Title: Israel Is on the Verge of Fascism. Will It Cross the Threshold? - Opinion - Haaretz.com
I know, I know, this email list is not the place to analyze “fascism,” given that favored politicians here, like J.D. Vance, Vivek Ramaswamy, Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, to name just a few, and Oligarch funders of favored right-wing “propaganda platforms,” like Peter Thiel and Charles Koch, are so intertwined ideologically with not only Israeli Fascism (see National Conservatism, CPAC, Federalist Society, et al.), but also its Fascist Military/Intelligence system as critical “nodes” in that system of fascist repression. Like Thiel’s Palantir and Thiel off-shoots like Anduril.
But the “Right” here has stopped reading what I post, so hopefully, this won’t offend the two or three people outside that category who might glance at this, as I continue my best effort to not be the proverbial “Good German.” So notable with their acquiescence by silence to the transformation of Germany into an open, Total Fascist State in 1933, particularly the DNVP based “Conservative Revolution” notables, like Carl Schmitt, who moved further up the “Spectrum of Fascism” completed by 1938 under Hitler. And is now so popular with “PostLiberals,” like Patrick Deneen’s enthusiasm for Adrian Vermeule’s open "Schmittianism.”
But to disagree slightly with this article, that “threshold,” was crossed long ago, brought on by “Conservative” Israelis, as the euphemism for “Fascism” there, as in the U.S., with the election of Menachem Begin in 1977 as PM. Who was recognized as a fascist by amongst others, Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein, going back to the 1940s with Begin as a right-wing, Jewish terrorist. And who, along with the two Netanyahu’s, father and son, founded the Jonathan Institute to appeal to U.S. Reagan Conservatives in their common fight against “Terrorism.”
Explained well here: https://www.wrmea.org/1991-july/binyamin-netanyahu-the-joe-isuzu-of-the-middle-east-media-wars.html. Though inexplicably, that wise author in 1991, became something of an enthusiast for Netanyahu’s BAF (Best American Friend, Trump) by 2016! And it must be noted, those “Conservatives” were facilitated in the creation of Israeli Fascism, by the “non-Conservatives” who went along with or even led the creation of conditions which almost inexorably lead to a fascist world view, with their own support for Israeli settlements, and “Perpetual Military Occupation/Repression” of Palestinians.
“. . . odes to national honor, to unity and tradition. Ideologically, there's a conservative revolution going on in Israel now, over and under the surface, carried on the wings of "Bibi-ism" and reliant on the Shalem College, with its origins in American conservatism. (TP- the Yoram Hazony founded “college,“ denoted here with a “brown” tinge, the color for Fascism.)
"It also relies on the Im Tirtzu movement – one of whose founders, Ronen Shoval, was influenced by German romantics, considered the forebearers of German fascism, a movement described by former Likud MK Benny Begin as having "fascist elements" in its campaign, and by Zeev Sternhell as being "no worse than fascism, it is just that, more or less." This conservative revolution is also supported by the Kohelet Policy Forum, the instigator of Israel's nation-state law, and by the libertarian Tikvah Fund, which developed the "judicial reform" and which encourages a false sense of national unity."
The sound of thugs' shoes in the alleys of the Old City on Jerusalem Day last week recalled the sound of the SA marches and the 1920s and 30s in Germany. As it was then, when brown-shirted militants violently swooped on any passing Jewish- or communist-owned store, so it is now, as yellow-shirted ones – the dumb disciples of their bully leader with a criminal past who now has a whole police force under his control – beat, kicked and swore at Arabs and journalists.
It was hard to distinguish between the thugs and the representatives of the state in the form of the Border Police; each of them had a well-defined role in imposing terror and fear on Old City residents in the annual fascistic ritual. Teenagers from the religious Zionist sector, who believe in the supremacy of the Jewish race and the "Jewish land," brought to mind, in their violence, European right-wingers and fascists who hunted down socialists, communists and Jews.
Almost 100 years later, the roles are reversed: Now, violent Jews on their way to the Western Wall hunt down people of other ethnicities. Paralleling the growth of the radical right and the populist wave currently underway in Europe, proto-fascist groups are on the rise in Israel.
These processes reflect global trends, and indicate a strengthening of a radical "pre-fascist" right-wing social base in Israel – neo-fascist groups (including some Likud voters, commonly known as "Bibi-ists") that acquire a firmer and firmer hold over the lower classes. The nationalist radicalization in this social base facilitates an alliance between the political-cultural, conservative right and traditionalist, peripheral lower-class groups and religious and ultra-Orthodox groups that uphold values of blood, Jewish homeland, land, race, sacredness, sacrifice and death – an unarguably racist climate.
Such neo-fascist groups are dangerous to the future of Israeli democracy, as they produce a fascist culture with seeds that hold mass social potential. Israel is currently undergoing a mini civil war that recalls similar moments in 1920s Europe. This analogy is not a one-on-one comparison between now and then, but as Swedish author Karl Ove Knausgård recently made clear in his book "My Struggle," the period between the late 19th century and the mid-1940s is retrospectively seen as an age of transformations in central components of human existence.
Many sought to find a new element, to establish a new society, and thought they found what they were looking for in the last two great utopian movements: Nazism and communism.The analogy between Knausgård's Europe, particularly in the last years of the Weimar Republic, as well as other countries such as France, Belgium and Eastern European countries, and Netanyahu's Israel, is meant to tease out insights about similarities between events, processes and figures in the past and present.
Israeli right-wing activists scuffle with a Palestinian freelance journalist Saif Kwasmi during a march commemorating Jerusalem Day, on Wednesday.Credit: Hazem Bader/AFP
As mentioned above, Israel is currently undergoing a civil war reminiscent of Weimar-German, as well as Italy on the eve of the Fascist march on Rome. Israel is not alone in facing such a crisis. The repudiation of liberal and democratic values resounds today all across The West, with the possible exception of Britain, that always made the right civic-liberal choice.
This is evident in the "Yellow Vest" riots in France (where Marine Le Pen is very likely to win a majority of seats in the coming parliamentary election), the storming of the Capitol in Washington, the growing support for the "Alternative for Germany" party, the election of Giorgia Meloni, a fan of Mussolini, as prime minister of Italy and the unprecedented rise in support for nationalist leader Geert Wilders in the Netherlands. Only this week, the radical right strengthened in the elections for the European Parliament.
Like in Israel, in European countries, too, there is a tendency on both sides of the divide to view political, economic and social crises as a struggle over the character of the society and the state; a struggle between the wish for deep change after decades of a democratic-liberal order, and those who wish to continue the existing democratic order.
The Israeli crisis is fueled by the results of the November 2022 elections, but one must be naïve to view the victory of the rightwing-religious bloc as the cause for Israel's crisis. Here, too, as in the U.S., Britain and other countries, the unrest reflects deeper processes: significant geopolitical changes, radical economic-cultural notions that pop up overnight, climate and environmental crises, threats on the secular, liberal way of life and a struggle against corrupt, anti-democratic regimes.
All these sent multitudes to the streets, all over the world. The Israeli crisis does have unique characteristics – the complex structure of Israeli society, the threatening shadow of the occupation and the danger of faith, mostly self-conviction in the supremacy of Jewish blood and race. There's no doubt that the October 7 calamity and the anti-regime protest are a double reaction to the resounding failure of the political and security establishments, but they are also a continuation of protests during the pandemic and of protests against the constitutional coup throughout 2023. All these reflect a lack of faith by the Israeli public in a failing regime.
Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at the Jerusalem Day flag march in June 2024.Credit: Naama Grinbaum
Three processes
There is room for comparison between Israel and Europe at the time of the rise of fascism, in three main processes. The first is the constitutional crisis in Germany in the years 1930-1933, a political crisis that ended, in fact, only with the demise of the Weimar Republic's democracy, weak since the very start. Over here, the fledgling Netanyahu government, elected after several elections during which there was an increase in the bargaining power of the religious and ultra-Orthodox parties, of secular nationalist racists and among the religious nationalists including the settlers and neo-fascist parties. Like in Weimar Germany and other places around the world, here too there was a failed attempt at a judicial coup, that sought to distort the democratic checks and balances between the three branches of government. The final chord, for now, is the Gaza war.
The second process has to do with splits in society. In Italy, Spain and, of course, in Germany, there was a split between polarized political camps – the nationalist, radical, antisemitic right-wing on one hand, and the socialist (SPD) and communist side on the other – that found _expression_ in almost constant civil war and political violence, termed by jurist Carl Schmitt a "state of emergency' (one that welcomes a "dictator"). Over here, it's the rift between settlers and their supporters and those opposing the occupation, between the ultra-Orthodox and religious, on the one hand, and secular Israelis on the other, along with additional political and social splits.
The third process reveals huge tension between a liberal society and conservative and radical-right forces. In Italian society, on the eve of the march on Rome, and especially in Weimar Germany, seemingly opposite trends were at play – on the one hand, progress, liberalism and modernization, on the other, a fascist revolution and a "conservative revolution," promoted by such distinguished Italian thinkers as Giovanni Gentile, and Germans such as Schmitt, Ernst Jünger, Oswald Spengler, Martin Heidegger and others. (TP-all of whom are now celebrated by the “New Right Conservatives,” as Post-Liberals, so popular here!)
The crux of that revolution was a seemingly paradoxical combination of reactionary politics and technological progress, known as Reactionary Modernism, also the name of a book by historian Jeffrey Herf, or "The Order of the Nihilists." There and here, there was and is a struggle going on against universal values, equal citizenship and immigration, and on the other hand – odes to national honor, to unity and tradition. Ideologically, there's a conservative revolution going on in Israel now, over and under the surface, carried on the wings of "Bibi-ism" and reliant on the Shalem College, with its origins in American conservatism. (TP- the Yoram Hazony founded “college,“ with brown,” the color for “Fascism")
It also relies on the Im Tirtzu movement – one of whose founders, Ronen Shoval, was influenced by German romantics, considered the forebearers of German fascism, a movement described by former Likud MK Benny Begin as having "fascist elements" in its campaign, and by Zeev Sternhell as being "no worse than fascism, it is just that, more or less." This conservative revolution is also supported by the Kohelet Policy Forum, the instigator of Israel's nation-state law, and by the libertarian Tikvah Fund, which developed the "judicial reform" and which encourages a false sense of national unity.
People hold Palestinians flags as they march during the solemn Liberation Day commemoration, in Rome, in April 2024. Italy is marked its liberation from Nazi occupation and fascist rule.Credit: Cecilia Fabiano,AP
It is no wonder that the leading intellectual in those circles is an ideological settler, Micah Goodman, a yeshiva graduate who is being presented as a moderate "public intellectual," while behind the idea he preaches of a "shrinking the conflict," hides a fraudulent fortification of Greater Land of Israel.
There are differences, of course. It is impossible to understand the fall of the Weimar Republic without the context of the WWI defeat and its harsh consequences which included the Bolshevik coup that threatened Germany, political assassinations, the Freikorps ("free regiments") and violent revolutions on the right and on the left – none of which are the case in Israel. Nor is Israel experiencing the sort of destructive inflation and severe economic crisis that Germany experienced in the 1920s. As historian Walter Struve demonstrated in his book "Elites Against Democracy" (Princeton, 1973), the conservative elites in Germany opposed the Weimar regime or were indifferent to its fate. Whereas here, most elites are identified as liberal, and are being accused of "stealing the state with help from the Supreme Court."
It must be emphasized that, unlike in the 1920s in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe, Israeli democracy is still strong, but this may not last forever. Compared with European democracies that fell to fascism and Nazism in the 1920s and 1930s, Israeli civil society organizations, the professional sector in the public service and in the government act, under the circumstances, with integrity and loyalty to democratic principles, though cracks have appeared in their conduct and commitment to democracy.
However, in several epicenters within Israeli society, one can recognize pre-fascist and populist trends. First and foremost, there's a ruling party which includes elements in its support base that are pre-fascist. Prof. Menachem Mautner recently claimed that disenfranchised groups that make up that base are alienated from liberal-civic societies, because the latter adopted a neo-liberal economic-social policy and because of the "leftists'" agreements of "capitulation" with the enemy (Iyunei Mishpat, 45, 2021), that gave rise to deep hostility towards "leftist elites."
Right-wing Israelis wave flags as they participate in the Jerusalem Flag March, in June 2024.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
PM: A step away from a fascist leader
Spearheading this nationalist ideology and this historical philosophy that mandates an "Eternal Israel" ("Netzah Yisrael") and entails a refusal to recognize the legitimacy of "the enemy" is a populist, charismatic, propagandist and authoritarian leader – Benjamin Netanyahu, who is a step away from becoming a fascist leader. It is no wonder that neo-fascist or authoritarian-populist leaders, like Donald Trump in the U.S., Narendra Modi in India and Viktor Orbán in Hungary are his frame of reference and represent suitable analogies for his type of leadership.
What all these leaders have in common is, among other things, political cynicism. The political act that will haunt Netanyahu in the historical consciousness is his reliance on a Kahane supporter such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, a fascist figure through and through, in order to strengthen his rule. Cynicism is also evident in Netanyahu's dash to the hospital for an on-camera visit with the four hostages freed by the Israeli military on Saturday, though he has never called the families of the hostages even once since October 7.
The constant state of war Israel is subjected to may provide Netanyahu with the type of emergency powers he utilized during the pandemic, when he passed Draconian, unprecedented emergency laws (unparalleled in any Western democracy, and passed without due criticism). This, in addition to the massive national recruitment, the move of whole populations from the north and the south of Israel and their transformation into refugees, the transfer of Palestinians beyond the border, remarks by coalition members of "a right of return" to "homeland regions" in Gaza, the international isolation that recalls the biblical phrase "the people shall dwell alone" and the attempted judicial-constitutional coup, which is still a threat – all these indicate fascist trends mixed with populism and national-socialism.
A damaged trailer truck that was carrying humanitarian aid supplies for Gaza parked near the village of Shekef, after it was vandalized by right-wing Israeli activists in May, 2024.Credit: Oren ZIV / AFP
These trends come on top of other worrying and growing trends in Israeli society. We are faced with a combination of social, constitutional and security crises – the worst Israel has ever experienced since its inception. Unrest among many classes due to political instability; mass protests, that could, under certain circumstances, develop into a civil war, and are part of an ongoing protest that indicates a loss of public faith in the political system; the rise of social media as a violent public arena that replaces traditional media outlets that involved editing, hierarchy and responsibility; the meteoric rise of populism and the decline of liberalism, that have to do with global instability and global processes; the existence and even growth of a radical-right, pre-fascist, faith-based and anti-liberal bloc. All those are indicators, heralding an oncoming hurricane that threatens to lay waste to all that is good in Israel.
Here are three examples from last week: the call by 39 student bodies, members of the National Union of Israeli Students, in support of a bill that would allow the dismissal of faculty members who deny "the existence of Israel as Jewish and democratic" (an _expression_ of a warped position, a continuation of Tzachi Hanegbi and Israel Katz's violence in the Jerusalem student union, over 45 years ago). Another example is the demand by Nadav Haetzni to open legal proceedings against people from academia, the media and the judiciary, in accordance with section 103 of the criminal code, which forbids "defeatist propaganda," and section 99, that forbids "giving aid to the enemy in times of war." To these may be added the announcement by Haifa mayor Yona Yahav, that demonstrations against the war should not take place in his city. Those are but three examples of the moral corruption, a sign of things to come. And what will tomorrow bring?
A contemporary discussion of European fascism in the first half of the 20th century cannot ignore Israel's current political situation. The establishment of a unique Israeli brand of fascism, mixed with populist racism, has recently been considered a real possibility in the political and public discourse and in academic research. The rise of a nationalist-religious government in Israel in December 2022 – which intensified the debate over the existence of fascist-racist elements in Netanyahu's government, and over a "constitutional coup" while maintaining a democratic facade – was a radical turning point in Israeli democracy, which, to many, has ceased to be liberal. (TP-to cheers, from American Conservative Revolutionaries, dba, Republicans, National Conservatives, Trumpites/DeSantisites, collectively, the “New Right!”)
This, in addition to the participation in the government of parties that espouse a racist, nationalist and xenophobic worldview, target civil rights, minorities and the media, and present a defiant, provocative stance towards the enlightened world. Are these enough to define the current Israeli regime, society and civic institutions as fascist? As of now, the answer is negative, with the emphasis on the word "now.” (TP-wrong on that point, as they’re already on the “spectrum of fascism,” and already as far along on that as Italy was before 1938, and Germans of the “Conservative Revolution” were before 1933.)
If we add to all this the occupation and apartheid regime imposed by Israel for over half a century on the West Bank – and the transition from "temporary occupation" to a permanent colonial situation, which lent credence to the judicial procedures now underway in the International Court in the Hague – and if we add to that ethnocratic elements, in accordance with political geographer Oren Yiftachel's paradigm of one ethnic group appropriates the state's resources and institutions at the expense of minorities, while continuing to present itself as a (hollow) democracy, and particularly the growth of faith-based racist forces – we cannot ignore the danger of the fascist option materializing in Israel.
How, then, will Israelis remember these stormy days? How will they cross the raging river that threatens to drown them? Will the self-awareness of citizens concerned about the fragility of democracy translate into political action? What will remain of the vicissitudes of these dark days? Will Israelis rise in defiance? Or will they bend over, give up, make amends and compromise, and who knows – perhaps they'll prefer to live somewhere else? All that is left for us is to correctly interpret the vicissitudes of these days, to keep up the struggle and hold on to the hope, to repeat again and again the words of the anthem sang by freedom fighters in the face of soldiers in the previous century: no pasarán.
The writers are historians of European fascism and Nazism. Prof. Ohana is author of the book, "The Fascist Temptation" (Routledge 2021) and Prof. Heilbronner is author of the book, "From Popular Liberalism to National Socialism" (Routledge 2017).
