This post is part of “What Comes Next?: A forum on the end of the two-state paradigm.” This series was initiated by Jewish Voice for Peace as an investigation into the current state of thinking about one state and two state solutions, and the collection has been further expanded by Mondoweiss to mark 20 years since the Oslo process. The entire series can be found here.
I have listened very attentively to the contemporary discourse of the Israeli Right. Some of the speakers express remorse, others wonder “What has happened to us?” while yet others lament: “They are going against us, these youth who riot.”
They have one common denominator: the Left is a terrible, shady enemy, a cunning and elusive devil that controls the media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bureau and world diplomacy. Were it not for the Left, all the Right’s good would have been understood by everyone, the hooligans complain as they make themselves look wretched. It is interesting how long they will be afraid of this scarecrow which does not impress even itself any more.
For the better part of the past 30 years, the Right has controlled the government. The Labor Party freed it from its grasp only for a very short time. The historical Labor Party never would accept the fact that Israelis preferred the Likud and its satellites. It never agreed to give up being part of the government in order to become a fig leaf par excellence, the kashrut certificate for the failures of the right in every sphere – and the chief purifier of all its vermin.
The Right is there alone. All this dirt belongs to them and they must clean it up alone. That is what a right-wing party looks like when it doesn’t have a worn-out babysitter. This is their dream coalition – right-wing legislation, simplified nationalism and cruel economics. That is who they are. That is whom the nation elected and that is whom they got.
We must not disturb them. Let them go all the way until the end. Until the end of their legislation and until the end of their political understanding. Let them rule. Not only is it forbidden to interfere, one must refrain from any kind of conversation with them. When they bring their idiotic laws up for a vote, one must not be a partner to the voting. Let them not say that they passed the legislation by a majority over a minority. One must not collaborate with this democratic act of pulling the wool over our eyes. Those votes in the Knesset must take place without any of the minority present, only the religious right-wing dictatorship.
The opposition must no longer initiate peace moves of its own; they merely worsen the situation. They create an illusion at home or abroad that the present reality is temporary. That it is still possible to put the fattened genies back in their small bottle. But that is cynical deception because it’s not possible. Because we have crossed all the red lines and all the points of no return.
So enough of the illusions. There are no longer two states between the Jordan River and the sea. Let the right-wing MKs, the Katzes and the Elkins, travel around the world and show the beauty of their faces without the deceptive layer of makeup we provided.
Meanwhile we must consider how we can enter into the new Israeli discourse. It has intriguing potential. The next diplomatic formula that will replace the “two states for two peoples” will be a civilian formula. All the people between the Jordan and the sea have the same right to equality, justice and freedom. In other words, there is a very reasonable chance that there will be only one state between the Jordan and the sea – neither ours nor theirs but a mutual one. It is likely to be a country with nationalist, racist and religious discrimination and one that is patently not democratic, like the one that exists today. But it could be something entirely different. An entity with a common basis for at least three players: an ideological Right that is prepared to examine its feasibility; a Left, part of which is starting to free itself of the illusions of “Jewish and democratic”; and a not inconsiderable part of the Palestinian intelligentsia.
The conceptual framework will be agreed upon – a democratic state that belongs to all of its citizens. The practicable substance could be fertile ground for arguments and creativity. This is an opportunity worth taking, despite our grand experience of missing every opportunity and accusing everyone else except ourselves.
I agree, Avraham.
Thanks.
High hopes, expressed best here:
But I see no mechanism to take power out of tthe hands of the “right”. Israel was always a hooligan state (to say nothing of pre-state, what with IRGUN and the other terrorists organizations) but had (for a long time) a veneer of “leftish” civilization.
Would the Nazi regime ever have been defeated had Germany not decided to invade all of Europe, even including USSR? Doubtful, even with full international knowledge of the holocaust. Today, it’s 65 years since 1948 and 46 years since 1967, and the nations have watched and done nothing. the notion of “human rights” is a pretty distraction for “the people” and “the lefties”, but not “actionable” for most governments, especially not with the USA opposing action.
Now, as I read “GOLIATH” (Max Blumenthal) and this essay, the veneer is gone, the fig leaf is gone, at least in a sort of reality.
But the other reality is that AIPAC still rules the USA, that the USA (either because AIPAC rules it or because of other possibly darker reasons) still supports Israel — with all its warts — just as it has long supported dictators everywhere (think Mubarak, think the Shah in Iran, think so many Central American dictators USA’s supported). And USA rules the world.
So — in short — why should today’s apartheid in OPTs (and inside green-line Israel, also) not prevail and get worse, and thereafter continue to prevail?
Where’s the force, the power, the mechanism, for a change against the Israeli hooligans?
I like the last paragraph, in which Burg calls for a state of all its citizens (regardless of race). But who supports that goal? And does Burg represent anybody besides himself?
Burg was a major disappointment as a politician who belonged to a younger generation of the Labor Left and who (together with several other similar disappointments) was supposed to take over the leadership from the historical (so called) giants like Peres and Rabin. Instead all which happened was lots of noise and words and this continues with the newer generation too.
Interestingly Labor did not complain when they were at the power for 30 non interrupted years leading Israel to “building socialism ” in economy almost of the USSR style.
But the voting pattern of Israelis who continue to give power to the right is completely determined by what the Palestinians and groups like Hezbolah have done
(and are doing) after Oslo. We trust them less and less and what is going on on this and similar blogs is a part of the proof that Israeli voters are right.
RE: “The conceptual framework will be agreed upon – a democratic state that belongs to all of its citizens. The practicable substance could be fertile ground for arguments and creativity. This is an opportunity worth taking, despite our grand experience of missing every opportunity and accusing everyone else except ourselves.” ~ Avraham Burg
FOR A LITTLE BACKGROUND ON AVRAHAM BURG, SEE:
“Avraham Burg: Israel’s new prophet” ~ By Donald Macintyre, The Independent, 1 November 2008
Avraham Burg was a pillar of the Israeli establishment but his new book is causing a sensation. It argues that Israel is an “abused child” which has become a “violent parent”. And his solutions are radical, as he explains to Donald Macintyre.
ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21133.htm