Israel falling into ANOTHER General Election - solely to protect its Occupation Apartheid

Sorry to interrupt an odd July 4th, with the rogue SCOTUS drama, and war in Ukraine. You might be interested to know that on Nov. 1, Israel is going to have its 5th general election in 4 years.

Before anyone falsely cries “foul” or even “Anti-Semitism!” at the A-word used in the title: in case you don’t know then I’m an expatriate Jewish Israeli (dual US citizen), who even after 20 years here in Seattle have still lived most of my life in Israel, and was raised in a very mainstream liberal-Zionist home there. I’ve also been a history and policy buff since learning how to read. Lastly, I’ve served the Occupation regime on the ground as an infantry soldier in the 1980s (full 3-year) and 90s (reserve). In short, when it comes to Israel-Palestine and the Occupation Apartheid, most of the time I know exactly what I’m writing about.

the “change coalition” that didn’t change anything

Since 2015 domestic Israeli politics have revolved around “To Bibi or not to Bibi”— personal admiration/revulsion towards its longest-serving PM, head of the largest (and main right-wing) party, Likud. Bibi has perfected the art of narrow victories, or at least draws, followed by anything-goes coalition deals, that have kept him in office time and again. But some of his former right-wing allies have developed a personal objection to him remaining in power, and hence the bouts of repeat elections in rapid succession.

Then in mid-2021 after the last election, Bibi magic didn’t work. The title image shows the heads of the 8 parties in the hodge-podge coalition that (temporarily?) ousted him. Here are their names (aligned like the pictures on top), and the number of seats they’ve brought into the game (61 are required for majority).

To save you some ‘Rithmetic, the original numbers add up to precisely 61. The coalition has set statistical records on a dizzying number of rubrics, but to our purpose focus on two:

• Famously, it includes both hard-right components (#2,3,4 in the table above), and a Palestinian-Israeli component, in fact Israel’s Islamic party (#7). This, in addition to centre-right (#1,6) and centre-left (#5,8), leading some in the media to call it a (cringe!) “Rainbow Coalition”.
• In return to his 7 6 5 seat contribution, Naftali Bennett (his party being the furthest right of the 3 hard-right components, and the only one who didn’t mind joining Bibi if needs be) leveraged his negotiating position and became Israel’s first-ever Orthodox Prime Minister. As well as the smallest party head to ever become PM.

Given the bare-bones 61, and the complete infeasibility of getting even an additional 1 out of the remaining 59, cooperation between all components was absolutely essential. On paper, Bennett was to serve the first 2 years of the 4-year term, then switch with Ya’ir Lapid (head of the largest component and chief coalition architect). But even more mainstream kibitzers than I laughed at Lapid’s naivette. Just like in the US, dominance at all costs is wired into the Israeli right’s psyche. In their world honoring agreements is for suckers.

Indeed, even before the government was sworn in, one of Bennett’s 7 members already defected to the opposition due to a principled stand for Jewish Supremacy and against sitting with A-rabs in the coalition. I kid you not. So right off the bat they were 60 instead of 61. The only way anything worked with this government, was because 6 of the remaining 60 are the so-called “radical left” (really, pro-democracy) party, voted in mostly by Arab voters. There was no way they would ally with Bibi.

In addition to Bennett’s trophy, his party’s second-in-command, if-looks-could-kill Ayelet Shaked won a standoff with Labor’s leader (#8 in the pic) to become Interior Minister (with Lapid making the final push to help her get the job). Unlike the US system, this is a super-powerful office, including control of citizenship, immigration, and local-government budgets. Mad about Manchin’s disproportionate power? You ain’t seen nothing yet.

Not only did these wingnuts control the PM and one of the top 3 cabinet positions with only 10% of the coalition seats — they proceeded to enact far-right policies, often worse than Bibi’s, as if most of the seats were not contributed by center and centre-left voters, and in particular as if there were no Palestinians sitting with them. So instead of trying to work together as the constant Kumbaya PR press was trying to pretend is happening, tensions kept rising and rising.

Still, the next person to completely desert this magic coalition was again from Bennett’s party, a member so offended by the entry of unleavened breadinto hospitals during Passover (the minister of Health is left-of-centre #5 and he allowed that)— that she decided that the government and her leaders’ disproportionate role in it are “not worth it anymore”, and up and left the coalition in April. Again, I kid you not. 

So the government became completely at the mercy of the chasm splitting its opposition (now outnumbering it!). One might have thought that this mortal peril, plus the mere shame of being most at fault for bringing the deal to the brink despite being the ones most benefitting — one would think now some humility and consideration would creep into the hearts and minds of Bennett and Shaked.

Ha. They continued to enact policies as if there were 61 seats’ worth of settler voters behind them, policies that screw Palestinians further and further. I’m not digging up the specific acts in order to keep this diary’s length manageable. Then some Palestinian members said enough. In particular, an Arab representative belonging to component #5 started voting against the government.

Of course, the entire supposedly liberal and even progressive segment of Israeli society, the same press that kept singing Bennett’s praise no matter what he did — now went after this Palestinian member with pitchforks and torches. How dare she kill the beautiful Bibi-ousting Kumbaya they had engineered. That ungrateful Arab! The poor soul relented after a few days.

the shameful last straw

Given Bibi-allied seats are still capped at 55, the coalition could have lumbered on, winning some votes and losing others. At least enough time to further weaken Bibi (whose corruption trial is ongoing), just like Trump is getting weaker by the month. So who toppled them now?

They. Toppled. Themselves. Why? The Guardian is being uncharacteristically euphemistic about it:

...the final straw came after a failure to agree on extending legal protections for Israeli settlers living in the occupied West Bank.

Sounds respectable, no? extending legal protections. Who could be against that? Here’s what’s really happening.

In the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, Israel has been running a fully-fledged dictatorship (oops: Israel isn’t inside Gaza anymore — so it really runs Gaza from the outside, like a prison camp more than a dictatorship).

Apologists for this atrocity of a regime, some of them well-meaning yet woefully/willfully misinformed, push forth all sorts of what-aboutisms and now-lookie-here-isms and but-you-don’t-understand-isms, but at bottom line every parcel of land and every segment of population on the planet is governed by some type of regime. IOW, The Buck always stops Somewhere.

For Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza (and in many respects, also East Jerusalem) that Buck is a military dictatorship run by Israel. This is a fact, just like the Earth revolving around itself. It is deliberately disguised or explained away by many layers and sleight-of-hands — except from the Palestinians who bear the full brunt. They know it unfiltered, down to the stupid pseudonym and cellphone number of the specific Israeli secret-police honcho controlling their village.

Problem: while keeping Occupied Palestinians under the boot, Israel has wanted to appropriate Occupied territories for itself, and has paid Jewish citizens (a.k.a. “settlers”) billions and billions to move into there and take over the better parcels of land. So — we Israelis are not racist, right? So does this mean settlers too should be under the military boot then? The horrors!

I have known full well that Israel enacts two parallel systems of living in the Occupied Territories, an over-privileged, completely civilian one for Jewish Israelis living there, and a truly miserable, corrupt, callous, racist military dictatorship for Occupied Palestinians. Hence the Apartheid term, fully deserved without any doubts or qualms (now also used by leading human-rights organizations, who of course have been promptly labelled “Anti-Semitic” by angry Israelis and Diaspora Jews).

But what even I the policy buff didn’t know, is that there is one very explicit, detailed, shameful, comprehensive law underpinning the entire system. A law that is officially “temporary”, renewed every 5 years during the quietest and most-away-from-limelight moment of Israel’s parliament session. Originally it was only the law re-authorizing the Military Occupation. But in the 1980s and 1990s, while still fully authorizing The Boot onto Occupied Palestinians — huge sections were added to the law enabling the fully-civilian-and-overprivileged, permanent (well, “renewed every 5 years”) life of Jewish-Israelis there. Including of course the right to vote in the general election while outside Israel’s official borders, something that other expats like myself are not allowed to do. And yes, in case you’re wondering then Jewishness *is* mentioned in that carve-out albeit implicitly (via the Laws of Immigration which are based on Jewishness).

Here’s the (Hebrew) Wikipedia entry about this Main Apartheid Law — strangely enough, no human-rights activists have translated it to English or any other language, as far as I can tell. But Google Translate might do the work if you’re curious. Maybe I’ll embark upon a Wiki translation project. Meanwhile, here’s a 2-minute video giving the essence.

As luck would have it, the 5-year renewal came due on June 30 2022. The vote took place June 6, and two Palestinian-Israeli coalition members voted against it (one of them, the brave female member mentioned above). A couple others were no-shows. Meanwhile, Apartheid-loving Bibi+allies decided some months ago that they’ll vote against the government on any vote, no matter how much they actually support its substance. In other words, perhaps the Leftie/Arab opposition party would never ally with Bibi, but in order to topple the government Bibi allied with the Left on this core issue.So the Apartheid-extension law fell 52-58.

Pandemonium ensued. The entire mainstream of Israeli pundits and analysts warned that failing to extend Apartheid would create “Anarchy” in the Occupied Territories, yada yada. So Lapid and Bennett agreed to kill their own precious government, and go to election. Why? Because when the parliament dissolves itself, all pending temporary laws get automatically extended until the next government is sworn in. So as long as they do it before the end of June, the Apartheid Law doesn’t get to expire. They managed to complete the process on June 30. Apartheid saved, Mission Accomplished!

To repeat: after spitting nuts and bolts for an entire year trying to keep this coalition together (well — to be fair — Lapid et al. were spitting nuts and bolts while Bennett was free-ridin’ on top), they fell on their swords just in order to protect the Apartheid way of life in the Occupied Territories. Bennett is actually taking a break from politics now.

The hasty Lapid-Bennett termination agreement included swapping roles. In exchange for far-right Bennett’s undeserved full year of causing additional harm on the Palestinian front (which whatever your Israeli friends might tell you, continues to be the most critical one facing Israel) — centre-right Lapid gets 4 months of officially lame-duck premiership, then lame-ducking it for another 1-2 until that new government starts. 

And whomever that new government might be, they are highly likely to continue causing harm, digging Israel further into the Apartheid hole, with Palestine suffocating in the mud beneath them.

Please, cry for my country, and support the few brave voices in the American political scene who are trying to heal that harm, rather than play along with the Occupation out of either cowardice (most Democratic politicians) or racism (most Republicans).

Thank you.