Neo-Israel — Darkness at Noon [Part 2, updated]
I summed up the first part of “Neo-Israel — Darkness at Noon” [Feb. 14, 2023] by asserting that from the combined failures of historical vision and courage by the Oslo agreements and the “Shamgar Commission” [on the assassination of Rabin] it was near predetermined that the various factions of National-Fundamentalism will take over the history of Israel. And so it was. However, now that dark historical course is being contested for the first time — on the streets, in the courts and on the cultural front. On the background of the “Judicial Battle” in Israel, let us examine the nature of the “Dark” forces bound on finishing the takeover of Israel’s, fragile and full of contradictions, democracy.
The two fundamental driving forces that are a manifestation of an epochal change in Israel’s national identity are: First, the blatant and thorough attempt by the messianic-nationalistic and orthodox sections of Israeli society to establish a “Medinat Halacha”, namely, Israel as a state delivered by God and ruled by clerical laws. Their two immediate practical goals are to use the “Judicial Putsch” in order to get rid of even the most feeble attempt by the state to get some of their fringe youth into the Army (they treat even the semblance of a compulsory enrollment as an existential threat, evoking Nazi analogies, on their orthodox purity). The second holy goal is to keep on the appropriation of a large chunk from state-funds to support their atavistic cult-like way of life.
The religious fundamentalism sector at the heart of Israel’s politics makes its democratic foundation as solid as a P’tcha. At least two main parties in Israel’s politics admit GOD as the one and only sovereign over the world, thus openly disavow the Social Contract and any binding laws derived from or founded on it. The fact that these atavistic clerical political constructions are not only legitimate in Israel’s politics and courts, but also have turned themselves into the arbiters of political dominance, is a strong indicator of Israel turning from a “Jewish Democracy”(an oxymoronic formation by itself) into a “Jewish Republic”, the mold of the Iran Republic.
The second force vying for the future is the eruption of the Mizrachim (Israeli Jews whose origins are in Muslim dominated countries) revisionist, Hutu-like, fury. Netanyahu’s political “base” is mostly composed of Mizrachim (dominant among them those of North Africans ancestries) who are openly out to get a retribution from the Ashkenazim (Jews of European, mostly eastern-European, origin). The supposedly privileged “founding fathers”, whom they consider as their historical oppressors. The truth-value and moral-weight of this inverse-racism are as low as the Dead Sea, but their influence on Israel’s politics and culture is immense (added and abated by autoimmune disorder of Liberal Ashkenazim manifested especially in “Haaretz”, the leading liberal news outlet).
The Orthodox and, less radically so, the Mizrachim, tend to right-wing nationalism and form a political alignment with the National-Fundamentalists settlers sector. Together, they are the binding force of Netanyahu’s coalition. Israel’s minister of information, G. D. Atbaryan, recently published a post in which she proclaims that what the protestors against the Judicial changes are afraid of, namely, biased legislation, trampling of rights, discrimination, underrepresentation, erasing sovereign right and polite dictatorship has actually been the reality of life more than half of the people (she means Mizrachim) for 70 years. For her, and she’s an archetypal representative of Netanyahu’s legions, it’s all about the liberation of the, self-described as peripheral, Mizrachim.
Besieged weakened Zionist-Liberals vs. rising galvanized Nationalistic-Fundamentalists — these sides are clashing for Israel’s future. Demography, passionate resentment and Liberal autoimmune disorder, are markedly on the “Jewish Republic” side. However, the surprisingly massive and intensive demonstrations — though deeply confused in aims and messages (the autoimmune disorder) — are fighting back for the first time. Not all hope is completely lost, yet.
[I recognize that in the summing sentence, I’ve forced myself to guarded optimism, in stark contrary to my analysis and predictions since the start of the third millennium. Here’s the contours of the future:
On Tuesday March 28, a band of thugs and Likud “operatives” from the “developing” city of Beit Shan, placed a roadblock on a road leading to the nearby deep-rooted Kibbutzim. They stopped every car with Kibbutz members in it (mainly mothers and grandparents taking their young ones back from a sport competition in the vicinity). The Likud mob let Mizrachim Jews (especially the residents of Beit Shan) and Orthodox Jews, pass safely the road blockade (while greeting them warmly), and then they showered the Kibbutz members stuck in the cars with racial (anti-Ashkenazim) and sexual slurs, while threatening them with violence.
It is hard to explain to Foreign readers the moral-political travesty of this typical Netanyahu’s “base” actions anyway, and it is near impossible without crossing some substantial established PC lines — so I won’t, for now. All I’ll say is that these are the first clashes of a coming civil storm.]