Help! The danger comes from within Israel

5 min read EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON 0 comments

EUGENIO GARCIA GASCON

Gevalt! is an exclamation in Yiddish, the language of Eastern European Jews, used to ask for help. An analyst has just used it to draw attention to the situation in which Israel finds itself today, after five elections in three and a half years, when it faces a legislature that will be neither easy nor calm, given that the country is polarized to the extreme, submerged under a strong nationalist tide and religionist that never stops curling.

The results of the elections held on Tuesday, November 1, place Benjamin Netanyahu at the head of the next government, with a program that promises radical changes in the judicial system and in other areas. His main allies are extremely nationalistic and religionists, even more so than Likud, so the policies that Netanyahu will pursue will arouse greater polarization. In reality, polarization has been growing in recent decades, which have mostly included Netanyahu as prime minister. The opposition fears that the legislature that is about to begin will bring about a further erosion of democracy, even more so than has been seen in the last decade, and they have good reason to fear it.

The campaign had its pluses and minuses, as well as some strange situations, such as the one raised on Saturday by a deputy from the acting prime minister's party. Yair Lapid, recalling that Hitler came to power democratically, in a clear allusion to Netanyahu, who immediately denounced the comparison. The incident is just a small sample of the aggressive tone that has been practiced in the two big blocks. For the rest, probably nowhere else on the planet is the figure of Hitler used so frequently for domestic use comparisons.

Both camps are scary, although Netanyahu's takes the cake. The local press has reported that the country's president, Isaac Herzog, who made an official visit to Washington this past week, had to give explanations time and again to US officials worried about the possibility that Netanyahu and his allies would win. “It is still early to worry. You have to wait for the next government to be formed and see how it acts”, Herzog repeated at each meeting to reassure his interlocutors who were visibly nervous about the rise of the extreme right.

Of course, during the campaign there was not the slightest allusion to peace with the Palestinians, in either of the two blocs. The positions of each other are like two peas in a pod, and both blocs are clear that a large majority of Jews do not want a withdrawal from the territories occupied in the 1967 war. In fact, although during the 124 days that it has lasted The campaign talked about many issues, no block mentioned the brutal military occupation that advances day by day regardless of the elections and the results that the elections yield in each call, five calls in the last three and a half years.

It has long been clear that only a strong Western intervention can force Israel to minimally respect the rights of the Palestinians and leave the occupied territories, as contemplated by international law. But it has already been amply demonstrated that this will not come from the Israeli leadership on its own initiative. The problem is that Western powers unapologetically support the brutal occupation and widespread dispossession of Palestinians. The United States, the key power, suffers from a pernicious influence on the part of the influential Jewish community, decisive in keeping successive administrations with their arms crossed. As for Europe, the leaders of France and Germany just don't lift a finger, even if they later get angry over minor issues, so that Paris and Berlin show a genuine attachment to the increasing plunder of the Palestinians.

For quite a few years now, all center and left-wing Israeli parties have moved further to the right, while right-wing parties have experienced a strong shift to the extreme right. It is not something unique to Israel; we are seeing it in different Western countries, starting with the US. From the latest seating arrangements in the Knesset, it is clear that there is a very large majority of parliamentarians who have forgotten about the Palestinian question, in the sense that they do not care at all what happens with what was previously called the 'process of peace' and ended up not even having a reference name.

In Israel, the nationalist current born in Eastern Europe in the pernicious romantic atmosphere of the late nineteenth century has always been strong. The European Jewish population emigrated to Palestine and established their state at the expense of the local inhabitants in 1948. Since then the religious aspect has been consolidated and has merged with nationalism, so that the dominant ideology today is clearly nationalist and religionist at the same time. The combination of both ideologies, essential in the evolution of the Jewish people, is a great danger for Israel and it is necessary to shout Gevalt! Help! There is an existential danger that sooner or later, when the container is completely filled with hate, it will pour out the liquid, causing great harm to the Jews themselves. Recognized Israeli historians have denounced it and it is not a joke. But only some progressive Jews denounce it with a voice that cries out in the desert and to which no one listens.

Although the scrutiny of the ballots is fair, the elections are subject to strong nationalist tensions and religionists. Both ideologies run together and corrode democracy to the point of threatening it with death. A country increasingly shaken by these tensions, and in which the youngest are its main victims, faces a dark future that implies greater polarization and greater extremism, as well as less flexibility and empathy with the other, not only with the Palestinians but also with the dwindling progressive Jewish community. Some surveys show that younger Israelis are less tolerant and more extremist than their parents, something that raises more concern for the future.