Wedged between militarism and an expansionist religious nationalism,
Israel, in the view of its dwindling peace camp, has clearly failed to become
the just society envisioned by some of its founding fathers, at the expense of
the Palestinians.
اضافة اعلان
But in the current era in which extremism is increasingly
entering the mainstream, especially dark days loom for Israel — and by
extension its Arab neighbors.
With last week’s
dissolution of parliament, the Knesset, Israel edges toward elections on
November 1. It faces the dire possibility of divisive, hard-right Likud party
leader Benjamin Netanyahu returning as prime minister at the head of the most
right-wing government in Israeli history. During his protracted political
career, Netanyahu has not hesitated to incite against Israel’s Arab citizens
and to delegitimize Jewish advocates of compromise with the Palestinians.
Setting an alarming tone in advance of Likud’s
election campaign, one of Netanyahu’s close associates last month warned Arab
students to stop raising Palestinian flags, stressing that this would lead to
“another Nakba”. The comments made by Yisrael Katz in the Knesset referred to
mass expulsions of Palestinians at Israel’s creation, when more than 700,000
people became refugees.
But it is not just the Likud that is threatening to
further radicalize a society that has never recovered its balance since Yitzhak
Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing extremist in 1995.
Netanyahu would bring with him incendiary anti-Arab
extremists into the corridors of power as coalition partners. This would replace
the hodgepodge right-center-left coalition that over the last year intensified
the occupation in the West Bank even as, with the inclusion of an Arab party in
the government, it introduced a somewhat calmer tone into domestic discourse.
Netanyahu is seen as particularly dangerous since he is liable to indulge in any policy no matter how immoral or damaging in order to stay in power and avoid being jailed for alleged corruption scandals.
The Netanyahu doomsday development could still be
averted by a victory for the caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, a centrist
with relatively moderate pronouncements who in theory supports the emergence of
a Palestinian state and as foreign minister sought to deepen ties with Arab
countries.
One of the extremists who could play the role of
kingmaker for Netanyahu is Itamar Ben-Gvir, a legislator who proposes building
a synagogue in the esplanade housing Islam’s third holiest shrine, Al-Aqsa
Mosque in Jerusalem. The area is also revered by Jews as the site of biblical
temples.
Over the last year, Ben-Gvir’s provocative acts in
Jerusalem included supporting the expulsions of Palestinians in the Sheikh
Jarrah neighborhood and promoting Jewish prayer in the mosque compound. This
has kindled tensions regionally, especially in Jordan. Ben Gvir describes the
Jordanian-appointed officials who oversee the mosque as “terrorists”.
After the election, there is no reason Ben Gvir
should not become a minister since he shares core Likud principles, key
Netanyahu ally Miki Zohar said last week.
Then there is Bezalel Smotrich, who has a history of
statements implying a desire to carry out genocide against Arabs. In 2017, he
unveiled a plan that said if Arabs do not leave the occupied territories or
accept second class status Israeli Forces “will know what to do”.
American-Israeli political scientist and pollster
Dahlia Scheindlin says Smotrich’s statements must not be overlooked.
“Israel will not do this. But it places a burden on
relations with the Arab world and Arab citizens. Such a government would not
hold back on spouting hateful things against the Palestinians every day and
saying Arabs are all terrorists.”
At regional level, such a poisonous atmosphere
“would mean a souring — not breaking — of ties with the UAE, not a backing off
from the Abraham Accords but a cold peace. Saudi Arabia would be less likely to
normalize relations,” Scheindlin says.
Netanyahu is seen as particularly dangerous since he
is liable to indulge in any policy no matter how immoral or damaging in order
to stay in power and avoid being jailed for alleged corruption scandals.
Setting an alarming tone in advance of Likud’s election campaign, one of Netanyahu’s close associates last month warned Arab students to stop raising Palestinian flags, stressing that this would lead to 'another Nakba'.
Daniel Seidemann, director of the NGO Terrestrial
Jerusalem, which supports the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside
Israel, has a bleak vision that a Netanyahu-led government could engage in
large-scale displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. This, he
believes, would go well beyond the current alarming actions by the military to
coerce 1,200 Palestinian men, women, and children in the Masafer Yatta region
to leave their villages to enable intensified use of a military firing zone.
Although it is too early to predict what will
happen, a Netanyahu triumph is a distinct possibility. A recent poll by the
Maariv newspaper indicated that if Ayelet Shaked, the hard-right former
interior minister, threw her weight behind Netanyahu, he would return to power.
Thabet Abu Rass, co-executive director of the
Abraham Initiatives NGO that promotes coexistence, views that as a disaster in
the making.
He recalled that during the late 1970s, then Likud
prime minister Menachem Begin treated the unabashedly racist lawmaker Meir
Kahane as a pariah. Begin led a walkout of the Knesset chamber whenever Kahane,
who advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel, rose to the podium.
“Now the children of Kahane will be in the
coalition. This is very dangerous for Israeli society,” Abu Rass said.
Ben Lynfield is the former Middle East affairs correspondent at the Jerusalem Post.
©Syndication Bureau.
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