Israel's Governing Extremists Are Now Galloping Towards Annexation
Daniel Kurtzer, August 6, 2023
Israel's
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is playing political chess, while the
opposition to the government’s judicial overhaul plan is playing
checkers.
The opposition wants to keep as
many game pieces on the board as possible to protect the institutions
and processes that assure checks and balances in Israel’s system of
government. Smotrich, in contrast,
wants to remove – in fact, destroy – as many pieces as possible, to
clear the way for him and his extreme right-wing allies to attain their
real goal: “victory” over the Palestinian people, annexation of the West
Bank and East Jerusalem and burial of the two-state paradigm for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For
now, everyone is observing the rules of the game –legislation initiated
by the Netanyahu government and mass demonstrations across the country –
but their strategies are being played out at cross-purposes. Israel's
opposition has done an amazing job of mobilizing a significant
cross-section of Israelis to protest the government’s plans, reflecting
the population’s pluralistic composition and the strongly-held view that
the legislation will impair Israel’s democracy.
The rallying cry has been to save Israeli democracy by preserving the only real check on a government’s legislative overreach: the independence of the Supreme Court
when it sits as the High Court of Justice. Without the carefully
balanced method of selecting justices that has worked smoothly and
fairly for almost 70 years, a governing coalition could stack the court
and remove any possibility of judicial review.
Indeed,
the court’s ability to review legislation and even its unusual power to
decide on the reasonableness of government policies and practices, have
worked to protect the rights of citizens on both the left and the
right, as well as those under occupation, in a situation where there is
no constitution and no bill of rights.
A standoff between pro-democracy demonstrators and police officers in Tel Aviv.Credit: Itay Ron
To Smotrich and the extremists who built this legislative overhaul, the proposals are but a means to an end. Smotrich has argued for years for a solution to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that reduces the Palestinians to
second-class residents in an Israel that has annexed the occupied
territories and whose citizens enjoy all the rights that the annexed
Palestinians do not.
To Smotrich, the enemy
has been the peace process. He believes that an independent Palestinian
state – an outcome of a negotiated two-state solution – would present a
mortal danger to the State of Israel. Israel must “win” and the
Palestinians must “lose,” which to him means they must give up on the
idea of national rights and accept their second-class status in Israel,
leave the country or be killed should they continue resistance.
Smotrich
has calculated correctly that, should the protest movement understand
his real motives, it would split and perhaps disintegrate; there are
many protesters who want to preserve Israeli democracy but are not ready
to protest more settlements or annexation.
Smoke
is seen from Israel's side during a raid on Jenin refugee camp in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank, Salem checkpoint, in July 2023.Credit: RONEN ZVULUN/ REUTERS
For
Smotrich, his strategy advances whether or not the bills do: If the
Knesset passes them, many obstacles to annexation and settlement
expansion will be removed. If it doesn’t, for whatever reason, he and
his fellow extremists will demand and likely receive “compensation” from
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the form of more resources for
settlements, “legalization” of illegal outposts and other measures
designed to ties the settlements and settlers more firmly to the Israeli
legal system.
Smotrich and the settler
movement more generally have long made clear that they value the land
and the state’s Jewish identity far more than its democratic character.
They are honest enough to admit that the outcome they seek will be less
than fully democratic, but that is a price they are willing to pay to
assure eternal Israeli control over all of the land between the Jordan
River and the Mediterranean Sea and the complete defeat of the
Palestinian national movement.
To not
understand this, or to fail to appreciate the dangers of Smotrich’s long
game, is to be duped into believing that slowing down or moderating the
coalition’s proposed judicial overhaul would be sufficient. It would
not be. The only serious way to push back against the extremism that has
taken over Israel’s governing coalition is to push back hard against
both the extreme aspects of the proposed legislation and what used to be
creeping annexation of the occupied territories, but is now galloping
annexation.
Daniel
Kurtzer is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy
Studies at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.
During a 30-year diplomatic career, in diplomacy, he served as the U.S.
ambassador to Israel and as the U.S. ambassador to Egypt. Twitter: @DanKurtzer