Politics Backwards Israel’s
Friday June 10, 2022 – י״א סִיוָן תשפ”ב
Imagine for a moment, that in the U.S. Democrats were to propose a bill to ban abortion and reverse the 1973 ruling on Roe vs. Wade. Then imagine that out of spite towards their ideological and political rivals the Republicans, as a block, voted against this bill despite it being one of their highest legislative priorities.
Hard to imagine? Well, that’s exactly what happened in the Israeli Knesset this week.
On the eve of one-year anniversary of the current coalition, the Bennett-Lapid Government failed to pass the law in its first reading which extends the emergency regulations that would apply Israeli law in the West Bank. In addition to a handful of Arab lawmakers, the Likud and Settler Movement advocates voted against it!
MK Miri Regev, in a leaked recorded conversation last week, openly waxed emphatic that the Coalition could propose anything in the world, and they would oppose it on political principle. We’ve seen this type of behavior before from Former Speaker Newt Gingrich during the Clinton administration and Senator Mitch McConnell during President Obama’s tenure., Anat Hoffman relayed to me a few weeks ago that during her service on the Jerusalem City Council as a Meretz representative, she would suggest verbatim the bills of the ultra-Orthodox and Right-Wing members, including things like “an undivided Jerusalem as the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” and they would be summarily dismissed.
By way of background: this law, known as the “Emergency Regulations – Judea and Samaria, Jurisdiction and Legal Aid” is routinely renewed on a five-year basis. If the measure, which was first enacted in 1967 at the end of the Six-Day War – 55 years ago today – is allowed to expire, Israelis living in the West Bank will no longer have the right to government insurance, membership in the Israel Bar Association, or enjoy other rights and privileges they are entitled to by Israeli law (technically speaking!). It would also have consequences relative to:
- Entry to Israel
- Military conscription
- Taxation
- Population registry
- Adopting children
- Voting in elections
Just to name a few…
In addition, the Israel Tax Authority, collection authorities, and other Israeli government bodies will no longer be authorized to act in the West bank. Legal experts say that if the Knesset does not vote to extend this regulation, it will be very difficult to devise a legal solution and that if there is no political solution, the settlements will effectively be cut off from Israel and be subject to military law just as West Bank Palestinians are subject to military law.
The current stasis is that the regulations apply Israeli law to settlers while the Palestinians are subject to military law. These regulations are set to expire at the end of June, which prompted Minister of Justice Gidon Saar of the New Hope Party, to urge their prompt renewal.
Two Arab MKs, Mazen Ghanayim (United Arab List) and Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi (Meretz) voted against it, and Ra’am Chairman Mansour Abbas absented himself from the vote. To be clear, the vote did not fail because of the Arab lawmakers; rather, because of the supporters of the settlements in the opposition (including MK Idit Sliman, who was also absent). They, who would be expected to support that law – even push for it – because it completely embodies their ideology, instead set the goal of bringing down the government at the top of their agenda, and everything else is a small price to pay in comparison – including their most cherished value.
Two election cycles ago and after then-President Trump released his plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, then PM Netanyahu promised that upon establishment of his next government he would annex Area C (covering roughly 60% of the West Bank). Had this promise to his voters been met, the emergency regulations in Judea and Samaria – i.e. the West Bank – would have been rendered superfluous. Since that is (fortunately) off the table, this law is seen as a placeholder until final status negotiations resume. It would be the peak of irony if the Bennett-Lapid government were to fall in failing to pass this routine renewal.
This coming Monday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will mark the one-year anniversary of his swearing-in and along with it the installation of the most politically diverse and unthinkable coalition in Israel’s history.
On June 13, 2021, Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid ended the 12-year reign of Former PM and current opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. It is no secret that Netanyahu set for himself the top political priority of perpetuating his power at the expense of everything else. In the process, he solidified his covenant with the Haredi parties, stoked the flames of the racist Kahanist parties, and occupied his throne at the helm of the right-wing Likud leadership, only now to wield his magic wand as head of the opposition with one goal – to topple the current government and resume his power.
It has certainly been a tough year. Bennett began his term in the aftermath of operation “Guardian of the Walls” and has had to deal with negotiations around an Iran deal (which has yet to come to fruition), expand the Abraham accords, cope with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, manage the continuous pestering of the Coronavirus, and keep abreast of his own internal party/coalition politics.
We Don’t Like Our Options
If the bill continues to fail and the government dissolves, we have to face the alternatives. In all likelihood, there will be new elections that, polls show, would elect a center-right Netanyahu government, and as crack analyst, Yossi Verter wrote:
“Lehava and La Familia – which Defense Minister Benny Gantz (and the Reform Movement) thinks should be declared terrorist organizations, would be represented in the cabinet, not just on the opposition benches. Benzi Gopstein and Baruch Marzel would roam the Prime Minister’s Office. Homophobic “rabbi” Tzvi Kostiner (“Gays go home! Evil, evil and again evil”) would dictate how his representative, MK Avi Maoz, will vote. Ditto for the boorish, foul-mouthed “rabbi” Meir Mazuz (“Lapid, Bennett and [Avigdor] Lieberman are worse than the Nazis”). He’s the spiritual leader of ministers-designate Ben-Gvir and his twin in Likud, Shlomo Karhi.”
The Silent Zionist Majority
As Israel approaches its 75th anniversary, PM Bennett released a 28-page missive addressed to the “Silent Zionist Majority” in which he warns against the destruction of the “Third Temple” and to combat the poisonous extremism coming from members of the opposition.
In his open letter to the Israeli public last Friday, the PM called for support to keep the teetering coalition on its feet for the sake of political stability and a properly functioning government. The unusual missive, sent out on the eve of the one-year anniversary of this government, comes as the coalition has lurched from one crisis to another since losing its parliamentary majority in early April, and appears to be inching toward a collapse.
However, it is important to point out that despite the varying crises, the public has gotten used to the state being run in an orderly way, the budget passing, and to reforms being launched. There’s no more fear at the justice or defense ministries, the haggling, and vulgarity; the incitement and divisiveness have now moved from the offices of the Prime Minister and his cabinet to the opposition benches.
Many of us still have hope for the Bennett-Lapid-Abbas-Saar-Gantz-Michaeli-Horovitz-Lieberman crazy combo. But as former MK Naomi Chazan reminds us: “…without the clear delineation of sovereignty, there cannot be a secure state with recognized legitimacy over all the people in that territory. And lacking such a basis for governance, the regimes of control are, by definition, guided by the inequitable application of force.” The powers-that-are should never have let this get this far, and now it is more about saving Israel than just a frighteningly unstable coalition.
How should we cope with all of this? Remember two points: First – Israel is the greatest accomplishment in the history of the Jewish people and its politics are part of the package. That doesn’t mean that we have to accept problematic policies, nor like the outcomes. However, it is critical that we understand the compromises made and the priorities established with the realistic understanding that the Jewish was built by people and groups who have diametrically opposed ideologies and visions for what the State should be. As Reform Zionists, we need to continue to be active and advocate for our values in Israel and in our own communities.