The collapse of the “Zionist Left” during Israel’s most recent elections leaves Hadash and the Communist Party as the only force able to stand against the rise of ultra-nationalism.
The racist, homophobic, ultra-nationalist Religious Zionism list was the big winner in Israel’s most recent election. It is also a perfect reflection of where Israel is heading.
Zionism—the ideology Itamar Ben-Gvir and Benjamin Netanyahu embody, one of Jewish supremacy in the Jewish land– is at last becoming problematic for American Jews. They are up to their chins in that discriminatory ideology, and so we begin a war over Zionism that will bring down the Israel lobby in the next ten years. Because Zionism destroys everything in its path.
After initial statements of concern about the inclusion of the racist/fascistic Religious Zionism party in Israel’s next government, the Israel lobby has congratulated Netanyahu on his inevitable return to power and rationalized the presence of the ultra-right wing faction personified by Itamar Ben-Gvir. Separating Ben-Gvir from the Israeli government and doing business as usual will be a “huge achievement” for Israel, says David Makovsky.
The racist mobs who lynched Palestinians in May 2021 are now a major political force in Israel. The mask is off for Israeli apartheid.
Israel’s boosters across the political spectrum are panicking over the far-right’s victory in Israel’s election, and the reactions are telling. “We cannot remain silent knowing the enormous impact that the words and actions of Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich as senior ministers would have on the US-Israeli relationship,” writes Israel lobby stalwarts Dennis Ross and David Makovsky.
It was hard not to witness the death of hope in Jerusalem on Tuesday night. Those who held out hope that the Israeli system would somehow resist the right, and exhibit tolerance — that hope was dashed by the Israeli election, in which the fascistic messianic right declared its grip over the Israeli Jewish psyche.
Now, a political crisis awaits liberal Zionists and the United States — everyone who has been lying to us about apartheid and democracy and telling us Israel is an idealistic fulfillment of Jewish sovereignty and shares American values.
Itamar Ben-Gvir will probably be the kingmaker in Israel’s next government. So why do the New York Times and National Public Radio downplay his racism?
Israeli exit polls indicate a decisive win for Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc which will bring the Jewish Power party’s fascist leader Itamar Ben Gvir into the ruling coalition.
Netanyahu is now poised to lead the most extreme and fundamentalist government in Israel’s history.
On the eve of Israeli elections, the juggernaut of Religious Zionism is everywhere in West Jerusalem. The ascendance of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ban-Gvir reflects a hard, militant, unregenerate country moving further and further right and their rise is set to transform Israel’s image to the world.