With the Current Israeli Left, Who Needs the Right? - Opinion - Haaretz.com
This is a phenomenon that's virtually unknown elsewhere in the world. In Israel, the left has a conservative spirit – calcified, hesitant, deceptive and cowardly. And the right is the revolutionary movement, with no restraints, a movement that means exactly what it says.
Usually, radicalization on the right sparks radicalization on the left. But in Israel, the opposite has occurred. As the right grew more extreme, the left moved to the center. It shrouded its positions in fog, chased after the right, tried to imitate it and ended up with the worst of all worlds.
When Donald Trump became president of the United States, the left's reaction wasn't long in coming. The liberal bloc radicalized and became more progressive. But when Kahanism came to power in Israel, not only did the left not radicalize, but it tried to move closer to the government's positions.
When the Netanyahu government submitted a bill rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state, the other bloc largely backed it. When the Knesset voted on instituting the death penalty for terrorists – one of the most racist and fascist bills ever submitted here – the opposing bloc skipped the vote. The response to the Kahanist spirit has been lame.
Kahanism – which, as Ravit Hecht rightly wrote in Haaretz in Hebrew on Friday, has become the largest popular movement in Israel since October 7, 2023 – is playing opposite an empty goal. Instead of the left responding by sharpening its positions, it has responded by making them vaguer. The conservative left has frozen in place.
There are no longer any far-right positions that are illegitimate. And there are no longer any leftist positions that are legitimate. Every semi-leftist muttering is treason. Just listen to the television stations. You won't hear any subversive voices there.
This situation was jointly created by the left and the media. Propose any war crime, from ethnic cleansing to annihilation, and it will be deemed legitimate. Propose something that is moral, democratic, humane or in compliance with international law, and you'll be silenced. The left and the center, which should have radicalized as they did in America, are instead stuttering in fear.
The right is in favor of genocide and population transfer. But what does the left propose?
The atrocities Hamas committed in southern Israel and the war in the Gaza Strip gave a tailwind to every crazy fascist whim – settling Gaza, expelling Palestinians to Sudan, executing them, torturing them, beating them, wreaking destruction. One might have expected the left to offer counterproposals that were no less radical. But not in Israel. Silence reigned in the face of everything the right did.
Shikma Bressler, an Israeli physicist and one of the leaders of the protest against the government's judicial overhaul, addresses Israeli anti-government protesters during a demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and demand the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the events of October 7, in Tel Aviv last week.Credit: AFP/JACK GUEZ
For two years, it has been unclear whether the non-rightist bloc was in favor of the war or against it, whether it recognized that genocide had been committed in Gaza or thought this was self-defense, whether it had a solution to the problem of Gaza and, if so, what it was. Is it in favor of talking with Hamas? Bringing a multinational force into Gaza? Freeing Marwan Barghouti? Providing humane conditions to Palestinian prisoners and hostages? Staying in Gaza? Withdrawing from Gaza? Keeping troops in a perimeter zone inside Gaza?
It said absolutely nothing. There was a great silence over the face of the deep. Its message was "Netanyahu go home," and nothing more.
With a left like this, you don't need a right. Nor is it actually important that the left wins. And with a left like this, the chances of it winning are slim in any case, because who needs it?
The moment Kahanism took over the [public]conversation, it became necessary to offer an alternative conversation, one centered on proposals no less radical than those of the right. The left should have cultivated its own ideological Kahanism – clear, sharp ideas minus the crimes entailed by the original.
Protesters in Tel Aviv demonstrate against the government and call for a commission of inquiry into October 7 in Tel Aviv on Saturday.Credit: Moti Milrod
A war like the one just past should have produced a conversation that would touch on the big issues rather than focusing on trivialities. It should have produced a bloc that would say "we've tried the right's way and it led us to the brink of the abyss."
"Here's the alternative: Leave Gaza immediately. Help rebuild it. Stop the pogroms in the West Bank, grant its residents freedom of movement and let them work in Israel. Open up Gaza too. We're proposing a plan to end the occupation and we'll talk with anyone who is willing to talk, starting with Barghouti. We're proposing a path that's different from Kahanism and we'll fight for it."
But relegitimizing moral positions and proposing a real alternative will apparently only happen when the Messiah comes.
And he'll undoubtedly be right-wing, too.