Israeli Election Offers Little Hope and Much Despair

23/09/2019

You ever just nearly set off an invasion because it looks like you’re going to lose a second election in 5 months and you have corruption charges looming? No? Just the current Prime Minister of Israel? Because that’s what he tried to do, and while a new invasion of Gaza was averted this week, the Israeli election has a lot at stake.

Regardless of who wins, the Palestinians will undoubtedly lose. Both Netanyahu’s Likud party and the Blue and White party, led by Benny Gantz, are hellbent on annexing the West Bank, and an invasion of Gaza is entirely possible under another Netanyahu term. It was only the swift action of attorney general Avichai Mendelblit that prevented it happening only a few days ago. If it had gone forward, it would have postponed the election as it was taking place.

Just like how from the US we hear so much about the ‘left’ and the ‘right’, i.e. supposedly the Democrats and the Republicans, the difference between the Blue and White and Likud parties is also ‘left’ vs ‘right. In both cases, this is objectively false on many issues, most notably their incredibly hawkish and devastating policies relating to Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories. The only real difference is one is filled with religious fanatics and the other is filled with normal fanatics, each obsessed with the destruction of Palestine.

The idea of a Jewish State is moronic. And before that statement triggers calls of anti-Semitism, it simply isn’t – there should no more be a Jewish State than one declared to be Islamic, Christian, white, black, or any other theocratic or racially based State. The immediate implication, as we have already seen in Israel, is nothing more than an increase in tensions and an erosion of rights of any minority group that does not match the majority of the population – we have a term for that in the West: white supremacy. And yes, that includes the Arabic nations that call themselves Islamic States, like Iran or Saudi Arabia.

In a one-state solution, Palestinians will continue to be treated as less than citizens, less than human. In fact, if Gaza and the West Bank were incorporated now, they would become a very dominant percentage of the population, so either they need to be driven out before then, forced to become lesser being in their own home, or be killed in a fresh “mowing the lawn” phase. A two-state solution would, in practice, be no different than the current situation – Israel’s actions would just be a little more illegal, hardly a deterrent.

And abolishing the State concept entirely and giving power to the people… well that’s just never going to happen.

But the election is in standstill, again, and Netanyahu is out of time. The mad, righteous tyrant has been in power for far too long, and the indictments against him cannot come fast enough. If he were to gain a majority in the Knesset, if he had the support of everyone in whatever Coalition government that formed, he could give himself immunity from the charges. There seems to be four likely outcomes.

The first is Netanyahu retaining power, granting himself immunity, and happily steamrolling what’s left of Palestine. The second is a Blue and White victory, wherein Netanyahu is torn down by his corruption charges, and a former military man proceeds to steamroll what’s left of Palestine, but with mildly better PR. The third, which is the least likely, is what many except the Likud Party have touted, which is a unity government between Likud, Blue and White, and Avigdor Lieberman’s party, which is further ‘right’ than even Likud. This would, however, have the dreaded consequence of, Abrahamic deities forbid, letting the Joint List – a collection of Palestinian parties – become the legitimate Opposition party.

And the fourth is kicking the can further down “Only Democracy in the Region” Street, leaving Netanyahu’s position uncertain, maintaining a caretaker role as time ticks onto a third general election.

I don’t claim to know all that much about how Israeli politics works, but it basically follows the same general principles as the West. Oppress the minorities, let greed and corruption fester to the point investigations open up a goldmine of charges, and if all else fails, throw a fucking tantrum and invade something.

All while the voices of millions of Palestinians are left unheard, silent victims of a crisis that has spanned the better part of a century.

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