Monday 9 February 2009

4 comments on the election...

1. Yisrael Beiteinu and ‘loyalty to the state’

Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu claim that their policy of demanding that all Israeli citizens sign a pledge of “loyalty to the state” is not racist because while they have Israelis Arabs in mind with this proposal, it is not based on their ethnicity but their behavior – their suspected disloyalty. In this case, I wonder whether certain Jewish Israelis would also have a problem pledging their loyalty to the state. I am thinking in particular of those extremist West Bank settlers who insist that the democratically elected government of Israel has no authority over them because they answer only to God and His interpreters, their Rabbis. Would those residents of Hebron who attacked Israeli soldiers and their Rabbis who called Olmert and Barak enemies of Judaism be regarded as loyal to the State under Lieberman’s definition? And would those Charedim who regard Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hazikaron as irrelevant to them be able to sign a loyalty pledge in good conscience?

I agree that Israeli law should have a more effective way of dealing with Arab MKs who openly laud Hizballah and Hamas, and the spread of radical Islam among Israeli Arabs is, of course, legitimate cause for concern. But Lieberman has in his sights all 1.5 million Arab citizens of Israel. To expect them to associate themselves with the words of the Hatikvah is ridiculous. Israel, in defining itself as both Jewish and democratic, made the decision to grant all its citizens equal rights but to emphasize its Jewish character through state symbols such as the flag and the entirely Jewish-centric national anthem. I would not want to see Israel change either its democratic nature, nor its insistence on these Jewish symbols, but the quid pro quo of this arrangement is that Israel’s non-Jewish citizens cannot be expected to identify with these symbols, just to be law-abiding citizens of the state.

Yisrael Beiteinu is playing to the basest instincts in people in its bid for votes: fear and prejudice. How sad that this ploy is working to such an extent that the polls show them becoming the third largest party in the Knesset.

2. The Likud’s position on the Palestinian issue

Binyamin Netanyahu says that he rejects the current ‘Annapolis process’ of negotiations with the Palestinians towards a two-state solution and would implement a policy of improving the Palestinian economy and society instead. He also says that he will not remove a single settlement but does not wish to govern a single Palestinian. The problem is that real Palestinian autonomy and a properly functioning Palestinian economy will be nigh impossible to achieve while there remain the small settlements, such as Yitzhar or Kedim, that lie deep within Palestinian populated areas of the West Bank and the network of roads connecting them.

The Likud’s assertion that a two-state solution is not currently viable because the Palestinian Authority is not strong (or trustworthy?) enough to be given control of the West Bank without causing an unconscionable security risk to Israel, is certainly not a hollow claim. But there would be more integrity in a position which did not rule out evacuating the smaller settlements while keeping the settlement blocks and the Jordan Valley, which Netanyahu has stressed is vital to Israeli security.

3. The need for both Kadima AND Labour?

I would challenge anyone to find a significant difference between Kadima’s and Labour’s positions on the Palestinian issue. Both support continued negotiate with Mahmoud Abbas. Both support a two-state solution in principle. Both stress that they will not sign a peace deal that threatens Israeli security. While the right-wing bloc in the Knesset will undoubtedly be larger after these elections, if Kadima and Labour ran a joint list, they would emerge as the largest single faction. With this in mind, Labour’s expected unprecedentedly poor showing is due in part to the fact that more people who support the Kadima/Labour position want Tzipi Livni as Prime Minister than want Ehud Barak.

Where they do differ is on socio-economic policy with Labour remaining somewhat true to its social democratic roots and focusing more on the needs of those left behind by the free market. For some (including myself) this could provide a reason for voting Labour rather than Kadima - as well as the whiff of scandal that clings to Livni’s part even post-Olmert, not helped by the continued presence on the party slate of figures such as Haim Ramon, who was found guilty of sexual harassment last year.

4. Further to the right and left

On the right, the idea of consolidating the national-religious camp farcically fell apart when the newly established Habayit Yehuhdi succumbed to the not unpredictable battle of egos and split into its original constituent parts of Mafdal (the National Religious Party) and Ichud Leumi (the National Union). Mafdal kept the new name of Habayit Yehudi and Ichud Leumi became… well, Ichud Leumi again!

Habayit Yehudi have actually, rather admirably, in some respects turned the clock back to pre-1967 when religious Zionism was about more than building settlements in the West Bank and have chosen to focus more on Jewish education and the ‘Jewishness’ of the State. However they remain committed to Greater Israel and not giving up an inch of land. They have not explained how they can perpetuate the status in the West Bank indefinitely and keep Israel a democracy but at least they have not signed up to Ichud Leumi’s ludicrous ‘Israel initiative’ which posits paying the Palestinians to move to Jordan. (Notwithstanding the question of what an Ichud Leumi government would do with the Palestinians who refuse to go, the last thing Israel needs is to see Jordan destabilized on its eastern border by the influx of 4 million Palestinians.)

The right remain committed to their dream of holding on to all of the land, Israel’s democracy be damned, but on the left, Meretz are no less irresponsible. They have not deviated from their policy of signing a two-state deal at the earliest opportunity despite the likelihood of the West Bank falling to Hamas if Israel hands over the keys any time in the near future.

Those are some thoughts, and I’ve not even covered the Charedi parties or the very welcome emergence of Rav Melchior’s Green Movement-Meimad alliance! 

Happy voting everyone.

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