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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel election: Extreme right in Netanyahu's government won't dent western support</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Jonathan Cook - November 4, 2022<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><img src="cid:ii_la3lu6kb2" alt="image.png" width="392" height="221"><br><p>
<i><b>Israel is not suddenly a more racist state. It is simply growing more confident about admitting its racism to the world </b></i><br></p><p>The most disturbing outcome of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israel</a>’s general election this week was not the fact that an <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-election-far-right-triumph-threatens-future" target="_blank">openly fascist</a>
party won the third-biggest tally of seats, or that it is about to
become the lynchpin of the next government. It is how little will
change, in Israel or abroad, as a result. </p>
<p>Having Religious Zionism at the heart of government will alter the
tone in which Israeli politics is conducted, making it even coarser,
more thuggish and uncompromising. But it will make no difference to the
ethnic supremacism that has driven Israeli policy for decades. </p>
<p>Israel is not suddenly a more <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/racism" target="_blank">racist</a>
state. It is simply growing more confident about admitting its racism
to the world. And the world - or at least the bit of it that arrogantly
describes itself as the international community - is about to confirm
that such confidence is well-founded. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There will be no statements calling for the Israeli government to be ostracised as a pariah, nor moves to sanction it</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, the West’s attitude towards Israel’s next coalition
government will be no different from its attitude towards the supposedly
less-tainted ones that preceded it. </p>
<p>In private, the Biden administration in the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/us" target="_blank">US</a> has made plain to Israeli leaders its displeasure at having fascist parties so prominently in government, not least because <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-elections-herzog-calm-us-fears-far-right-power" target="_blank">their presence</a> risks highlighting Washington’s hypocrisy and embarrassing Gulf allies. But don’t expect Washington to do anything tangible.</p>
<p>There will be no statements calling for the Israeli government to be
ostracised as a pariah, nor moves to sanction it or to end the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/57170576" target="_blank">billions of dollars in handouts</a> the US provides every year. In a Washington still wracked by the fallout from the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/node/196831" target="_blank">6 January riots</a>, there will be no warnings that Israeli democracy has been sabotaged from within.</p>
<p>Similarly, there will be no demands that Israel commits to more rigorous protections for the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestinians</a> under its military rule, and no revival of efforts to force it to the negotiating table. </p>
<p>After a little embarrassed shuffling of feet, and maybe a token
refusal to meet with ministers from the fascist parties, it will be
business as usual - the “usual” being the oppression and ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians. </p>
<h3>Dead and buried</h3>
<p>None of this is to play down the significance of the results. <a href="https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/11/02/left-may-see-2nd-party-fail-to-enter-knesset-as-vote-couting-nears-end/" target="_blank">Meretz</a>,
the only Jewish party that professes to favour peace over the rights of
Israeli settlers, appears to have failed to make it over the electoral
threshold. Israel’s tiny peace camp looks dead and buried. </p>
<p>The secular far-right, the settler far-right and the fundamentalist religious right <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-elections-ben-gvir-real-winner-new-era-jewish-supremacy" target="_blank">have secured</a>
70 of the parliament’s 120 seats, even if internecine feuds mean not
all of them are prepared to sit together. Enough will, however, to
ensure that disgraced former prime minister <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-netanyahu-era-not-over-four-reasons" target="_blank">Benjamin Netanyahu</a> returns to power for a record sixth time.</p>
<p>All but certain to be at the heart of the new government is <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-itamar-ben-gvir-five-moments-most-outrageous" target="_blank">Itamar Ben-Gvir</a>, whose party represents the brutish, nakedly supremacist legacy of the notorious Rabbi <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meir-Kahane" target="_blank">Meir Kahane</a>,
who wished to expel Palestinians from their homeland. Netanyahu knows
he owes his comeback to the astonishing rise of Ben-Gvir and the
Kahanists - and he will need to suitably reward them. </p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-election-far-right-triumph-threatens-future" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/ben-gvir-smotrich-sderot-israel-october-2022-afp.jpg?itok=-_Wllyyz" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="392" height="245"></a></p><p><font size="1">Israel election: West must turn back on Netanyahu's neofascist government</font></p>
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<p>Several dozen more seats in the Knesset are held by Jewish parties
that belong to the largely secular, militaristic right. Their
legislators reliably cheer on what now amounts to a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2022-07-20/ty-article-opinion/.premium/gaza-has-been-under-siege-for-15-years-it-cant-go-on/00000182-1cc1-da36-a3ee-fcfb90440000" target="_blank">15-year siege of Gaza</a> and its two million Palestinian inhabitants, as well as the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/only-the-strong-survive-gantzs-new-campaign-videos-laud-his-idf-bona-fides/" target="_blank">intermittent bombing</a> of the coastal enclave “back to the Stone Age”. </p>
<p>Neither Jewish Party nor any of these parties prefer a diplomatic
solution over the permanent subjugation of Palestinians, their gradual
ethnic cleansing from Jerusalem, and the entrenchment of settlements in
the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/occupation" target="_blank">occupied</a> West Bank. </p>
<p>Those militristic right parties who achieved victory at the polls 19 months ago oversaw what the United Nations recently <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-west-bank-october-deadliest-month-year-palestinians" target="_blank">predicted</a>
to be the “deadliest year” for Palestinians since it started compiling
figures in 2005. While in government, they shut down six notable
Palestinian human rights groups, claiming without evidence that they
were <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/22/israel/palestine-designation-palestinian-rights-groups-terrorists" target="_blank">terrorist organisations</a>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, western capitals will now pretend that these opposition
parties offer the hope - however distant - of a peace breakthrough. </p>
<p>Awash in this sea of unmitigated Jewish supremacism will sit <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/2-of-3-arab-factions-predicted-to-enter-knesset-vow-to-oppose-far-right-fascism/" target="_blank">10 legislators</a>
belonging to two non-Zionist Arab-majority parties representing a fifth
of Israel’s population. If they can raise their voices loudly enough to
break through the din of anti-Palestinian racism in the parliament
chamber, they will be the only ones advocating a cause the international
community claims as dear to its heart: a <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/most-israelis-do-not-support-two-state-solution-new-poll-shows" target="_blank">two-state solution</a>. </p>
<h3>Moment of clarity</h3>
<p>The success of the coalition of Jewish Power and Religious Zionism, which has won <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-elections-ben-gvir-real-winner-new-era-jewish-supremacy" target="_blank">14 seats</a>,
should be a moment of clarity. In this election, political Zionism,
Israel’s state ideology, broke cover. It has revealed itself as a narrow
spectrum of ugly ethnic supremacist beliefs. </p>
<p>In particular, the ascent of Ben-Gvir and his party will tear the
mask off Israel and its supporters abroad, who claim that Israel is the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/netanyahu-israel-elections-palestine-middle-east-otzma-yehudit-a8817701.html" target="_blank">only democracy</a>
in the Middle East, with the barely concealed implication that it
represents an outpost of western civilisation in a morally backward,
primitive Middle East.</p>
<p>Ben-Gvir and his allies in government make it only too evident that
western support for Israel was never conditional on its moral character
or its democratic pretensions. From the outset, Israel was sponsored as a
colonial outpost of the West - “a rampart of Europe against Asia, an
outpost of civilisation as opposed to barbarism”, as Theodor Herzl, the
father of Zionism, <a href="http://historymuse.net/readings/HerzlTHEJEWISHSTATE.htm" target="_blank">termed the role</a> of the future Israel. </p>
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<p><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/images-story/ben-gvir-jerusalem-israel-election-2nov2022-afp-edit.jpg" alt="Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of Israel’s far-right Jewish Power party, addresses supporters in Jerusalem on 2 November 2022 (AFP)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="221"></p>
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of Israel’s far-right Jewish <font size="1">Power party, addresses supporters in Jerusalem on 2 November 2022 (AFP)</font></div>
<p><span><img src="cid:ii_la3lra151" alt="image.gif" width="15" height="15"></span>The
central goal of Zionism, replacing the native Palestinian population
with Jewish incomers who claim an ancient birthright, has been the same,
whoever has led Israel. The dispute within Zionism has been over the
means necessary to achieve that replacement, based on concerns about how
outsiders might perceive and respond to Israel’s state-sponsored
racism. </p>
<p>Over time, liberal Zionism has generally concluded that the best it
can hope for is to herd Palestinians into ghettoes to secure Jewish
dominion over the land. This is the <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-apartheid-amnesty-report-walls-crumbling" target="_blank">apartheid model</a> that the international community tried for three decades to formalise into a two-state solution. </p>
<p>But liberal Zionism failed to subjugate Palestinians, and has now
been effectively swept from Israel’s political scene by the triumph of
Revisionist Zionism. This is the ideology to which a clear majority of
the new parliament subscribes. </p>
<p>In the face of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-gaza-war-palestine-resistance-prevails" target="_blank">Palestinian resistance</a>
and liberal Zionist failure, Revisionist Zionism offers a more
satisfying solution. It prefers to make explicit Jewish supremacy,
divinely ordained or otherwise, over an enlarged territory. It concludes
that, if Palestinians refuse to submit to their status as third-class
guests, then they forfeit any rights and create the grounds for their
own expulsion. </p>
<h3>Change within Israel</h3>
<p>For Palestinians, Ben-Gvir will differ from legislators in the other
parties he will sit alongside in government chiefly in terms of how
boldly he will be prepared to embarrass the West - and Israel’s liberal
Zionist supporters - by flaunting what can fairly be described as racist
views. </p>
<p>Insofar as Ben-Gvir represents a change, it will not be in terms of
Israel’s actions in the occupied territories. They will continue as
before, though he may prove a thorn in Netanyahu’s side on the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/18/878305307/netanyahu-plans-to-annex-parts-of-the-west-bank-many-israeli-settlers-want-it-al" target="_blank">issue of annexation</a>, like many in Netanyahu’s own party. </p>
<p>Rather, Ben-Gvir’s impact will be inside Israel. He <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-721004" target="_blank">wants</a> the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/24/israel-appoints-settler-as-army-chief-in-occupied-west-bank" target="_blank">public security portfolio</a>
so that he can begin turning the national police force into a militia
in his own image, replicating the settlers’ earlier success in
penetrating and gradually <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/for-first-time-settler-becomes-chief-of-staff-of-israels-military" target="_blank">taking over</a> the Israeli military. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What will happen, as has happened so many times before, is that Israel's shift further rightwards will quickly be normalised</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This will accelerate a trend of closer cooperation between police and
armed settler groups, legitimising even greater use of formal and
informal <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/palestinians-israel-face-far-right-attacks-backed-state" target="_blank">types of violence</a>
against the large minority of Palestinian citizens living inside
Israel. It will also allow Ben-Gvir and his allies to crack down on
“deviants” within Jewish society: those dissenting on religious, sexual
or political matters.</p>
<p>The fascist parties in Netanyahu's future government will seek to
build on the existing inciteful discourse against Palestinian citizens
living inside Israel to characterise the minority as a fifth column, and
to publicly justify its expulsion. And this is not unprecedented:
previous leaders and ministers have <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2002/06/13/camp-david-and-after-an-exchange-1-an-interview-wi/" target="_blank">suggested</a> that Palestinians are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/how-netanyahu-s-campaign-against-israel-s-arab-citizens-backfired-n1056826" target="_blank">inherently treasonous</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/18/israel2" target="_blank">comparing</a> Palestinian <a href="https://www.wrmea.org/005-january-february/special-report-israel-washes-away-the-sins-of-former-army-chief-of-staff-rafael-eitan.html" target="_blank">citizens</a> to “cancer” or “cockroaches” and calling for <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/we-will-have-kill-them-all-effie-eitam-thug-messiah/8555" target="_blank">their expulsion</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Avigdor Lieberman, a minister in several governments, long ago set out a <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2015-02-14/ty-article/.premium/liebermans-dangerous-scheme/0000017f-db72-d3a5-af7f-fbfed29e0000" target="_blank">plan for redrawing</a> Israel’s borders to deny parts of the Palestinian minority citizenship. </p>
<p>In the summer, Ben-Gvir touted an opinion poll showing that nearly
two-thirds of Israeli Jews favoured legislation he proposed to expel
“disloyal” Palestinian citizens from the state and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2022-08-29/ty-article/kahanist-lawmaker-touts-poll-showing-broad-support-for-deporting-disloyal-israelis/00000182-e8cb-dcde-a9d6-ecef280e0000" target="_blank">strip them</a>
of citizenship. Other Jewish parties, subscribing to their own versions
of ethnic supremacism, will struggle to find a way to credibly counter
Ben-Gvir’s rhetoric.</p>
<h3>Difficult test</h3>
<p>All of this will prove a difficult test for Israel’s supporters in
Europe and the US. Most identify as liberal Zionists, even though their
wing of Zionism was eradicated inside Israel some time ago. </p>
<p>Jewish liberal Zionists invariably argue that Israel is central to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2022-10-26/ty-article-opinion/.highlight/do-american-jews-really-know-what-zionist-means/00000184-0f30-d1a0-a1ee-cf7e0e120000" target="_blank">their identity</a>.
They have even insisted on redefining anything but the most bloodless
criticism of Israel as antisemitism. An attack on Israel is an attack on
Jewish identity, they argue, and therefore constitutes <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/antisemitism" target="_blank">antisemitism</a>. </p>
<p>It was precisely that logic that was reflected by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) when it drafted a new <a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism" target="_blank">definition of antisemitism</a> - one that has been widely adopted by western political parties, local authorities and universities.</p>
<div>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-elections-ben-gvir-real-winner-new-era-jewish-supremacy" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/2022-11-01T225042Z_2118506675_RC29DX9QIRJG_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-ELECTION.jpg?itok=AL4DER5a" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" width="400" height="250"></a></p><p><font size="1">Israel elections: Ben-Gvir the real winner in a new era defined by Jewish supremacy</font></p>
</div>
<p>The IHRA’s <a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism" target="_blank">examples</a>
of antisemitism include labelling Israel a “racist endeavour”,
comparing its actions to those of the Nazis (presumably even if
real-life fascist parties are dictating Israeli policies), or requiring
of Israel “behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic
nation” (begging the question: what more does Israel have to do to stop
qualifying as “any other democratic nation”?)</p>
<p>Those demurring, such as Britain’s former Labour leader, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/jeremy-corbyn" target="_blank">Jeremy Corbyn</a>, have felt the full force of liberal Zionist wrath - as have those <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-54999010" target="_blank">campaigning</a> for boycotts of Israel to curb its excesses. It was liberal Zionists who shut down boycott, divestment and sanctions (<a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/bds" target="_blank">BDS</a>) activism.</p>
<p>Will Israel’s supporters repudiate the IHRA definition or Israel,
when Ben-Gvir is sitting in government, representing a large chunk of
the Israeli population? You can bet they won’t. </p>
<p>If Ben-Gvir forces Israel’s cheerleaders to choose between the ethnic
supremacism of their Zionism and their liberalism, most will stick with
the former. What will happen, as has happened so many times before, is
that Israel’s shift further rightwards will quickly be normalised.
Having fascist parties inside government will soon become unremarkable. </p>
<p>Worse, Ben-Gvir will serve as an alibi for the other far-right
politicians alongside him, allowing the US and Europe to present them as
moderates; men and women of peace, the adults in the room. </p>
<p><i>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.</i></p>
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