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Democracy in Serious Trouble
Alison Wakelin
April 2, 2020
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?
April 2, 2020
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?
