Just as we already know the broad outlines of today’s Israeli election, we also know pretty much what the international and American media will say about the results. They will tell us that the victory of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the parties that make up his current coalition represents a sharp step to the right for Israel. It will be portrayed as a rejection of peace and a blow to the chance of a two-state solution to the conflict. Sadly, it will almost certainly lead to editorials and op-eds calling for a reevaluation of the U.S.-Israel alliance and even for American Jews to question the ties between their community and the Jewish state. The narrative of a cruel Israel that is indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinians will be endlessly rehearsed and the vote will be used to justify the isolation of Israel and to garner support for the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement. But while it is true that the likely outcome of the vote will show gains for Israel’s right-wing and nationalist parties, the reason for this, as well as the sentiments of the voters, will be misunderstood and falsely construed.
Netanyahu’s victory as well as the major gains that will be scored by the party to his right, led by Naftali Bennett, will not be largely the result of a philosophical shift to embrace right-wing ideology. It is not the charms of the notoriously unlikeable Netanyahu or even the undeniable attraction that Bennett has for many Israelis who like his modern outlook as well as his military and business record. The change in the Israeli electorate from an evenly divided electorate between left and right is due entirely to the experience of the last 20 years, during which Israel has tried to make peace with the Palestinians. It is the Palestinians’ consistent rejection of peace and embrace of terror and violence that has changed the minds of so many Israelis and convinced them that even though they want a two-state solution, there is no partner for peace with whom they can make such a deal. Rather than damn Israelis for turning their backs on peace, the rest of the world, and especially Americans who think of themselves as friends of Israel, should be asking themselves what it is that Israelis know about their neighborhood that they have preferred to ignore.
Bennett’s rise is the big story in this election, and there’s little doubt that his mix of traditional Zionist sentiment and hardheaded thinking about the Palestinians is generating a surge for his Jewish Home Party that puzzles liberal Americans. It is true that many in his party represent hard-core settlers and illiberal religious leaders who have little in common with Americans. But his appeal is also the product of a realization on the part of some more secular Israelis that his approach is a throwback to a more heroic era in Israeli thought. Though the tension between Netanyahu and Bennett, who once worked for the prime minister, is palpable, he is a mainstream figure whose future in his country’s politics is likely to eventually find him back in the Likud rather than leading a smaller party.
But while some insist that this is a “Seinfeld” election that is about nothing, that nothing is a context in which the country’s once-dominant left-wing parties and traditional left have been essentially marginalized or forced to drop peace as a major issue, as is the case with Labor. Where once there was a consensus that Israel needed to try to trade land for peace with the Palestinians, after Oslo, the withdrawal from Gaza, and the rejection by both Yasir Arafat and his successor Mahmoud Abbas of Israeli offers of statehood that included a share of Jerusalem, only a mindless ideologue can pretend that the lack of peace is due to Israel’s failure to make concessions. The fact that the Likud and its nationalist competitors have shifted even more to the right on peace is rooted in a widespread understanding that, as Bennett’s TV ads say, the Palestinians are no more likely to ever accept a two-state solution (no matter where Israel’s borders would be drawn) than for “The Sopranos” to make a comeback.
If many Americans not otherwise prejudiced against Jews and Israel nevertheless blame the Jewish state for the standoff in the Middle East, it is largely due to ignorance of the context of events in the Middle East and the history of the conflict. Rather than thinking, as President Obama reportedly does, that we understand Israel’s “best interests” better than the country’s voters, Americans should show a little humility. If Netanyahu and the right are winning, it is not because Israelis don’t want peace but because they have paid attention to the events of the last two decades and drawn the only possible conclusion.
The most perceptive discussion of the Israeli elections I am aware of is that by Barry Rubin in this link:
http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2013/01/understanding-israels-january-22.html
For the most part, this will be a deliberate misunderstanding of the Israeli election. A majority of Israelis is in favor of a two state solution.Only the Right acts with the knowledge that the Palestinians have no such interest.The Left, in Israel and elsewhere, simply ignores this reality.The same thought process leads true believers to conclude that Iran has no hostile intent towards Israel. Because,otherwise, Israel would be correct.But, far worse, Netanyahu would be correct. And Netanyahu and Israel cannot be correct because they do not know what's best for Israel. Those who spend their lives thinking only in political terms eventually reach this terminal condition. The rest of us can only hope that their subsequent employment is limited to political office or writing for the NY Times, rather than doing brain surgery or piloting an airplane.
UN's Ban Ki-Moon just blamed Israel for everything wrong in the Arab nations. nHe must think Korea's DMZ is a Disney franchise, that Kashmir is a border dispute, there are no Turks occupying northern Cyprus, and Iran is trying to boost global demand for Persian poetry by exporting missiles secretly filled with Persian kittens wearing parachutes. n nReality is infinitely creative. n n n n
no, he did not blame Israel for everything wrong in the Arab nations…….must not to satisfying to break bread with someone such as yourself who doesn't note the difference between "some" and "all".
" illiberal religious leaders who have little in common with Americans." nYes, unlike many Americans, the are so illiberal as to believe in G-d. nUnlike many American Jews, the are so illiberal as to believe that G-d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, that the Sages (let alone today's rabbis) do not have the power to interpret the Torah any way they choose, that the Torah cannot be abandoned or modified for convenience or popular demand.
While we are at it, they are so illiberal as to believe that Jews should not be barred from living somewhere just because the neighbors would rather see them dead.
Far from being an election about "nothing"; this is the first election in which Israeli voters assert that they are complete masters of their own destiny able to chose their own issues. For the first time, ever, Israeli election does not revolve around a question of "what will the US do?" or "how will the Palestinians react?" or "what will the world think?". nThanks in no small part to Obama, who has followed an inane policy of private, inevitably leaked, anti-semitism and public, insincere and recognized by everyone as such, declarations of continuing alliance with Israel, orthodoxy; as well as, hateful of American values, seriously weakening America on the world stage; Obama has marginalized America and it's ability to influence world events, or even be taken seriously (incidentally, Muslims, specially Iranians, Russians and Chinese have figured this out some time ago). nAnd while in the past, whenever Palestinian Arabs marginalized themselves (always) America has always dragged them, kicking and screaming, to the center stage in Israeli consciousness; this time Obama's obvious pro-Palestinian, pro-Muslim bias, has allowed Israelis to ignore Arabs while making voting decisions (crudely put, since the Arabs reject all peace anyway, and the bastard in the White House will take their side regardless, why bother?) nWith American administration being so obviously anti-Israel, while, of necessity, paying lip service to American-Israeli alliance; two things become straight forward for Israeli voters; one, there is no point in worrying about what the White House will think; two, even the Jew-hater in the White House does not have enough political "oomph" to seriously affect the important parts of strategic alignment with Israel – military cooperation and transfers. nSo the election can be safely about issues that matter to Israelis, and not anybody else.
I am appalled that any honest person that has observed the ‘Peace Process’ over the last 20 years could possibly think that the Palistinians (or their Arabe neighbors) have any sincere desire for genuine peace w/ Israel.
- they were offered a separate independent state w/ a capital in East Jerusalem, and their response was *another* intifada.
- Palistinian Arabs that chose to remain in Israel are full citizens, can vote and hold political office.
- Only Jordan has offered Palestinians any right to permanent residence, and that’s been rocky.
- Arabs wail about a ‘Right to Return,’ but those folks left on their own, many have fought against Israel or been active terrorists, and have zero interest in allowing Jews in Israel to retain civil rights if a wave of returning Palistinians shifted demographics enough to win a majority in the parliament.
- they presently cannot even maintain peace between the organizations that manage the two Palistinian teritories!
Best Regards,