Israel Goes to the Polls –
An Analysis by Lawrence
Davidson
Posted by Dr. Lawrence Davidson on March 23, 2015 in News &
Analysis, Palestine,
United States, World | | 1
Response
Cartoon Photo by Amos Biderman
(Courtesy Haaretz.com)
The
biggest losers are the Jews. The fact that the behavior of Netanyahu and his
allies is repeatedly endorsed by a significant number of Jews inside and
outside of Israel
confirms that, except for the Holocaust, Zionism is the worst thing to happen
to Jews and Judaism in the modern era. It has tied a people and a religion to a
racist political ideology that is a variant on the criminal practice of
apartheid.
by Dr. Lawrence Davidson
Part I – The Israeli Public Speaks
Elections
are public windows onto national hopes and concerns, and this was certainly the
case with the March 2015 voting in Israel. You just have to look
through that window with analytical eyes to assess those national yearnings in
their essential details.
At
first glance the campaigning suggested that most Israelis were focused on
economics. This would not be unusual. Just about all democratic elections are
fought over bread and butter issues, and Israel has evolved into a society
that is harshly divided between haves and have-nots. However, as it turned out,
this campaign theme could not have been of primary importance. This is so
because the man who symbolizes the dysfunctional economic status quo, Benjamin
Netanyahu (aka Bibi), actually won the election. Indeed his hard-right Likud
Party improved its position in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, from 19 to
30 seats. Obviously, something else was motivating the Israeli voter. What was
it?
The
answer to that question is fear – or, in Israeli terms, the issue of security.
Netanyahu stoked this fear with warnings of a massive Arab Israeli turnout and
other examples of racist-tinged propaganda, and this led many Israeli Jews to
decide, in the privacy of the voting booth, that they were more afraid of
Palestinians than of poverty. At the same time most of these voters refused to
face the fact that much of this fear is self-induced. Israel has
evolved into one of the most racist countries on earth and at the heart of its
racism is the ideologically driven desire for a state reserved primarily for
Jews. To accomplish this, Israel
as a nation has dispossessed and oppressed the Palestinians. This practice has
prevailed for so long that 60
percent of Israeli Jews cannot envision an end to the resulting
struggle. So fear of Palestinian resistance, with its implied threat of
destruction, or at least transformation, of the Jewish state has always been
their ultimate security issue.
It
would seem that concern over security and its attendant fear caused enough
Israelis, who would have otherwise voted their pocketbooks, to vote instead for
the “no
Palestinian state on my watch,” free-marketeer Bibi Netanyahu. And that
allowed his Likud Party to win.
Part II – Consequences for the
Israeli People
Given
that so many Israeli Jews voted for Netanyahu’s Likud Party or one of the
parties allied to it, what can they look for as a result? Well, they can hope
against hope for their longed-for security. However, objectively speaking, this
expectation is foolhardy. This will be Netanyahu’s fourth term as prime
minister and Israel
is still the least safe place on the planet for Jews. In addition, thanks to
Netanyahu’s policies, life for Jews outside of Israel is less, rather than more,
secure. In other words, those who voted for Likud or its allies looking for
security seriously misjudged the situation. Indeed, they seem to be unable to
understand what is really required for Israel’s security – namely, a just
peace with the Palestinians – or how Netanyahu has already and soon will
further negatively impact this issue.
Also,
Netanyahu has adopted positions and policies which, if pressed forward (as they
now surely will be), can only rebound negatively on Israel in the international arena.
These positions and policies include Netanyahu’s refusal to seriously negotiate
with the Palestinians, his now open rejection of a Palestinian state (despite
his cynical post-election reversal on this point), the speeding up of illegal
settlement activity, ever more violent oppressive occupation, theft of
Palestinian tax revenue, and the utter impoverishment of the Gaza Strip. Over
time these policies have upset most of the governments of the Western world (an
exception being the U.S. Congress), and that feeling may now grow and make more
likely stronger reactions both from the Europeans, the United Nations, and the
White House as well.
Israel’s voters can also look forward to an emboldened
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel movement, which will no doubt pick
up supporters as a result of Netanyahu’s reelection. Then there is the
allegation of Israeli war crimes now being considered by the International
Criminal Court (ICC). Bibi’s return to power will ensure that this process
continues, possibly resulting in indictments against a significant proportion
of the Israeli chain of command, including the reelected Benjamin Netanyahu.
Finally,
many Israelis can expect to stay poor under Netanyahu’s free market
policies.
Part III – Consequences for the
Palestinians
In
the near run things may not change much for the Palestinians. With Netanyahu
reelected, any Israeli talk of compromise, if it is articulated at all, will be
recognized as empty propaganda. We can speculate that if Likud’s strongest
rival, the Zionist Union headed by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, had won the recent
election, they would perhaps have muddied the waters for the Palestinians –
perhaps reopening “negotiations” with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian
National Authority, probably then causing the latter to put on hold Palestinian
charges of Israeli war crimes at the ICC, and then tempting the aging Abbas
with some form of Bantustan. That is the very best the Palestinians could have
gotten from any Zionist government. It is realization of this hard fact that
many Palestinians and their supporters would rather
see Netanyahu in charge: the issues then at least remain crystal clear
rather than fogged over by false hopes.
United Arab List (Courtesy:
Mondoweiss.net)
On
the bright side of the equation the united Arab List did very well in the
recent election and garnered 14 seats. This makes the Israeli Arab coalition
the third largest bloc in the Knesset and thus a potential major opposition
voice. Arab Israeli leaders will now demand seats on parliamentary committees.
They will almost certainly be ignored or, at best, relegated to unimportant
places. This will only disillusion many Arab Israelis about politics in general
and cause them to look for other avenues to express their longstanding
dissatisfaction. For the rest of the world, their poor treatment will become
more obvious and Israel’s
claim to democratic status all the less persuasive.
Part IV – Consequences for the United States
The
sad truth is that the present leaders of the mainstream Jewish community in the
U.S. have long favored the
Likud leadership in Israel.
Some of these Jewish leaders believe that tough-minded Likudniks are the best
hedge against the “inevitable” next Holocaust, while others will back
whoever is in charge because they are ideologically fixated on Israel as their
cause celebre. Thus, all of them are no doubt pleased with Netanyahu’s return
to power. This is also the case for the U.S.’s Christian Zionists who are
motivated by religious delusions about what it takes to bring about the Second
Coming of their preferred god. It is a mistake to see these attitudes as
generational. In both cases they will be with us for a long time. For all these
people, Netanyahu’s reelection means business as usual.
The
consequences of Netanyahu’s victory for liberal American Jews and their
organizations – J Street,
the American branch of Peace Now, and the like – is really problematic. If they
can hold onto their membership, they might press on despite all. On the other hand,
many liberal Jews might just give up and become quiet, which of course is what
the hard-line Zionists want. But it is also likely that liberal Zionist
organizations will lose members to more relevant and outspoken organizations
such as Jewish Voices For Peace. That would be a move in a progressive, and
realistic, direction.
Then
there are the Republican Party officials. Their comfort level with the Bibi and
his Likudniks is a matter of style and character. Take a man like John Boehner,
Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, and match him in terms of
personality and ethics to Benjamin Netanyahu. What you have is a compatible
fit: two utterly unprincipled politicians who may in fact really like each
other.
President
Obama, and no doubt many other Democrats, would have preferred Netanyahu’s
political demise and replacement with a Herzog-Livni coalition. Obama wants
Zionists willing to at least put on a front of flexibility. These are the kind
of folks he would feel comfortable working with, and given such partners, he
would help them pressure the Palestinians into a Bantustan.
He won’t get that now and so we are all spared the farce of further “peace
talks.”
Finally,
there is Netanyahu’s obsession with the Iran
question and U.S.
negotiations with that country. Bibi will no doubt feel emboldened by his
electoral victory, and once he forms his coalition and consolidates power, the
White House can expect him to resume his nagging and nay-saying ways on this
issue. Once the deal with Iran
is struck (and I think it will be), one can anticipate Netanyahu’s collusion
with the Republicans to undermine and, if they can, ultimately sabotage
President Obama’s one notable contribution to a more peaceful and stable world.
Part V – Conclusion
Undermining
peace, promoting oppression, assuring poverty, fostering racism, playing on
people’s fears and interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries –
none of this can be good for the rest of us. Clearly, Benjamin Netanyahu is bad
news for the world at large. He is the political world’s analogue to global
warming – the more active he is, the more toxic the environment becomes.
In
the long run the Palestinians may be the only ones who benefit from the Israel’s March
2015 elections. The now guaranteed continued alienation from Israel of a
good part of the Western world will work to their benefit over time. Netanyahu
would dismiss this possibility as irrelevant, for he is certain that Israeli
power wins out in the end. But then there are different types of power: just
ask the men who once ran South
Africa’s for-whites-only society.
On
the other hand, the biggest losers are the Jews. The fact that the behavior of
Netanyahu and his allies is repeatedly endorsed by a significant number of Jews
inside and outside of Israel
confirms that, except for the Holocaust, Zionism is the worst thing to happen
to Jews and Judaism in the modern era. It has tied a people and a religion to a
racist political ideology that is a variant on the criminal practice of
apartheid.
Given
that sort of culture, the worst rises to the top and, sure enough, that is what
is happening in Israel.
___________________________________________________________
Author Archives: Dr.
Lawrence Davidson
Lawrence Davidson is a retired professor of history
from West Chester
University in West
Chester PA. His academic research focused on the history of American foreign
relations with the Middle East. He taught
courses in Middle East history, the history of
science and modern European intellectual history.
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / November 29, 2015
US, Turkey,
NATO Supporting ISIS and al-Qaeda – Supporting the Creation of Buffer Zones
…
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / November 18, 2015
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union
for Reform Judaism The leader of the largest…
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / September 23, 2015
The goal of destroying al-Qaeda-like organizations
is, supposedly, what the “war on terror” is all…
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / August 11, 2015
There is a sense that the Zionist representatives of
a people who suffered horribly during…
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / June 11, 2015
I don’t believe any of these goals are possible
unless Zionism is in fact kicked…
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / May 30, 2015
There are many names you can give the present nature
of rule in Egypt.
You…
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / April 30, 2015
General Wesley Clark tells of how Middle
East destabilization was planned as far back as…
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / April 7, 2015
Obviously the real “concerns and interests” of the
United States in the Middle East have…
Dr. Lawrence Davidson / March 23, 2015
Cartoon Photo by Amos Biderman (Courtesy Haaretz.com)
The biggest losers are the Jews. The fact that…
No comments:
Post a Comment
Say what is on your mind, but observe the rules of debate. No foul language is allowed, no matter how anger-evoking the posted article may be.
Thank you,
TruthSeeker