convicted murderers and terrorists. It can be a profound matter of solemnly pursuing justice as well as a pragmatic matter of cultivating a more safe society. Deliberating about the taking of another life is a deeply grave matter. Even if the conclusion is that the death penalty is a viable option, its purpose is in order to protect life, not to glorify death.
My shock at this twisted birthday photo gave way to revulsion. What a travesty. Not because I harbor compassion for terrorists or convicted murderers. However, to think that a once pure baby with the potential to make something out of his or her life, made choices that led to depravity and wanton murder, is a failure and a tragedy.
Certainly, I align with the innocent victims whose lives were cruelly robbed — and the aftermath of their family and friends coping with such a catastrophe. I don’t align with those who would mitigate the consequence for the sick perpetrator of evil, even if in some places that means the legal death penalty.
Nonetheless, glorifying death? Celebrating death? A noose? Hanging humans as the stuff that “dreams” are made of?
It’s obscene. Mortifyingly, it’s by a minister in the government.
This is a premeditated cake, not some one-off mistake.
It reeks of something truly disturbing.
Even if a death penalty is justified, the evocative image of a noose — of evoking a human choking to death or dying by a broken neck — and the image of the steps taken to effectuate it — the stool being removed, the body going limp, ultimately hanging there — is horrific. Not something to take joy in.
Justice served, that is a value. Celebrating death, not!.
I wonder, how exactly can anyone at such a party bite into a slice of such a cake, a birthday cake no less, something symbolizing life, and swallow a piece of that frosted noose.
It evokes a perverted and psychopathic cake, so to speak.
Israel does not glorify death! Israel glorifies life.
When soldiers fight, it’s not out of love of death, but out of a sense of duty to protect life. The life of the Israelis whom the terrorists target.
The stuff that Israeli dreams are made of are of choosing life. Sanctifying life. Not the opposite.
I truly feel truly pained to see the spectacle of such a sick cake, such a disturbing celebration of death. An Israeli minister’s birthday cake ought to be in harmony with the essence, values, hopes and aspirations of the single Jewish state.
That’s the stuff that Israeli leaders’ dreams ought to consist of, especially since they are so far from current reality.
When reality necessitates fighting for our survival, when our hands are justifiably filled with necessary instruments of war to protect our lives, the more must we retains visuals such as the dove of peace
For a minister of the State of Israel to celebrate his birthday with a noose-adorned cake is, on so many levels, deadly.
© IJN 2026