No more than several thousand people took part in what was billed as Israel’s “first-ever Human Rights March.” Many of those who attended the December 11 gathering in Tel Aviv were affiliated with the several dozen Israeli NGOs that took part in organizing the event. There were gay rights supporters, protesters against the deportation of immigrants and refugees, a large contingent of Arab Israelis and even a group representing fans of a Tel Aviv soccer club.
The march’s call-to-action warned that “over this past year, the very foundations of our democracy have been shaken.” It demanded, among other things, “equal citizenship for all Israelis.”
Altogether, the event may not have seemed like much to passersby. There weren’t traffic jams, even though the march took place during the busy hours of Friday morning. Yet these thousands of marchers represent the future and the hope of the Israeli left.
There is no escaping the truth: The old Zionist left is gone. Labor is disintegrating; grassroots movements such as Peace Now are being increasingly de-legitimized, and Meretz was reduced in the most recent elections to an insignificant three Knesset seats. The controversy over the diplomatic process is heating up, and the tension between the government and the Arab minority is building, but the voice of the Israeli left is almost completely absent.
Meanwhile, it is the Likud that has become Israel’s dominant ideological and political power, in ways that Menachem Begin never could have dreamed. The personal rivalry between opposition leader Tzipi Livni and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hides the fact that Likud people are actually in control of Israel’s three largest political parties: Livni and Shaul Mofaz in Kadima; Avigdor Lieberman and Uzi Landau in Yisrael Beiteinu, and Netanyahu at the Likud’s helm. The Likud and the two parties that split from it currently hold 70 out of 120 Knesset seats, something even Mapai in the glory days of David Ben-Gurion didn’t achieve.
What enabled the right’s current success was the ideological turn it took. The last decade has seen all the right’s leaders — from Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert to, finally, Netanyahu — accept the left’s idea of a Palestinian state. They did so not because they suddenly abandoned the desire to hold on to the entirety of the Greater Land of Israel, nor because they realized how unjust the occupation is. The only reason leaders from the right are today willing to consider withdrawal from Hebron and even from East Jerusalem is that one argument made by the Zionist left did strike a chord with them: that a Palestinian state is the only way to keep a clear Jewish majority in Israel.
By raising the flag of “the demographic battle,” the Jewish left was able to win the debate over the West Bank and Gaza. But it did so in a way that betrayed the same values the left has always claimed to represent — humanism, equal rights and brotherhood. That’s also where the left’s political fate was sealed. When the left abandoned the hope for true partnership with the Palestinians — on both sides of the Green Line — and became almost solely defined by its focus on demography and ethnic separation, it opened the door for Lieberman and his vision of an exclusionary Jewish state.
In fact, all Lieberman did was to propose taking the left’s platform one step further: If we are to separate from the Palestinians in the name of demography, why not redraw the borders so that Israel’s Arab citizens are placed in the Palestinian state as well? Livni and Netanyahu haven’t gone this far yet, but basically they offer the public the same deal: In return for the withdrawal from the West Bank, they pledge to preserve a clear Jewish majority within the state’s borders, the implicit message being that this is an opportunity to make Israel more Jewish.
This conception naturally comes at the expense of the state’s non-Jewish minorities; it makes it clear that Israel is not their country. This has helped set the stage for the current surge of anti-Arab legislation and government measures — from the effort to ban commemorations of the Palestinian Nakba to the order to replace Arab place names on road signs. (In this xenophobic political atmosphere, it is not surprising that even providing refuge to the survivors of the genocide in Darfur became a controversial issue.)
To all this, the left could have responded by opening its ranks to Arabs and creating new coalitions with the non-Zionist parties and grassroots organizations such as those that marched in Tel Aviv. No other political coalition has the power to preserve Israel as a home not just for Jews, but for all the people living in the country. Instead, the left’s leaders and thinkers chose to engage in a contest of ethnic patriotism with the right — one that they have no hope of winning.
Right now, the Zionist left has nothing to offer the Israeli public. Its leaders — the ones who didn’t desert or retire — basically agree with Livni and Netanyahu on the nature of the problems we are facing, as well as on the solutions. Their only claim is that they will arrive at the solutions by different means. But the public doesn’t buy it: If we are in the business of building walls, Israelis think the Likud will do a better job. After all, it was the founding father of the Zionist right, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, who famously urged the Jewish national movement to take an “Iron Wall” approach to the Arab population.
The future of the Israeli left does not lie in the few seats it could win back from Kadima, but rather with the people who are waiting on the other side of the demographic wall. If the left is truly committed to protecting Israeli democracy, it can’t go on with its near-exclusively Jewish parties and arguments based on demography, because they all lead in the opposite direction. If the right is using the two-state solution for its goal of Jewish superiority within the Green Line, the left should offer an alternative model of true partnership with Israel’s Arab minority.
This will not be an easy task. The political divide between Israel’s Arab public and the Jewish left is wide. Bridging it will require some painful reconsideration of the State of Israel’s values, symbols and laws. But that may be what’s required if Israeli democracy is to be preserved, and if the Israeli left is to rise anew.
Noam Sheizaf, a Tel Aviv-based freelance journalist, blogs at promisedlandblog.com
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Noam Sheizaf’s view of a one State solution will lead to the creation of another Arab State with a Jewish minority which will be at the mercy of the Muslim majority.
Since there is no such thing as a democratic Muslim State in the Arab world with minority rights, Jews will eventually be driven out or turned into dhimmis.
Noam’s utopian vision call for the de Judaization of Israel. This is the antisemite’s dream from at least the Spanish inquisition to Marxist communism and National Socialism.
I doubt the majority of Jews will buy into this latest version of the nightmare.
If Noam wishes to live in an Arab dominated State let him move to Jordan or better still to Gaza.
Rosen - as we can all see, there is no such thing as a Jewish democratic state either. It's either a democracy or a religious Jewish apartheid state.
As Bibi continues with all force to build the settlements, the two state solution is becoming impossible. The next step will be the Palestinians abandoning their hope for a separate independent state and instead demanding full Israeli citizenship.
You think Israel can hold millions of people without basic human rights forever?
Yeah, that's what the white people of South Africa thought.
They were wrong.
Amitai S "as we can all see, there is no such thing as a Jewish democratic state either. It's either a democracy or a religious Jewish apartheid state."
Nonsense, there is no democratic leftist State any where in the world. Neither Cuba nor Algeria nor Venezuela, etc. are domocracies.
The Soviet Union thought they could "hold millions of people without basic human rights forever? They were wrong
Israel, btw, is neither an aparthied State nor is it a religious one. It is no more religious than the US.
Israel is a democratic State which is being threatened by religous and Arab nationalist fanatics like Hamas and Fatah from without and the extreme left and right from within.
The fact that leftist ideologues like Amitai need to lie in order to make their point tells us what kind of State they will create. One closer to East Germany ruled Stasi than to any real democracy.
Europe is fast becoming a failed union in which the extreme right will become more powerful.
"With Greece Teetering, the Worst May Not Be Over for Europe" By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
"LONDON — Never before has Europe’s monetary union seemed so fragile.
Day by day, fears are growing that Greece or another weak country may default on its sovereign debt obligations, forcing the richer countries in Europe to ride to the rescue or risk having one or more of its most vulnerable members leave the 16-nation euro zone.
Many European economists discount such a fracture as a remote possibility. But that doesn’t mean Europe has safely emerged from crisis....."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/business/global/31euro.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
IN the past, and I relaize that Jewish leftists are weak on history, the Arabs have made common cause with the ultra right in Europe and I expect they will again.
One example, (there are others in Austria and Hungary)
"The Czech Republic is fast becoming a hot bed of neo-Nazism and racist sentiment. The Times reported in November on the terrible treatment being received by Roma families..."
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/12/30/neo-nazism-on-the-rise-in-the-czech-republic/
Jews are entitled to their own degenerates, just as any other normal people are. Israel is not an apartheid state, and even Carter retracted his idiocy on the matter. Israel is a democratic state, the only one in the Middle East, mind you. Israel is surrounded by mortal enemies who want nothing less but it's demise. Israel faces Arab hatred within, fueled by ourside propaganda. And Noam and Co. have the audacity to criticize the country that is trying to so hard to maintain dignity an respect of her citizenz! The only result of the 'new left' actions is going to be demise of Israel and the rest of us
The Leftist Germanic (Ashkenazic) "mischling" former disaffected elite in Israel has seen its power over Israel's institutions slipping, and now want to diminish the JEwish State they never believed in in the first place. Their parents and grandparents were mostly socialists, cosmopolitans or antizionist assimilationists who found themselves in the Middle East against their best wishes because the rest of the world slammed their doors shut in their faces just before and during the war. So now that they can't rule over the "asafsuf" (the unwashed masses), they would just as well bring the structure down with them.
I can't understand why they don't leave? No more Bolshevik Russia or sparkling Weimer Republic around to take them in? Oh so sad. So very sad. What a sorry lot.
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel: "[Israel] will insure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex"
Rosen,
Voices like yours make me feel ashamed to be a part of the Jewish community. I don't say that lightly. Dissent is not disloyalty, can you not understand that? I'm not some nudnik or bleeding heart either. I understand the threats against Jewish Israelis. I just wish you could have some respect for those among us who believe, think and feel that Israel is throwing itself on a wrong direction, ultimately threatening *itself* by stomping on the Aravim (or do you prefer Araboushim?) all the time.
If you have nothing constructive to add, and simply resort to your style of vicious attack and insult, I suggest you find a forum more conducive to that style -- like Stormfront.
L'hitraot,
Alex
"I just wish you could have some respect for those among us who believe, think and feel that Israel is throwing itself on a wrong direction...."
For what it's worth: I do support a two State solution and wish Israel would evacuate most of the settlements deep in the West Bank and negotiate some land swap so that the settlement bloc around Jerusalem would become part of the Jewish State.
But this can only happen if the other side will negotiate in good faith.
Most of the posters here I attacked do not want two State settlement. They want to see the Jewish State dismantled in favor of a single and mythical "leftist State." They like to add "democratic" but that is an illusion.
A leftist democratic State is an oxymoron.
Alex, dissent in the name of what?
People posting here who attack Israel do so as if Israel was a unique place of evil in the world toady. In a world were millions of people have been killed in the Congo, Rwanda, in Algeria, in Syria, in Iran and Iraq in the Sudan in Serbia and Kosovo and Bosinia and in the far east do you really believe that Israel is the worst that the world has to offer?
This isn’t just wrong it’s dangerous. It says that Jews are a uniquely evil people. It is antisemitic and people like Rabbi Junter and Norman who preach such puerile hatred need to be taken to task. They need to be derided if not worse for aiding and abetting the antisemitic forces in the world today.
Why do we need progressive jews? I would support the idea of a new religion formed by progressive jews and they can have their own theology whatever that would be. They would of course disavow any connection with the Jewish people and Israel and everyone will live happily ever after.
I call on all readers of the Forward to spend ten percent of their income on Israeli manufactured goods.
I intend to spend 25 percent of my income on Israeli products.
To Jeremy Levinson: the issue is not whether one has converted from being a "two-stater" to being a "one-stater" -- the issue is that since 1967, i.e., approximately two-thirds of Israel's existence, there has been "one state" between the Jordan and the Mediterranean with a very large percentage of its population under military rule. Israel's claim to being "the only democracy in the Middle East" must contend with this fact. It is true that the "two-state solution," which as late as the '70s and '80s was condemned by most "pro-Israel" people as the position of "antisemites and self-haters," is now understood (by all but the most extreme pro-transfer advocates) to be the only possible way of saving Zionism - i.e., saving the possibility of a Jewish-majority state -- in the next few decades. However, since the basic positions of both the Palestinians and mainstream Israeli politicians mean that two states will never be set up, the fact is that the "one-state status quo," which is what we have and will have for the foreseeable future, is what we have to face up to. "One-state" is neither a "solution" nor a "dream" nor a "nightmare": it is what we have now, have had for 42 years, and likely will have for at least the next several decades. What kind of state is this "one-state"? Well, it's a state in which millions live under military rule (West Bank and Golan), others live under blockade by the army of the "one-state" (Gaza), others are routinely discrimnated against and told that their identity is not that of the state (Israeli Arabs), and others have full democratic rights (Israeli Jews). That's the reality. Is there a name for this kind of situation? It doesn't matter. But it is the reality and everyone who lives in, or is concerned with, Israel, must face that reality and figure out what is the ethical response to such a situation. Should, for example, more rights be given to a greater percentage of the inhabitants of the "one-state"? If not, why not? As someone who advocated "two-states" during the decades when it was viewed as an "anti-semitic" or "self-hating" position, I find it bitterly ironic that the illusory prospect of "two-states" has become the alibi of all those who refuse to acknowledge the 4-decade reality of "one-state", a reality that shows absolutely no signs of changing.
You are no Judah Magnes, bigot!
The issue is the Arab refusal to make peace with Israel.
The real Judah Magnes and others tried but they were rebuffed time and again.
Sorry Mr. President--I just don't forgive you. How dare you think youcan demonize one of the most moral nations in history--and get away with your crimes. How dare you blame Jews for your pathetic worldview, which gave credibility to the most evil characters on the face of the planet. Your apology is worthless. President Jimmy Carter will undoubtedly be known as the worstpresident in American history. He allowed the Shah of Iran to fall andthe evil Khomeni to gain power, giving Muslim extremism the fuel tospread like cancer throughout the world--ultimately leading to 9/11.His presidency was a true calamity from interest rates skyrocketing to 21.5% to the disastrous rescue attempt of the US embassy hostages, tothe Carter "malaise" he created throughout America. A total catastrophe and tragedy would sum up the Carter administration at itsbest. I mean, a born and bred true Polish anti- western antisemite in the tradition of those who aided the Nazis, actually became hisNational Security Advisor---Zbigniew Brzezinski. Carter's cute little "al chayt" prayer of forgiveness is as impressiveas Jeffrrey Dahmer's apology cries. The ex-President finally realizes what a total putz he is--so what? "We must not permit criticisms forimprovement to stigmatize Israel," Carter wrote recently. Please Jimmy, save those platitudes for your wife. You cannot write books filled with outright lies about Israel andJews, going on lecture tours and media interviews--fraudulentlyaccusing Israel of apartheid, occupation, war crimes, terrorism,obstacles to peace, targeting innocents and other despicable labels.And then you beg for forgiveness? I mean is that a joke Jimmy boy? Ex-President Carter recently met with Hamas--the modern day version ofthe Nazis. Chamberlain redux? No, Carter is much, much worse. What Jimmy Carter has done is join the list of well known historical antisemites to create a new type of Jewish Blood Libel. With tremendous passion and foolishness, Carter pretty much alone gave credibility to the "Israel Blood Libel," which propagated throughout mainstream Western democracies, especially in Europe, to falsely accuse Israel and Jews of using Arab/Muslim blood to expand Israel'sterritory. In a similar vein to his fellow antisemites throughout history, Carter focused on the blood of children in Gaza and the West Bank, as if Israel purposely targeted non Jewish children to explain their horrific deaths. The fact that terrorists stationed their weapons and missiles in schools was totally irrelevant to the Jimmy Carter immoral psyche. These Jewish Libel accusations by someone who was an ex-president ofthe United States gave instant credibility to the lies coming out ofthe Arab and Muslim world. The original Jewish Blood Libel gave riseto attacks on Jews from the first century through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, right up until the Nazi era. It was pretty much JimmyCarter who created the modern day scenario which spurred attacks on Jews in France, England, Spain, Belgium, Mumbai, and many othercountries. It was obvious to Jews throughout history that the Jewish Blood Libelwas all based on lies because the Jewish Bible, the Torah containsmany specific laws against using blood in any way--even animal blood.This same Bible is filled with laws pertaining to the sin of harming innocents. Therefore, this concept of being extremely sensitive tohurting innocent people has become dominant in the Jewish psyche andbehavior. Thus, when Palestinians, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon,Turkey, Jordan, et al all accuse Israel of purposely targeting innocents, Jews worldwide know that this Jew Hatred is based on purelies. However, as we know about lies, if it is repeated often enough,people, especially Europeans and the Left begin to a believe it as afact. That is the tragedy facing both America and Israel today--the 2 most moral nations of modernity. Is there a nation in the history of the world, who during a warinstigated against it, actually dropped brochures, made phone callsand sent emails warning innocent civilians to leave an area that wasgoing to be attacked? Only Israel has cared so much for "the lives" ofinnocent people, even people who hate it and wish it destroyed. However, due to Carter's Christian faith, he actually believes thatall Jews should and will actually forgive him, showing a major difference between Judaism and Christianity about sin and forgiveness.Since Jesus' death atones for the sins of those who have faith in Him,Carter mistakenly thinks that all Jews will ultimately forgive him and move on. However, only non-Jewish Jews like Abe Foxman of the ADL, who havealmost no knowledge of Judaism, will forgive Carter for his massive evil. According to Judaism, God Himself cannot forgive anyone for sins against another person. The only way that Carter can actually beforgiven, would be to go to every Jew worldwide and ask for forgiveness--not make his blanket empty announcement, because his grandson is running for office in a Jewish district in Georgia. What is ironic about Carter is that he has committed the same "libel accusations" on America, creating the American Blood Libel. Carter'scomments over the last decade have included the rhetoric that "America is a torturer at Abu Ghraib, has performed criminal acts by waterboarding in Guatanamo, we're occupiers in Iraq and colonialists, we attack Arab countries for Halliburton or for oil," etc. etc. Some day we can all expect an empty Carter apology to America. So for the damage that Jimmy Carter has caused to both Israel and America, I do not forgive him and neither do many millions of other Jews or Americans. The best I can do for one of the most horrific American men of the past 3 decades is say, "Drop Dead Jimmy Carter,"and then you can ask your maker for forgiveness.
Your definition of the Zionist left is dead because, quite simply, the Arabs buried it. After the past 16 years since Oslo, Amotz Asa-El's "Middle Israel" has had enough of the risks for peace lectures and one-sided concessions to the "Palestinians" in exchange for more bloodshed and greater incitement. We have had enough of our taxpayer money going to fund Israeli Arab demagogues in the Knesset who want to rid all of Israel of Jews and destroy any remnant of Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. We are really tired of going out of our way to promote talented Israeli-Arab professionals only to have them stab us in the back (literally and figuratively) whenever the opportunity presents itself. At this point, a true Zionist Left can at best advocate for a nation-state for the Jewish people while recognizing the rights of minorities who want to advance -- and advance within -this state. And borders between the Jewish nation-state and the additional Arab state must reflect that position.
If the comments to the article by Noam Sheizaf are representative of your readership, then God help you. Israel should cherish the 'Judah Magnes' of this world, for their intellectual honesty and balance,and for their ability to recognize the only real way forward for Israel.