VERY WORTH WHILE READING
Five reasons that help explain the demise of the Israeli left in the 21st century, from identity politics to the peace process
Clockwise from left: David Ben-Gurion, Merav Michaeli, Zehava Galon, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin.Credit: Photos: Tomer Appelbaum; gov.il; Goverment Press Office. Artwork: Anastasia Shub
In the last 20 years, Israel has had nine elections. The upcoming November 1 election will be the 10th in the cycle, and before every single one of these campaigns, the same questions were raised: “What’s the problem with the left?” “What happened to the left?” “What’s left of the left?”
A derivative question – often asked by American Jews – is: “Who are and where are the Israeli liberals?” Not “liberal” in the U.S. political sense, but liberal democrats.
Some ask it gloatingly, some in desperation, others out of political curiosity and astonishment. How could the historic Israeli left, a political movement that successfully founded and led the country against all odds, dissolve so quickly and be relegated to political insignificance?
The only social democratic movement in history that established a country and developed a functioning and durable democracy is on the precipice of oblivion. The Labor Party and Meretz (a third-generation descendant of old Labor) are the remnants of a political force that built and ran Israel. Together, they have 13 seats in the outgoing Knesset – a number that is unlikely to grow come November.
It is very tough, depressing, dispiriting and often politically lethal for a political party entrenched in history to transition from a dominant policymaker, agenda setter and opinion shaper to marginal advocate with minimal impact on national policies, diminishing appeal and sharply dwindling influence on the electorate.
For a variety of avoidable and inexorable reasons, this is exactly what has happened to the Israeli left.
There are historical and political causes that explain its decline and fall. In no particular order of importance or level of impact, here are the five trends that determined the Israeli left’s political fate…
Identity politics
The label “left” has become a political code word, a cultural euphemism and dog whistle of sorts to describe, generally, “everything that I am not” and, ergo, “everything that I am against.”
It started with the decline in influence and diminishing dominance of the Israeli WASP: White, Ashkenazi, Sabra, Paratrooper.
These are the people who founded the State of Israel and occupied most, if not all, of the key positions in the defense, intelligence and political establishment, as well as in the economy and culture.
But that decline, precipitated by both demographic and ethnic trends and Likud leader Menachem Begin’s election victory in 1977, later metamorphosed into a much more visceral and divisive trend: the distinction between “Jew” and “Israeli.”
A very similar phenomena has taken place since 1992 in France ; when France entered the Maastricht Treaty it threw away its sovereign nation status to be one entities among 28 others entities under a common mantra : free trade within a common legal frame ; By throwing away its sovereign nation status the Gaullist patriotic party ( similar to Likud ) which was the backbone of France rebirth after 1945 , the gaullist party has dwindled in the polls from 40% to 4% in 30 years . Same phenomena occurred with the socialist party ( 1,8% in the last election ) . France is now a second league power plagued by impotence and delusion .So the dilution of a nation spirit under the free trade Mantra is a poisonous process. Where in Israel the voters have stopped to believe in the ” peace process ” and have rejected the ” Elite Peace Ploy ” , the voters in France have rejected the ” Maastricht Free Trade Ploy of the Elite ” and have joined the ” Protest-Populist ” anti-elite/ anti system parties ( Ms Le Pen far right + Melanchon far left ) . Elitism is now the password for big money and big money controls the political life . In Israel it is the Post Zionist left which controls both big Capital – medias – Justice . So even if the zionist right wins elections the agenda will be dictated by the Post Zionist . There is one way to ensure the zionist right keeps control of the agenda : it is by truly working for the middle class , meaning mixing Patriotism and Preference for the People over Power for the rich elite .