A Canadian-Israeli’s (Surprisingly Optimistic) Perspective on the Recent Elections and What the Future Holds for Israel
Israel has a new government, and not everyone is happy—including many progressive Israelis.
As a Canadian Jew by birth and an Israeli by choice, I offer a perspective shared by many here and in Israel—and it is a surprisingly optimistic one.
I am always worried about Israel—worried about its security, my family and friends’ safety, the price of housing, the rate at which the Dead Sea is receding—but I know one thing for certain: Israel has survived thus far, and she will survive this government, too.
Israelis’ resilience and commitment to pluralism and democracy will not be so easily shaken. One must understand the context in order to understand the poll results. Moreover, the poll results are only one chapter in a much longer story of Israel’s on-going progressive legacy.
Like most Israelis and Zionists, I am deeply troubled by the racist pronouncements made by Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu regarding Arab-Israeli citizens. They were obviously a desperate attempt made at the eleventh hour in a bid to maintain his own personal power; that in no way diminishes their impact or his blameworthiness.
Israeli society has made tremendous strides in terms of equality for its Arab-Israeli citizens. Equality is enshrined in Israel’s founding document and has been a priority from the very beginning. Arabs who stayed in Israel after the War of Independence were immediately granted full citizenship and have always enjoyed the same political and civil rights as all Israelis. They cast ballots in the first Israeli election, and the suggestion that they cannot be trusted to exercise this most fundamental right is appalling. Bibi has since apologized, but Arab-Israelis have every right to feel hurt, angry, and disgusted. The rest of us share that sentiment.
To be sure, some of the Arab parties proffer startlingly anti-Semitic views and do so openly. MK (Member of Knesset, the Israeli Parliament) Haneen Zoabi didn’t stop at statements; she was on board an arms-laden ship that tried to violate Israeli maritime sovereignty in an attempt to smuggle the arms into Hamas-controlled Gaza. She was initially barred from running in this election, but the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that she was allowed to run, which she did. Even Zoabi’s actions, however, cannot excuse what Bibi said.
But the history of Israel stretches far earlier than Bibi, his recent statements, his speech at Congress (which, whether ill-advised or not, was quite accurate and lucid), or the poll results of this last election—and it will stretch much further into the future as well.
I could fill pages with all the progressive pronouncements that have come from the Israeli Supreme Court; all the statistics about women, minorities, and LGBTQ individuals in high-ranking political and military positions, on the judiciary, in the professions, the arts, and business; the liveliest Pride parade in the Middle East (hosted in Tel Aviv); the flourishing arts and culture scene; the critical discourse in Israeli universities, cafes, or the pages of HaAretz, one of Israel’s leading newspapers, whose rhetorical attacks on the government would make The Globe’s editorial staffblush. I could go on for pages about the government and civil society programs in place aimed at bridge-building, equity, and peace, or about Israel’s unparalled humanitarian efforts which include sending aid to the Palestinians. I could write an entire treatise on the Israeli army’s code of ethics and explain at length the measures taken by the IDF to minimize civilian casualties and ensure the highest ethical standards are adhered to when interacting with civilians and enemy combatants alike. None of these are perfect, but it’s something that can be built upon and improved. Indeed, Israel is an imperfect, but thriving democracy.
There is still much work to be done. The Rabbinate is still a thorn in the side of most Israelis. Social programs are not getting the resources they need. Corruption scandals, not unlike the Senate spending scandals, happen in Israel, too. The Bedouin communities in the South are living in squalor. The Israeli SATs (psychometri) suffer from the same cultural biases as the LSAT. Indeed, as Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion predicted, Israel is like every other democratic country—complete with crime, corruption, and social strife. There is still much work to be done, and much fodder for legitimate criticism.
And I would never suggest that criticism of Israeli policy should be labelled anti-Semitic, lest I be labelled an anti-Semite myself. Criticism of government policy is not only permissible, but necessary. The distinction between legitimate criticism and anti-Semitic rhetoric is simple: the former is based on facts and logic, and is nuanced. It does not single Israel out for opprobrium, nor does it seek, directly or otherwise, the destruction of the Jewish state. The latter is based on fiction or a perversion of the facts; it is illogical and hyperbolic. The aim of the former is to improve Israeli democracy; the aim of the latter is to undermine it.
Israel is one of the few democratic countries whose democracy has been truly tested, and a trial by fire it has been—figuratively and literally. It has had to grapple with the issue of individual freedoms in the context of a very real, very imminent, constant, and unrelenting existential threat.
A country that faces no threat but is nonetheless authoritarian is not the proper model; neither is a country that faces serious threats and does nothing to prevent or deal with those threats.
Ethical boundaries cannot be delineated in a vacuum; the importance of context cannot be overstated. Only when one comprehends the threat Israel faces can one pass credible judgment on its actions. It is too facile to sit back in the comfort of our North American or European security and shake the finger at Israel. I submit that those who do so without examining their own security privilege are doing a disservice not only to Israel but to the broader discourse on individual freedoms and security.
Faced with a foe who has no qualms about using children as human shields, who indoctrinates children to hate Jews, who finds financial patron and ally in the Iranian regime, who violently silences political dissent, who outlaws homosexuality, who threatens foreign journalists to ensure an acceptable narrative is published, who endorses honour killings, who for the last decade has been using Gaza as a launching pad for deadly rockets aimed at Israeli civilian centres (notably with increased frequency since Israel’s unilateral withdrawal), who has as its stated purpose the destruction of Israel and killing of every Jew, and who has proven its cynical interest in keeping both Israelis and Palestinians living in fear, Israel must consider what a reasonable country similarly situated can be expected to do.
For the Israeli courts, individual freedoms and security are not mere philosophical platitudes, but reality—and they have done an exemplary job of balancing the two. So much so, that law schools, legal journals, and other high courts around the world often refer to Israeli jurists as examples of judicial excellence.
The Israeli Supreme Court has on numerous occasions ruled in favour of Palestinians bringing claims against the government or the military, and the latter have complied with the rulings.
Indeed, democracy and the rule of law, not military might, are Israel’s true strengths: that is why I know Israel will survive.
Knowing that this government was elected (though Bibi has yet to form a government) on the backdrop of an impending deal that would bring Iran closer to nuclear capability, an ever-present threat from its subsidiary, Hamas, and legal warfare being waged by the PA, while being unjustly castigated by the rest of the democratic world helps to contextualize the poll results.
Israelis felt physically embattled and morally abandoned, and that is why Bibi won. And yet, I believe Israeli democracy will survive.
I am a staunch progressive and a Zionist (which simply means that one believes in Israel’s right to exist in peace and security as the democratic Jewish homeland). For me, the two have never been mutually exclusive. I have never had difficulty reconciling my Zionism with my feminism or my commitment to fight racism and homophobia, for example. I am not a Zionist despite being a progressive or a progressive despite being a Zionist; I am a Zionist because I am a progressive, and in many ways, a progressive because I am a Zionist.
That also means I am hopeful. I don’t know what the borders will look like, who the leaders will be, or when it will happen, but I refuse to countenance the relinquishing of that ancient hope of living in freedom and peace, and insist on being part of the proud and on-going history of this tiny, arid, oil-less strip of land I love so dearly.