The one democratic state in the Middle East, Israel, took a major step towards abandoning democracy on Tuesday, in the decision of Blue and White’s Benny Gantz to step out of the way of Netanyahu’s desperate bid to retain power at all costs.
Where Gantz may see unity, Netanyahu sees himself as holding on to the reins of power. Shortly Gantz will no longer be necessary, particularly if Blue and White rebels Zvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel, and erstwhile Gesher MK Orly Levy-Abecassis, join with Netanyahu. From that point on, the minute Gantz tries to place any obstacle in the way of Netanyahu’s agenda, he will be expendable. Meanwhile he will be used to maximum advantage of the right wing. The somewhat optimistic reaction of J-Street to the news that Gantz’s faction may hold on to the Justice Ministry is already coming under strain, as moves toward cementing the power of a unity government have begun. Blue and White has fallen apart, leaving Gantz to fight a losing battle on his own.
If a person under indictment for several serious charges, leading a minority coalition, can hold on to his position as prime minister, it is an illusion to think that he cannot remove anyone under him should he find it expedient. And this is the definition of authoritarianism.
We can expect moves in the Knesset to marginalize the influence of the High Court on the political process. We can expect immediately that the Knesset will find a way to make Netanyahu exempt from facing his day in court, and we can expect that his fifth term as prime minister will be followed by a very long term as president, or as has been floated, possibly deputy prime minister. Who will stand in his way?
However, this sad capitulation will result in severe consequences for Israel, as now nothing will stop the government from moving to annex the West Bank, maybe in steps as outlined by Jared Kushner in the “Trump Plan”. The relationship between Israel and Jordan will fall apart, and any cooperation between Jewish and Arab Israelis will be ended, just as the Joint List was taking steps to support a Blue and White government and enter the political scene as participants instead of opposition. There will be strong opposition from all the Arab states, and America will find itself drawn into a morass, on the side of those imposing an apartheid status on a huge percentage of its population.
Does Israel have a basis for such confidence in America’s continued support for this move? Even in the face of strong opposition from the rest of the world, including the United Nations?
Suppose America manages to hold on to democracy despite the moves of its own president toward authoritarianism, and Joe Biden gets elected. Biden was there in 2014 at the end of a long grueling series of talks with the Palestinian Authority aimed at a two-state solution, which most of the world sees as the only viable possibility. He saw Netanyahu fail to release the fourth wave of prisoners, in spite of his promise to do so, and thus to destroy the whole process at the last minute. He watched all of Netanyahu’s machinations and dirty tricks throughout his eight years by Obama’s side. On top of this, Israel during the Netanyahu era has also managed to create some major opposition in the United States where there was none before, much of it from the Jewish population itself.
In Israel, who is celebrating the prospect of annexation? Clearly the ultra Orthodox and the Right Wing feel great joy at finally being able to move to take over the whole of what they see as Israel’s land. And yet a more sober analysis has to admit the very real possibility now of the eventual loss of a Jewish state. In twenty years, after years of renewed struggle with the Arab states, and the total lack of cooperation (on which Israel depends) by the Palestinians within Israel, the next generation will come into power, and they are far less likely to accept their status as an apartheid state. They will watch this step for now, because they don’t have power, but will be questioning the wisdom of those who cling on to the past, instead of making steps into a more positive future.
Is it impossible to embrace change if you sincerely believe in the deal between God and Abraham? Many Jews have taken this path, and still firmly believe they are following the right way. A division between those who want to engage with the world and those who want to stay with the past will become an even bigger problem for Israel as time passes, and make continued American support more problematic, as democracy fades.
Over the last at least half century, the world has seen real progress toward acceptance and integration, and most people looked forward to the change of millennium with the expectation that we would move into an era of greater peace and unity. Since then, however, we have watched as these dreams have been sabotaged by the growth of strong man regimes visiting devastation on any incipient freedom movements in their countries, the vast explosion of economic inequality worldwide, keeping the poor disenfranchised and enslaved to their work, and race or ethnicity-based violence within many countries.
The only reason people in general have chosen the path of exchanging their liberties and freedoms for a greater authoritarianism is fear, fear of losing control, fear of losing what little they may have, and leaders have done a sadly efficient job of convincing them that their fear is due to the Palestinians, immigrants, the Brussels elite, etc. Is that what Hauser, Hendel, and Levy-Abecassis have succumbed to, selling out Israel’s democracy for fear of Arabs who only want to participate as citizens? The world itself stands poised between two starkly different futures: either we will choose a vision of a world where everyone has value, beyond religion, ethnicity, race, economic status and all the other divisions that have defined the past; or we will choose to go backward into the world where we put all our faith in a single powerful leader who rallies us behind communal goals by demonizing “the other”. Yet how long can autocrats continue to hold back the desire of people everywhere to build a world where our communal and cultural bonds do not stand in the way of relating peaceably to others in the human family?
One Fateful Week in February 2020: Netanyahu Pins His Hopes for Reelection on Killing the Two-State Solution
Alison Wakelin and Louise Strait February 27, 2020
In the run up to Israel’s March 2 election, all subtlety appears to have been abandoned, and the Netanyahu/Trump axis of power has taken on a nakedly blatant bid for maintaining that power at any and all costs. During one week at the end of February, Netanyahu seized the media spotlight by announcing two initiatives to build thousands of units of settler housing in the illegally occupied West Bank in direct opposition to international law. Such brazen land grabs have been attempted before, but previously U.S. (and international) opposition was sufficient pushback to halt the plans in their tracks. Not so anymore, thanks to the Trump administration’s implicit support of Israel’s claim to the West Bank.
On February 20, Netanyahu announced his plan to build 3,000 settler housing units in Givat Hamatos, on Jerusalem’s southern border and beyond the Green Line. The second in the series of one-two punches followed quickly on February 25, when he promised 3,500 housing units for Jewish settlers in the E-1 area, between East Jerusalem and the huge Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim.
Such projects would be deep stab wounds leading to the death of any idea of a functional Palestinian state. Enlarging Givat Hamatos directly obstructs the connection between the Palestinian town of Beit Safafa and Bethlehem, its urban hub, as well as between Bethlehem and the southern portion of East Jerusalem. The proposed E-1 construction would not only hem in the eastern portions of East Jerusalem but would, more consequentially, sever the only land corridor between the northern and southern West Bank.
This does not even mention that on February 9 Israel’s Housing Ministry submitted a building plan for 9,000 setter housing units in the north, at the abandoned Atarot Airport. The egregiousness of this proposal goes beyond the fact that it would inhibit Palestinians’ access between the northern area of East Jerusalem and Ramallah; it eats up land that the Trump administration’s “Deal of the Century” earmarks for a Palestinian tourism center.
Taken together, these three plans are a trifecta, a north, east, and south encirclement of East Jerusalem, which has for years been hoped for as the capital of the eventual state of Palestine. What is particularly worrisome is that Bibi’s power base has simply gone along with and indeed encouraged measures that would almost certainly turn out to be counter to their own interests, personal and national.
Can a Jewish state survive if it is based on the maxim that Netanyahu must be prime minister and cannot be thwarted, as opposed to the deep traditions and laws that have defined the Jewish identity for literally thousands of years? A state may survive, but can it be called Jewish if it embraces a policy of discrimination towards Palestinians, thereby creating a system of apartheid? Such would not be in accordance with its own basic law, to “love the stranger within thy gates as thyself” (Leviticus 19:34). What does it mean to be Jewish? And who should decide, just Israeli Jews, or the world population of Jews?
No one blames Israel for turning to military strength in the face of organized efforts to destroy the young country, but taking land heretofore considered as part of an eventual Palestinian state goes beyond any security considerations. In fact, providing security in new areas of incursion places greater burden on the IDF, and its leaders, former and current, have said as much.
At this point, the actions of those who wish to maintain power have gone beyond any reason and are supported by the need to keep the Israeli population in a state of constant fear of the Palestinians within their gates. This has never been a tactic that leads to peace. It is almost guaranteed to result in increased resentment and pent-up anger instead, which sooner or later will be expressed one way or another.
What is wrong with the current generation of leaders determined to reinstate an authoritarian regime on citizens very ready to let go of such a model of government? Are they so emotionally disabled that they cannot see anything beyond themselves? We must stop putting so much power in the hands of would-be authoritarian leaders—so much power, in fact, that they have been able to bend the otherwise sane people around them to their point of view.
It is time to recognize the divinity and uniqueness of every human, and give everyone their God-given right to freedom, and equal access to the gifts of nature. Relationships built through kindness, not in political actions that only serve to remove trust, are required. Without this base of friendship, there will be trouble ahead. This year seems designed to offer us what may be our last opportunity to transform our politics without deep and possibly violent discontent. Surely Israelis will consider this as they go once more to the polls.
Israel Must Not Annex the Jordan Valley
Andrew Wilson November 21, 2019, updated Nov. 26
On November 20, the last day that Benny Gantz held the mandate to form a government--which, it turned out, he was not able to do--Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a bill to annex the Jordan Valley, and he called on Gantz, his rival, to sign on to it. Even now, when Israel's governance still remains up for grabs, a bill to annex the Jordan Valley continues to make its way through Netanyahu's caretaker Knesset.
The Citizens Proposal regards annexation as a seriously wrongheaded and foolhardy move that will bring only disaster to Israel. As a Jew, I must sound the alarm. This bill is an existential threat to Israel. It should not pass, for Israel’s sake. (continued on page 2)
