Julie France discusses the seemingly unbridgeable divide currently separating the Israeli left from the Israeli right.
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In America, working on campaigns either makes you a patriot or a political hack, regardless of what party you campaign for. In Israel, campaigning for the Israeli left makes you an anti-Zionist. An Israel-hater.
A man driving by in his car is stopped at a red light. “You are not a Zionist! You should leave!” he yells as the light changes. I stare at the car dumbfounded and reply: “But I just got here.”
I am not sure how many times I was told that I hate Israel or I am not a Zionist, but I assure you it was entirely too many. Within the past year I moved to Israel and became a citizen—a process called making Aliyah, or “going up”; started the enlistment process with the Israeli Defense Forces; and studied Hebrew to better fit into Israeli society. One could call me many things, but anti-Zionist or “Israel hater” is probably the least fitting.
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After the elections, as we were still licking our wounds, I reached out to an old friend that dedicated the better part of his life to bringing people in conflict together. I asked about the need for an honest dialogue between right and left. His response was somewhere between outrage and disgust. “I can’t talk with them.” I was told that the Israeli right was racist: They didn’t respect rules of debate, and as such it was not worth talking to them.
A man driving by in his car is stopped at a red light. ‘You are not a Zionist! You should leave!’ he yells as the light changes. I stare at the car dumbfounded and reply: ‘But I just got here.’
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This is just a symptom of one of the most dangerous illnesses plaguing Israel. Like the banks of a creek that continue erode away until the gap is so wide one cannot jump between the two sides, the camps here continue to move further apart, lessening the room for compromise.
Depending on what side one is on, the other’s policies can be driven by one of two things: A lack of gratitude and appreciation for the state in which we live (read: Anti-Zionist), or denial of facts and figures (read: Sheer stupidity). The most ironic factor in the growing divide is that both sides are motivated by the same thing: Love for one’s country and a sincere fear for it’s future.
The Israeli right sees growing anti-Semitism in Europe, a hostile Middle East, and an American president with a Muslim middle name. They look back on the last two millennia of Jewish history and see expulsions, pogroms, and the Holocaust. Consequently they see themselves living in a state that is an absolute necessity, perhaps a product of divine province, although not a guarantee. The only state in the world that still must defend its legitimacy both diplomatically and militarily. The survival of the state as they know it is at risk.
The Israeli left also sees a growing accumulation of threats. It sees housing prices increase fifty-five percent since 2008. It sees one-third of children living under the poverty line. They look back over the last over the last 48 years and see an increasing entrenched occupation over a land and a people that cannot get citizenship if Israel wishes to remain both Jewish and democratic. They see their country increasingly isolated by the Western World. They hear Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. The survival of the state as they know it is at risk.
Both sides see the other as directly opposing what they believe will maintain peaceful and secure livelihoods. Here, opposing political parties go beyond politics; they are the harbingers of the end of days for our small, endangered country. No matter which side wins, approximately half the country is looking at other places they might be eligible for citizenship in case their fears are correct and the end is near.
Some might say that I am exaggerating and this happens in America also. After all, how many times have people said that Obama hates America or that Republicans are out of touch with reality and haven’t picked up a book (that isn’t the Bible) in entirely too long?
Some might say that I am exaggerating and this happens in America also. After all, how many times have people said that Obama hates America or that Republicans are out of touch with reality and haven’t picked up a book (that isn’t the Bible) in entirely too long?
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While the similarities are undeniable, there is one crucial difference. Neither the character nor security of the United States is at risk. Regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are in power, America will continue to be America. People will continue to pay taxes and complain about it, Puerto Rico will continue to not be a state while enjoying many of the perks of statehood, and there will continue to be (however begrudgingly) some degree of separation between church and state. Are there battles to fight? Absolutely. Will the outcome of any of those fights crucially change the nature of life in America as we know it? Probably not, at least not in this decade. Rather, the United States will continue to push towards a more perfect union.
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Israel does not have that luxury. At some point in the future we will have to make decisions that redefine either our borders or our character. That will not be an easy decision, and I hope that when that time comes we will have closed the divide enough to live together with the outcome. We must come together and build a consensus what Israel will be. After all, the alternative is moving forward divided, and last time that brought us an assassination and an Intifada.
Until that decision must be made, I’ll stay working towards a state that is both Jewish and Democratic. I think that is ground we can all stand on. I just hope my compatriots can meet me there.
Jew-hating “Blame Israel Firsters” like Archy who call a sovereign nation — the only Jewish-majority State in the world surrounded by 23 failed Muslim Arab states — is EXACTLY why Netanyahu won and why the Israeli Left is morally bankrupt for even considering the Archys of the world reasonable. Been there done that in the agreements of 2000 and 2008 and disengagement of 2005 and it got Israel absolutely nowhere. You’re welcome. And you’re anti-Zionist.
Honestly, Israel as it stands now was probably a mistake, or at least the wests inaction over the land-grabbing the xenophobic state is doing. They love to claim innocence and act like the victim when they are clearly an aggressor nation, building houses on land that is not theirs. The sad thing is the so called “terrorists” of palestine could hit and had a greater accuracy against enemy combatants yet Israel killed far more innocent civilians than their own enemy. How they have escaped the warcrimes tribunal really does make me wonder wtf is going on when they are clearly… Read more »