Demonstration and its Sting

The most urgent item on the protest movement’s agenda is halting the legislative blitz, which resumed in full force after the government blew up talks with the opposition by violating understandings reached regarding last month’s Bar Association elections. If the reasonableness standard is indeed revoked, that is, denying the legislative powers from banning un-reasonable government decisions, but mainly appointments, a legislative tsunami will wash away the democratic regime in Israel, leaving not a trace.

The chaotic reality dictated by ministers Yariv Levin, Betzalel Smotrich, and Moshe Gafni wakened all the couch potatoes, and coffee shop lovers who rallied as one to defend the remaining liberal space they have hitherto enjoyed. Many of them hold foreign passports. Some already deciding that if the anti-democratic coup d’état succeeds and Israel becomes Hungary or Poland, they will emigrate. For them, this would mark the end of the Zionist enterprise. For the sake of halting the fascist coup they are prepared to take extreme measures, including causing disruptions and even refusing to serve in the military.

There is no doubt that the mass waving of Israeli flags, and singing the national anthem in rallies reveal a nostalgia for Israel in its early days, when the Declaration of Independence indicated a desire to establish a democratic and secular state supported by the family of nations. The current symbols of the state, however, are very far from what they previously symbolized, and embracing their values is incompatible with the “Bibism” that has emerged. The 2023 protest undoubtedly created an entire new camp while setting firm boundaries between it and the opposite camp. The liberal democratic camp is being formed on the fly, annulling the former consensus of Jewish brotherhood dissociating itself from the autocratic right and theocratic-messianic camp.

No more the internal deliberations and soul seeking that followed the 1995 murder of Prime Minister Rabin after the Oslo agreement. Today, members of the liberal camp view the opposing side as the embodiment of evil with whom one must not cooperate, negotiate, and certainly not compromise. In the eyes of the pro-autocratic camp such liberal radicalization poses a danger to the very existence of the Jewish state. MK Yitzhak Pindrus (United Torah) stated that the LGBTQ rights movement is more dangerous to Israel than Hezbollah, and Oved Hogi, an assistant to former Minister Katz laments: “Hitler, you killed 6 million instead of killing (former Supreme Court President) Aharon Barak.” The lines of separation have been drawn and there is no choice but to enter the frontlines of battle.

The advantages of Bibi’s coalition are clear. It controls the government; it is ideologically cohesive; relies on an articulated ideology imported directly from American conservative circles and disseminated by the many-armed octopus the Kohelet Forum think tank. It strives to establish official apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory; actively works to control the gatekeepers and justice system; and strives to control the media, education system and academia to instill its nationalist and fascist values. While the liberal camp was living well in La La land, the aggressive right diligently enacted the “Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People basic law”. Compared to the fans of dictatorship composing the coalition, liberal democrats are in the opposition and divided among themselves. Some strive for a compromise with the dictator, while others now realize that the past decades’ compromises served only to strengthen the fascists, encouraging them to act with all their might to establish a messianic dictatorship in Israel and apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory.

And yet, the liberal democrats radiate admirable strength, determination, and perseverance, expressed in weekly mass demonstrations and other disobedience actions for the past six months. The protest, has so far blocked the proposed fascist legislation. Its members represent the productive, economic and security echelons, without which Israel cannot exist. The protest’s entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity are expressed in a variety of measures and actions that succeed in arousing public opinion, thus undermining the coalition and its governance capacity while even rousing astonishment around the world.

This is the driving force of the liberal democratic camp. It is not a passing electoral phenomenon, but a movement based on grass roots activists rooted deeply within their communities, and they work within them with endless dedication. This camp has the support of the Biden administration, which refused to invite Netanyahu to Washington as long as he continues his attempts to transform Israel into Hungary. The position of the White House is a decisive and beneficial factor in the protest movement’s success.

Yet stopping the coup d’état is not a one-time act. To truly win, the liberal democratic camp must establish a regime that guarantees the rules of the democratic political game for many years to come. It can only do this by establishing a constitution or sustainable basic laws. The latter need to guarantee separation of powers on the one hand, and equality of all citizens irrespective of religion, race, gender, or sexual orientation, while abolishing the nation state law that enshrines Jewish supremacy.

To establish democracy, the protest movement must reach precisely the same public that the Israeli neoliberal economy has rendered impoverished, marginalized, and resentful. The assumption that the Israeli economy can prosper with a locomotor of 300,000 high-tech workers, while the fundamentalist right establishes its rule and influence on those who have been pushed to the margins and annexes the West Bank, is wrong. The “deal” that allowed economic prosperity for those with privileges, in exchange for their tacit consent to a dark and undemocratic regime, collapsed in the November 2022 elections.

A liberal democracy cannot exist without economic equality. This is also the lesson learned by the American Democratic Party, which since the 2020 election of Biden has led a radical deep social and economic transformation, from a market economy to a welfare economy oriented towards work and production. This is how the Democratic Party managed to beat Trump in both the presidential and midterm elections. The value of equality in Israel must also include civil equality for Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the country’s population. The problem facing the liberal democratic camp is how to “balance” its appeal to right-wing supporters of the government, who have been delegated to the margins, and the appeal to Arab citizens.

Israeli flags, the national anthem and Zionist rhetoric clearly do not welcome the Arab population, which suffers from neglect and institutionalized racism to join the fight for democracy. But that’s not the entire story since the Arab population its institutions and representatives also do not advocate for democratic and liberal values. This is clearly seen in many aspects: the strength of the Islamic movement; the structure of local governments elected according to clan calculations rather than programs; the Arab parties’ narrow nationalism and their support for dictators like Putin and Assad as well as society as a whole that refuses to condemn homophobia.

The values of liberal democracy and equality cannot exist in the long term if they are not accompanied by the value of peace. The right-wing fascist position is clear: peace with the Palestinians is impossible, so they must be defeated time and again, and an apartheid regime must be established in the occupied territories. Conversely, the democratic camp strongly opposes pogroms and the burning of Palestinian villages carried out by hilltop settler youth yet it refuses to touch the issue of peace. Liberal democrats are horrified at the thought of fascists imposing a binational state on them, vow not to send their grandchildren to guard “middle of nowhere holes” like the settlements of Kiryat Arba or Yitzhar, yet ultimately accept the thesis that currently there are no Palestinians with whom they can negotiate.

Even in this claim, admittedly, there is a hint of truth. The Palestinian society controlled by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is very far from liberal democratic principles. The advantage of fascists is that they offer a simple, decisive idea in the form of apartheid. In contrast, the liberal democratic camp knows what it does not want but is unable to define what it does want.

When it comes to the 2 million Arab citizens of Israel the liberal democratic camp advocates full civil equality, even while Arab society and its institutions remain outside the protest. So it should when referring to the Palestinians living under occupation.  The sole answer to apartheid is democracy for all between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It can be said this is currently unrealistic, but there are also those who will say that the drafting of a constitution and enactment of basic laws ensuring Israel’s democratic and egalitarian nature are also unrealistic at the moment.

That is why the liberal camp, which rightly presents a future vision of democracy and equality, must also add to it a vision of peace. Not a peace based on separation according to nationality and race, but one of sharing and inclusion. A peace based on a constitution ensuring the rights of all citizens, Israelis and Palestinians. A peace grounded in an egalitarian economy, which works for the well-being of all citizens between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This is the only way to inscribe democracy.

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