Dramatic as they were for returning Netanyahu to power, the Israeli elections did not witness a major shift in political forces; in fact, the center-left (albeit Labor now pandering to the right by rebranding itself the “Zionist Camp”) did better than in the 2013 elections, while the right polled considerably less than half the votes. Indeed, with Labor becoming Likud Lite and many of its supporters defecting to Lapid’s neo-liberal Yesh Atid party, right-left differences are hard to specify. Even Shas, whose ultra-orthodox politics have always been extremely hawkish, became the darling of many leftist Mizrahi intellectuals who believe that Aryeh Deri is a closet “bridge” between Israeli Jews and the Palestinians.
Taking a party’s position on the occupation and achieving a just peace with the Palestinians as our measure of “right-left,” the breakdown is roughly as follows:
Right
2013: 54 seats in the Knesset (of 120)
2015: 51 seats
- Likud/Israel Beitenu (Netanyahu/Lieberman) – 31 Likud – 30
- Israel Beiteinu – 5
- Habayit Hayehudi (Bennett) – 12Habayit Hayehudi – 8
- Shas (Yishai) – 11 Shas (Deri) – 7
Center
2013: 25 seats
2015: 21 seats
- Yesh Atid (Lapid) – 19 Yesh Atid – 11
- Hatnua (Livni) – 6 Kulanu (Kahlon) – 10
Left-ish
2013: 32 seats
2015: 42 seats
- Labor – 15 Zionist Camp – 24
- Meretz (Galon) – 6 Meretz – 4
- Hadash (Barakeh) – 4 United Arab List – 14
- Ta’al (Tibi) – 4
- Balad (Zakhalka) – 3
“Others” (agendas unrelated to “right-left”)
2013: 7 seats
2015: 7 seats
United Torah Judaism – 7 United Torah Judaism – 7
Netanyahu managed to pull out a surprise victory – bucking considerable public fatigue with him in general – by effectively exploiting scare-and-fear tactics. He vowed never to allow a Palestinian state (as if that was ever in doubt), warned Israelis that an international conspiracy was plotting against him and accused the “Zionist Camp” of waging an “illegitimate” campaign. On Election Day he texted virtually all the Jews in Israel that “The Arabs are being bussed in to polling booths by Hamas and leftist money. They are voting in droves. You must vote in droves as well – for the Likud. Save Israel!”
No one can be happy when racism and oppression win the day. In a wider perspective, however, the election may represent a positive game-changer. Not that anything has really changed, but finally the fig-leaf that allowed even liberal Israeli apologists to argue that the two-state solution is still possible has been removed. It had fallen off long ago, of course, but Netanyahu’s Bar-Ilan speech of 2009 in which he weakly endorsed a two-state solution (Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state; no Right of Return; Jerusalem would remain Israeli; no stop to settlement construction – but “negotiations”) was nevertheless held up as proof that such a solution was still possible. Netanyahu’s repudiation of even that minimalist formulation and his vow that if reelected there will never be a Palestinian state has at least cleared the air. Now that there is no longer a “peace process,” no longer “two sides” to conduct pseudo-negotiations, no longer the illusion of a two-state solution. We are finally free to move on to a genuine and just solution.
Yet another fig-leaf dropped in this election as well, the notion that Israel is genuinely a democratic state – the only democracy in the Middle East – and that, in fact, a “Jewish democracy” is even possible. Netanyahu and the others (including Herzog) have clearly excluded “the Arabs” from the Israeli body-politik. This will soon be followed by formal legislation, begun in the last Knesset, declaring Israel to be a Jewish state. When passed, it means that the Supreme Court will be instructed (possible in a country with no constitution) to privilege “Jewish values” and interests over those of equal rights, human rights and international law when they come into conflict. In fact, as the Supreme Court itself ruled last year, there is no “Israeli” people. There is merely a state ruled by Jews extending from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. In that state, some Palestinians (or “Arabs” as they are called, denying their very status as a people with national rights) may possess formal Israeli citizenship, but are excluded from national life. Other Arabs in that state are denied any fundamental human or civil rights; they are locked up in West Bank cells sealed by a Separation Barrier or inhabit the uninhabitable cage of Gaza.
There is a name for such a state: apartheid, but more precisely, prison. For in “greater” Israel the natives are not even dignified by the pretense of a Bantustan.
The realization that successive Israeli governments have created one state in all of the Land of Israel has finally become as irrefutable as it is irreversible. This is the game-changer of this election. Since Israel itself eliminated the two-state solution deliberately, consciously and systematically over the course of a half-century, and since it created with its own hands the single de facto state we have today, the way forward is clear. We must accept the ultimate “fact on the ground,” the single state imposed by Israel over the entire country, but not in its apartheid/prison form. Israel has left us with only one way out: to transform that state into a democratic state of equal rights for all of its citizens. In addition to ensuring its population’s individual civil rights, it must also ensure the collective rights of each of the country’s national groups: Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews.
Netanyahu’s victory paves the way a one-state solution by making the status quo so untenable. But it is only half of the necessary game-changer. The fall, removal or resignation of the Palestinian Authority is the other half. The PA was established to outsource Israeli control to a sub-contractor, a policeman who would do its dirty work. With the end of the two-state solution the PA becomes nothing more than a collaborationist regime. It must vacate the political space so that the mechanism of change – the inevitable Israeli re-occupation that must follow – may usher in the one-state option. May. Unless progressive Palestinian and Israeli forces come together with a fleshed-out plan for an inclusive bi-national, democratic state, the opportunity may be missed and other, darker, more powerful forces may give rise to something even worse than what we have now.
The Israeli elections brought us one step closer to the collapse of apartheid. Who knows when the PA will collapse? Perhaps sooner than later. We need to formulate our own vision of a just peace – and urgently.
“We need to formulate our own vision of a just peace – and urgently. ”
Done, it’s called one man, one woman, one vote, with the civil liberties and human rights of ALL the people protected.
The forces against this are not going down without a fight. Already the excuses are being offered that Jewish Israel did not vote against peace, freedom or equality but FOR security.
Yeah, right.
Without the fig leaf of a promise of Palestinian autonomy, Israel has exposed itself as a nation that holds a significant portion of the population it controls as non citizens.
If Israel will not extend the right to vote to the Palestinians in the “occupied territories” it is not a democracy.
Since Netanyahu and his coalition have precluded a Palestinian autonomy, or rather exposed that it was a ruse from the outset, a one state solution is the only solution that remains.
Well, while I agree that a two state solution is virtually impossible, I think one doesn’t have to abandon the concept as a means of bringing pressure on the Zionist regime.
I find it a totally legitimate strategy to pile up sanctions and UN resolutions on Israel for not fulfilling the two state solution promise, and when the sanctions finally bite and push comes to shove to offer the Zionist regime the alternative: one state with equal rights for all in all spheres, from voting to immigration and the “right of return.” Unable to go back to a two state solution, the zionist regime may have to agree to the latter than, effectively ending the zionist project “Israel.”
RE: “This will soon be followed by formal legislation, begun in the last Knesset, declaring Israel to be a Jewish state. When passed, it means that the Supreme Court will be instructed (possible in a country with no constitution) to privilege “Jewish values” and interests over those of equal rights, human rights and international law when they come into conflict.” ~ Halper
MY COMMENT: Israel is a garrison state (or “pale”) surrounded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s “Iron Wall”, and topped by the US-funded “Iron Dome”, but all of this is built upon a very shaky foundation. Israel’s true Achilles’ heel is the lack of an ‘iron foundation’ in the form of a formal constitution that cannot be easily overridden.
Israel failed to take advantage of its best opportunity to “guarantee” basic rights to its citizens when it pretty much blew off the commitment made in its declaration of independence to formulate and adopt a formal constitution no later than 1 October 1948.
Although some constitutional provisions are contained in Basic Laws passed by Israel’s Knesset, there is no clear rule determining the precedence of Basic Rules over regular legislation, and in many cases this issue is left to the interpretation of the judicial system.
Consequently, at this point, it would be a stretch to say that rights of any of Israelis [Arabs, Jews or anyone else] are assured in the sense that Americans’ rights are “guaranteed” by its constitution (especially the Bill of Rights). Considerably to the contrary, Netanyahu is committed to having the Knesset pass a Basic Law subverting Israel’s democratic identity to its identity as the state of the Jewish people. When that is done, rest unassured that all “Jews” will be treated equally, because inevitably some Jews will ultimately become “more equal than others“.
Without a formal constitution, the government of a garrison state that is permanently at war (where national security is always a priority) will enevitably become more and more authoritarian.
Your political list is very strange.
First, UTJ is not “Other”, it’s hard-right on every issue, including the occupation. Officially and nominally they are sanguine about it, but in reality every government they have been in have been pro-settlements. They have a large share of their voter base in the settlements as well. The notion that they would support a settlement evacuation of a significant part of their own base is laughable. They are not only right, but hard-right. Certainly not “other”.
Secondly, Labor is not a “leftish” party if your definition of left(or even leftish) is their stance on the occupation. Herzog criticized Bibi for not being brutal enough in Gaza. And that’s just the beginning. He would essentially be no different than Barak in his policies – pay lip service while increase settlements.
Meretz and the Arab parties are the only real left in Israel.
And they got 20 out of 120 seats.