Gershon Baskin

Lost love of the homeland

29.11.2018

Gershon Baskin. Photo: Otmar Steinbicker

In a Haaretz op-ed on Tuesday, Rami Livni, a young Israeli political activist, wrote a strong condemnation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His words were harsh, such as: “What we will never forgive Netanyahu for is that it seems that he, more than any other leader, has succeeded in taking away from us our love of the homeland. We will always love our homeland, in spite of him, but we confess, without fear of the confusion of his calling us ‘sour,’ that Israel is becoming more difficult to love. Love of the homeland is not a luxury. When it exists, it can give a taste to life, while its absence is painful as a stump, which even after a while misses the missing limb.”

It is more poetic in the original Hebrew, but even in English these words pass on the sense of pain that a large part of this country feels today about what Israel has become in the Netanyahu era.

Netanyahu has been Israel’s prime minister for the past nine years, leading right-wing governments with a clear compass and strategy. We don’t need to guess what he is thinking or what he is trying to do. He has clearly succeeded in shaping Israel according to his worldview. He has also succeeded in developing a definite majority of Israelis behind him personally. It is not unusual in democracies for the incumbent to have a strong majority of support in between elections. In the case of Netanyahu, it seems to go beyond merely having the support of the masses. Backing and supporting Netanyahu has turned into a cult. Supporting or taking positions against Netanyahu has been shaped by the cult and its leader into being for or against Israel. The cult of Netanyahuism has brought with it deep divisions in society, with increasing numbers of his supporters insisting that those of us who are against Netanyahu have lost their legitimacy – even to voice their legitimate criticism. Criticism of Netanyahu has become equivalent to being anti-Israel.

I admit that it is difficult today for me to identify with Israel, to feel pride in Israel, to feel love for the homeland. There is a strong sense that Israel is heading in the wrong direction and that the divisiveness within the country is not incidental, but instigated and directed from above. There are many reasons for this feeling, including:

• The encouragement of the de-legitimation of the Palestinian citizens of Israel and increasing racism and discrimination against them.

• The recent demonstrations of “commitment to the Jewish identity” in Afula by the new mayor and municipal council there would be labeled as clear and blatant racism in any other democratic country.

• This is the direct result of a campaign of de-legitimation launched and orchestrated by Netanyahu for most of the last decade leading the passing of the “Nation-state law” and rejecting the principle of equality as written in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

• There is constant de-legitimation by the prime minister and his associates of human rights and civil society organizations working for peace and coexistence.

• The continual shrinking of free expression by the self-censorship of those who are now afraid to express their political opinions freely – including journalists, television personalities, artists, musicians and other people with a public profile.

• The legitimation of the closure of Israel’s borders to those who express dissent against the government’s positions.

• The continual barrage of legislation or attempts to legislate the withering away of democratic rights that were, until a few years ago taken for granted.

• The significantly growing dissociation of young Jews in the Diaspora from identification with the State of Israel.

• The abhorrence felt by people all around the world toward Israel, not because of antisemitism – most of them support Israel’s right to exist – but because of Israel’s policies and aggression toward the Palestinian people.

• The existence and dominance of a freebie newspaper “the Bibiton” Israel Today, which has changed the map of Israel’s news media and which is solely funded by an American billionaire of moral question who backs a white supremacist American president and Israel’s most right-wing prime minister.

All of these examples have at their root the unending occupation and continual entrenchment of Israel in the territories it occupied in June 1967, including the construction of development of Israeli settlements and the continual attempts of depopulation of Palestinians. There is a lack of any initiative for resuming a peace process with the Palestinians and there is continued de-legitimation of their leaders.

Israel under Netanyahu is facing an existential reality of its own making. The real threats to Israel are not Iran or Hezbollah, Hamas or Islamic Jihad. The real threats are not BDS or antisemitism in the West or in the Muslim world. The real threats to Israel come from the failure to determine a border in the east that leaves millions of Palestinians without citizenship and without democracy under Israel military control, more than one and half million Arab citizens of Israel who are increasingly feeling alienated from their state, and increasing numbers of Israeli Jewish citizens, like me, who are being pushed to dissociate ourselves from our homeland.

Netanyahu is bad for Israel. He is not Mr. Security. He is not keeping Israel safe. He is not making Israel great. Netanyahu is tearing Israel apart and it is time for Israel to pull itself away from the divisiveness that he has fostered. Elections will take place in 2019. Netanyahu must fall and we must move forward toward healing this country and building bridges between people, inside this country and between this country and the rest of the world.

What about Barak? Gantz? Ashkenazi? Livni? Anyone else? It is not enough to present ideas and promises of what leaders declare and promise that they would do. This has to be backed up by something credible, believable, something that inspires others. The Palestinian leadership is in a deep crisis. Their house is deeply divided and their president has not held elections in 12 years. The majority of Palestinians are young and the next generation of leaders will emerge when Abbas is no longer in power. There are many opportunities for people who put themselves forth as new leaders in Israel. The biggest achievement that they can make is what they can do to inspire us all – that peace is not an empty word and a false promise. A genuine and viable opposition to Netanyahu and his regime must demonstrate a pro-active engagement with Palestinians that will carry with it the ability to demonstrate to Israelis and Palestinians alike that we can re-embrace hope and declare the dawn of a new age.

Gershon Baskin ist Autor des Aachener Friedensmagazins www.aixpaix.de. Seine Beiträge finden Sie hier


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Beiträge von Gershon Baskin
2018

Lost love of the homeland

Inspire us!

Why I support a Palestinian list in Jerusalem

All of his achievements

A question of honor

Heroes and terrorists

Barak is coming?

Israel’s strategic dead end in Gaza

Undoing the two-state solution

Leveraging the Gaza crisis

Memories and the future

Encountering drama and lies

From Jerusalem will come hope!

Preventing the next war

No more slogans, we need action!

The missing Jerusalem

It still is the occupation

Beyond deterrence

Alienation

It is up to us

The past is beyond us

Existential Realities

2017

Our Jerusalem

November 29 - a national holiday

Two nation-states, two national minorities

Being Jewish

Public diplomacy

Gabbay on the road to defeat

Gaza’s geo-strategic remaking

The Americans are Coming, Again!

The next Palestinian generation

The house of God

IF I WERE THE PALESTINIAN LEADER...

The Zionist Left – Israel’s only hope

To be a free people

The Day after Independence Day

Prisoners, strikes and rights

The inevitability of peace

From Washington to Jerusalem

Eight pieces of advice to Trump envoy Jason Greenblatt

Becoming a real, effective democracy requires a real, effective opposition

Only two states – nothing else

The fatal Israeli-Gaza mistake (2)

The fatal Israeli-Gaza mistakes

The wisdom to limit our rights

Where to, Israel?

Get out of our lives already!

The authority of the Authority

2016

The state of denial

Settlements, annexation and the death of Zionism

It’s not just the economy

Encountering peace?

Building a shared society

Excuse me for asking

Secret back channels

Anti-anti-normalization

The Left is right

A moment of opportunity

The worst negotiations, the best negotiations

Palestinian suffering makes no sense for Israel

Creating a compelling vision for peace

It is also in our hands

There is no partner

2015

The partnership challenge

A new intifada?

After Abbas

A bad agreement is better than no agreement

Israel’s strategic choices regarding Gaza

2014

Jerusalem of peace, Jerusalem of war

The Gaza challenge

Is Hamas prepared to end this war with a long-term ceasefire?

Some thoughts this morning

Regional forum for security and stability – Gaza first

After a long phone conversation with a Hamas leader in Gaza

Don’t destroy Gaza, build it!

Framework document for the establishment of permanent peace (part 3 of 3)

Framework document for the establishment of permanent peace (part 2 of 3)

Framework document for the establishment of permanent peace

2013

My Conversation With Hamas

Keine Fortsetzung des Unilateralismus!

Diesen Weg müssen wir einschlagen!

2012

Eine Ein-Staat-Realität ist nicht durchführbar

Mord an der Chance für Ruhe

Das Ende des Raketenbeschusses aus Gaza

Es gibt einen Ausweg

Atomwaffen raus aus dem Arsenal

Was Abbas Israel sagen sollte

Ist mein zionistischer Traum gestorben?