From: Sandro Serafin/Israelnetz
Is the end of Israeli democracy imminent? The rise of a right-wing government is not the first time this has prompted international warnings. A little more humility would be appropriate. A commentary
After a long struggle, it is now virtually certain: Benjamin Netanyahu will return to power, and he will do so with a coalition unprecedented in Israeli history. His partners are ultra-Orthodox parties and religious Zionist groups, including the Jewish Strength Party.
Basically, only this last point is anything new; after all, Netanyahu has governed with ultra-Orthodox and religious groups in the past: Otzma Yehudit, however, as the party is called in Hebrew, comes from the tradition of the far-right rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated ethnic cleansing of Israel's Arab inhabitants and was assassinated in New York in 1990.
One of Netanyahu's predecessors, Yitzhak Shamir, a staunch right-wing politician, would walk out of the Knesset plenary sessions in the 1980s whenever Kahane took to the podium – in protest. Now Netanyahu is bringing his intellectual successors – above all, Itamar Ben-Gvir – into the government. This is a taboo broken that could lead to the end of Israeli democracy and the separation of powers, and could become a danger for the entire region.
At least that's the narrative of the Israeli left: Outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid declared the new government on Thursday "dangerous, extremist, and irresponsible" and prophesied: "This will end badly." Numerous media outlets echoed his sentiments, including in Germany. "Something threatening is brewing in Israel," headlined the Süddeutsche Zeitung, for example. The notoriously Israel-critical Berliner Zeitung even predicted an imminent "escalation.".
The “hater” Begin made peace with Egypt
Are Israel and the Middle East on the brink of disaster? A little humility would certainly do the non-Israeli commentators in the local press some good. Looking back: In 1977, Israeli domestic politics already experienced a "revolution." Voters sent the left wing, which had built the country, packing and Menachem Begin into the office of Prime Minister.
Begin had once been commander of the right-wing Zionist underground organization "Irgun" and was, among other things, responsible for the 1946 terrorist attack on the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which was directed against the British Mandate authorities. A "terrorist" as Prime Minister? Warnings were also sounded in 1977.
The election result and the victory of the "extremist Begin" could only be seen as a foreign policy catastrophe "for the entire Middle East and for world peace (!)", wrote, for example, "Der Spiegel". Begin "still thinks like he did during his terrorist years" and is considered "a zealot, a hater, and a Cold Warrior".
Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, arguably Israel's arch-enemy in the Arab world, apparently saw things differently. A few months after Begin's election victory, he traveled to Jerusalem and shook Begin's hand. In 1979, the two countries made peace. Three years later, Begin had the last Israelis evacuated from the Sinai and houses demolished in order to return the peninsula to Egypt.
Under the Israeli left, under prime ministers like Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, and Yitzhak Rabin, the Sinai Peninsula was conquered and settled in 1967. They never relinquished it, although the circumstances were different. And yet: Begin, the alleged extremist and advocate of a Greater Israel "from the Nile to the Euphrates," did precisely that. A topsy-turvy world—that's politics, that's Israel.
“Falcon” Sharon left the Gaza Strip
Even in 2001, when the "bulldozer" and war hero Ariel Sharon seized power, alarm bells rang in Germany. "The world fears Sharon," wrote, for example, the "Hamburger Morgenpost." The former general was considered a "hardliner" and a "hawk," and his role in the Lebanon War and the settlement of the West Bank was remembered.
His predecessor, Ehud Barak, had warned even before the election that the stakes were high: whether the "extremists" would be given the match with which to ignite the "powder keg" of the Middle East. In Israel, however, the "powder keg" had already exploded by that point; the "Intifada" had begun under Barak, and Sharon was forced to manage it.
Two years after taking office, he announced in a speech in Herzliya that he would hand over the Gaza Strip, also conquered in 1967, to the Palestinians. Indeed, in 2005, under Sharon's leadership, the last Israeli soldiers and settlers left the coastal enclave. A civil war had been predicted, but it never materialized.
Netanyahu wants peace with Saudi Arabia
Numerous examples can be found not only in Israeli history where supposedly or actually radical politicians moderate their stance once they reach the levers of power. Of course, there are also counterexamples. And the cautionary voices would certainly point out that the Kahanists are not Begin, that they mobilized against Begin during the Sinai withdrawal, for instance, and that their participation in government represents a new and entirely different level of political engagement.
And yet, Western observers would be well advised to wait and see: It is not out of the question that history will repeat itself. Netanyahu has already facilitated more peace agreements than all previous governments combined. He has long been eyeing a peace with Saudi Arabia. This would certainly rival Begin's peace agreement with Egypt.
