The entanglement of prime ministers and politicians in corruption, together with deep political polarization, has in recent years created the phenomenon of chronic political crises, which prevent the establishment of a stable government in Israel. As a result, centers of decision-making and implementation have long shifted to government bureaucracy, particularly to the two pillars that determine the path of a state, the Ministries of Defense and Finance. Unlike in other developed countries, in Israel the defense minister is a retired general who moves from his seat in the general staff in Tel Aviv to the nearby Ministry of Defense, which thus becomes an arm that first and foremost represents the army and its employees. As the identity of the finance minister changes frequently, the office’s bureaucrats see themselves as the gatekeepers who ensure stability and continuity. In doing so, the Finance Ministry gains immense power and is in fact decisive in all major economic decisions.

The bottom line is that no matter which government is elected, right or center, Israeli policy has not changed in the last 30 years. It is true that rhetoric varies according to the incumbent’s character. It can be more racist, nationalist and religious in the case of the Likud, or softer, less inciteful and more tolerant in the case of the center-left, but that is the extent of change. Security and economic policies do not essentially alter. Incitement and racism, as well as words of kindness and tolerance, do not in any way affect policy. Military and civilian bureaucracy is supposedly “neutral,” and the two political camps fiercely fight each other while agreeing that security and the economy are a taboo that should not involve politics. For its part, the same security or civilian bureaucracy holds that politicians cannot be trusted since their considerations are dictated by narrow political interests.

Take for example the current so-called government of change. This is a rare political hybrid in the history of Israel. It unites a multitude of parties lacking political or ideological agreement, and its sole function is to prevent the return of Bibi Netanyahu and his gang to power. It has been a year since its inception, and apart from a shift in rhetoric it has not brought about any real change. Defense Minister Benny Gantz is responsible for the Iranian and Palestinian files. There is nothing new in this arena: Israel continues to oppose any nuclear agreement with Iran and continues to carry out assassinations on Iranian soil and frequent bombings inside Syria. This is Bibi’s legacy, this is what the army wants, and the government of change has no choice but to follow suit. Although the latter does not publicly oppose the US administration’s policy of supporting a nuclear agreement with Iran, in essence nothing has changed. The military needs an enemy, a security challenge and constant confrontation to justify the huge budget it receives to fund the exorbitant pensions of its staff. The Iranian regime, for its part, continues to develop its nuclear capacities, while using the campaign against Israel as an excuse to continue oppressing its people. Indeed, the conflict serves both sides.

On the Palestinian issue, too, the government of change continues in Netanyahu’s path. The treatment of Palestinians stems from a narrow security perception, based on the accepted assumption of the Right, the Left and the Islamic movement that there is no political solution on the horizon, so that managing the occupation is all that remains. The sole difference between this government and Netanyahu’s is that Defense Minister Gantz occasionally meets with Abu Mazen to strengthen the Palestinian Authority via economic relief.

The handling of the Palestinian issue as purely a matter of security creates chaos in the West Bank and Israel. Clashes with the Israeli army lead to the daily killing of young Palestinians, to acts of revenge by Palestinians inside Israel, and to the disproportionate response of the army (in Jenin, for example, which resulted in the killing of journalist Sheerin Abu Akle). Force was and remains the army’s only response, although it is clear this provides no solution to what is known in Israel as “lone-wolf terrorism.” The government’s decision to allow the “flag parade”, commemorating the “unification” of Jerusalem in 1967, to pass through Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter has only added fuel to the fire. This policy of force repeatedly boomerangs against the government of change itself. The discourse in Israel is becoming more violent and racist, populism is taking over, and members of the government are being accused of treason.

This security fixation is accompanied by a very deep economic one, best represented by Ram Belinkov, who was appointed director general under Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Belinkov had already served as head of the budget department in the Ministry of Finance during the Olmert government; he resigned because he refused to increase the budget deficit, contrary to the government’s position. Yet wonder of wonders, after 14 years the same official reappears in order to implement a policy based on the understanding that the government does not know how to manage the economy, politicians are ineffective, and the treasurer’s role is to “safeguard the coffers”.

Privatization of the public sector, the creation of favorable conditions for foreign investment, and the removal of barriers to local capital have been the pillars of Israeli economic policy since 1985. This policy has proven itself to be a social disaster, creating deep social disparities, empowering capital and corporations, and leaving millions in poverty. In the United States, a similar policy brought Trump to power, jeopardizing US democracy.

Developed countries today are increasingly turning to an egalitarian and green economy, imposing taxes on corporations, increasing the state’s investments in infrastructure, and encouraging organized labor, but all of these measures do not affect Israel. Israel sees itself as an “economic miracle” that the world recession has bypassed. “We will not be Greece” has become a convention of both Right and Left, and the start-up nation places itself at the pinnacle of world economies. However, the same start-up nation is very limited demographically and geographically: it amounts to about 300,000 programmers, most of whom are Ashkenazis living in Tel Aviv and environs. The rest of the country lives the life of a low-tech nation, with millions of workers in the private and public sectors who must make do with starvation wages.

Those who have money can purchase an apartment, even two, give their children private education, health, and all the services that the state has stopped providing in accordance with the theory of Belinkov and the finance bureaucrats. The cries of teachers, the demonstrations of doctors and interns, the concerns of young couples who cannot afford an apartment, the frayed nerves of those stuck in traffic jams on the way to work, the suffering of the mentally disabled who do not receive proper treatment, the plight of senior citizens who cannot survive on their pensions – none have any impact on residents of the Tel Aviv towers, including finance officials and retired generals who receive exorbitant pensions.

Israel is sinking into a crisis of security, society, politics and values because Israeli politics has degenerated. There exist no parties with a social and political horizon, and all that remains is lust for power to satisfy narrow sectoral interests. The government has delivered the country into the hands of officials from the defense and finance ministries, and its only function is to take care of sectoral funds that benefit the electoral bases of its ministers. The start-up nation cannot meet Israel’s growing social needs. It causes social gaps and splits to widen between Ashkenazis and Mizrahis, religious and secular, Arab and Jewish, a split that reinforces racist populism.

Elections have lost so much of their significance that most politicians and the public do not see them as a solution to the political crisis plaguing Israel, and the reason is simple: differences between the parties have faded. Accepting the occupation as an unfortunate necessity, coming to terms with the deep gaps that the economic reality creates, and a lack of courage to change direction and chart a new path, all lead to a combined security and social disaster. The government of change will not survive because it has failed to change the policies of Netanyahu.

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The Bennett-led government is wobbling. Since resignation of coalition leader Idit Silman (of the Yamina party), it has lost its thin majority in the Knesset, and the countdown has begun. How will the government fall? There are two alternatives: a vote of no confidence or dissolution of the Knesset.  The no-confidence alternative must be “constructive”, meaning there must be a candidate for prime minister from within the current Knesset who can muster a majority, thus rendering an election unnecessary. On the other hand, dissolution of the Knesset requires an absolute majority of 61, followed by an election, but here too there is a “twist.”

According to the current coalition agreement, if two MKs from Bennett’s right-wing bloc (Yamina and Tikva Khadashah [New Hope]), break ranks and support dissolution of the Knesset, then Yair Lapid of centrist Yesh Atid (There is a Future) will take Bennett’s place as prime minister, pending a newly elected government. (The same agreement excludes MK Amichai Chikli (Yamina) from being among the two, because he has voted against the government from the start.)   On the other hand, if a member of the United Arab List (UAL) leaves the coalition and supports new elections, Bennett will serve as the transitional PM, with all the benefits of an incumbent during the campaign.

But let’s start from the beginning. Lapid and his allies on the Left were forced to grant the prime ministership to Bennett, even though the latter’s Yamina had won a mere six seats. This marked the odd character of the government. The sole reason it has lasted a year is aversion to and fear of Netanyahu, which forces its members to twist and turn, politically and ideologically. Yet the current Knesset’s gravitational center is clearly on the right. Yamina members are influenced by the right-wing pull, peeling off from the coalition and speeding its death. Following the resignation of Silman, all that remains is for Nir Orbach, director general of a Yamina faction called the Jewish Home, to take steps to ensure the government falls. Yair Lapid will then replace Bennett in a transitional government until a newly elected one is sworn in.

Although the Bennett-Lapid rotation agreement initially gave Bennett and his like, representing the settler Right, the top job and other key positions, it soon became clear they could not deliver what the settlers wanted. On the other hand, the government’s left-wing factions, Labor and Meretz, swallowed every conceivable frog to maintain the coalition. Their purpose was to somehow get through Bennett’s first two years and reach the day when Yair Lapid would become PM. But this coveted day is like the horizon, which moves ever farther away as you try to approach. In addition, members of Yamina have shown how much they suffer in the hybrid government. It seems that a Lapid-led government would drive them into the lap of Netanyahu and the right-wing bloc.

Apparently, this is why UAL party head Mansour Abbas (The Islamic Brotherhood) , who had frozen his faction’s participation in Knesset votes following disruptions and police violence at the al-Aqsa mosque, returned to the coalition. UAL did not want to take responsibility for the government’s overthrow. This would not only signal failure of its political strategy, but it would grant the transitional prime ministry to Bennett. It seems that Yamina’s Nir Orbach will do the work instead by resigning. If he does, the transitional PM will be Yair Lapid, who suits Abbas better.

Beyond this cynical political game, and regardless of who will be PM, the change that this government promised was miniscule, and the fundamental problems that threaten the integrity and security of Israeli society have only intensified. If the fact that a criminal defendant is not serving as prime minister signifies change, then what we have is indeed a Government of Change. The style of speech has undoubtedly improved, as raw vituperation has given way to pleasantness, mutual support, and reconciliation. However, niceness is not the main role of a government. A government is supposed to deal with fundamental problems, and here it has failed miserably.

The fact that after twenty years Israel is forced to return to Jenin to fight terrorism is a clear failure that cries out to heaven. As usual, the Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, has gone to search for terrorism under the lamplight, when the wave of attacks actually came from Hura and Umm al-Fahm, both in Israel, inspiring young people in villages scattered throughout the West Bank. There is nothing in the Israeli army’s much touted entries into Jenin that will change its ability to control this refugee camp. It is merely a show to slake the Israeli thirst for revenge.

The government has decided to ignore the Palestinian issue on two grounds: its ideological heterogeneity does not permit it to handle politically explosive tasks, and it continues to broadcast the mantra that there is no Palestinian partner. But what about the “civil” issues that the “Government of Change” was created to resolve? Here the coalition depends only on itself, but it has been an abject failure. A few examples will suffice. Instead of narrowing social gaps and raising labor productivity, the government continues to nurture high-tech at the expense of other sectors. The housing crisis deepens day by day, and apartment prices are increasing 20% annually. The educational system is in deep crisis, and thousands of underpaid teachers are leaving the profession. Kindergartens and nurseries suffer from low-quality staffing, and horrific stories of violence against children appear in the mainstream news. Hospital reform cannot get underway due to a severe shortage of doctors. In ​​transportation, the government continues to encourage the purchase of private vehicles over use of public transportation. The frequency of trains is decreasing and traffic jams make commuting a nightmare. Climate policy has become a hostage of the Chevron Corporation, while promises of alternative energy remain on paper. Neglect of Arab society continues as usual, with the government interested in fighting violence but not addressing its root causes: the huge social disparities, widespread unemployment among youth, and a poor educational level.

There is no doubt that change is needed, not in style but in content. Israel has been captive for decades to political, economic and social conceptions that have lost their relevance. The success of high-tech on the one hand, and Israel’s military power on the other, dazzle and entangle the country. High-tech does not solve the problems of a socially, culturally and politically divided society, nor is military force an answer to the needs of five million Palestinians lacking any civil or national status. The political crisis that threatens to lead us to a fifth election campaign, and the inability to form a stable and functioning government, express the unwillingness of the political establishment in all its parts – Right, Left and the Arab parties – to step out of their ideological fixations and propose ideas toward a better future.

Those who ignore the Palestinian question will not find solutions to the problems of social disparity, housing, education, transportation, health and welfare. It is no coincidence that Israel links its fate to dark regimes that perpetuate the past. It continues its ties with Putin, refusing to join the democratic camp in the Ukraine war, because of the same ideological fixation. As long as there is no democratic movement based on equality between Israelis and Palestinians, we will continue to be entangled in pointless rounds of elections. If we do not change reality through our actions, it will not change on its own.

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It’s now official. The Israeli shekel has broken all records. It is stronger than the dollar, the euro and the sterling combined, so we are on the map and will remain on it. Economists and commentators are celebrating this event, explaining repeatedly that it is a welcome development, and that the wild appreciation of the shekel proves the Israeli economy’s strength. Moreover, Israel’s credit rating continues to excel, so the state can borrow any amount with zero interest and thus finance its expenses. Of this success it may be said, “Another such success and we are lost.” This is evident in the huge gap between the strength of the shekel and the value of labor productivity in Israel, which is lower per work hour than in other OECD countries by 24%! In other words, the Israeli economy relies on high-tech, which accounts for half of Israel’s exports and attracts the flow of dollars, while all other industries and services suffer from deliberate neglect.

It is enough to travel 30 kilometers north, south or east of Tel Aviv to understand the gaps that have opened up in Israeli society. The country’s 300,000 high-tech workers, who make up 10% of all those employed, live the dolce vita along with a handful of tycoons, real estate entrepreneurs and stock market speculators. The other 2,700,000 workers in industry, services and the public sector belong to a group whose labor productivity is low, and whose level of earnings is likewise low. Thus, absurdly, as the shekel strengthens, Israeli society weakens, and the gap between the center and the periphery widens.

Far behind the high-tech people, who earn NIS 30,000 and even more per month, are hundreds of thousands of workers, mostly women, who live on minimum wage, with 50% of employees in Israel earning below the tax threshold. Although Israel is a start-up nation, it is also the country with the second highest income disparities among industrialized countries after the US. The word “balance” does not exist in its lexicon. Either you succeed or you are a “failure,” and all thanks to or because of you.  Finance Ministry economists are not only proud of the shekel’s strength, but pound into our heads that the shekel will continue to get stronger. In other words, the gaps that exist today between a minority of those who benefit from this blossoming and the majority suffering from it, will only widen. Economists tell us again and again how a weak dollar to the shekel benefits us, because flights abroad are cheaper, as are imports of consumer goods, while tax revenues from high-tech rise.

What they do not say is that Israeli exports are increasingly expensive, and the hundreds of thousands of workers employed in non-high-tech industries are paying the price as manufacturers roll the profit reductions back to their employees. To maintain their profitability, employers require workers to put in more hours that are not reflected in wage increases. The cheaper it becomes for Israelis to travel abroad, the more expensive Israel becomes for both Israelis and tourists. The coronavirus epidemic has hit the tourism industry, which employs 30,000 workers, along with some 200,000 workers dependent on tourism, from bus drivers to peddlers in the market, while high-tech has flourished. These workers remain invisible in the dazzling glare of high-tech.

One does not have to be a genius to trace the source of the huge gaps in Israeli society. Every child and parent knows the answer – education, education and again education. The results of international exams demonstrate that the quality of education in Israel is low, and Israel is characterized by frightening inequality between the academic achievements of different population groups. “These are disturbing findings because there is a direct – and causal – connection between the quality of education of the labor force and productivity,” stated a Bank of Israel document from 2019. The Bank states that “the educational component in early childhood frameworks should be strengthened, and the accessibility and funding of early childhood settings for households with weak economic backgrounds should be increased, as part of the student’s educational continuum.” So simple and clear, yet so frustrating if you look at the Israeli education system, which leaves behind hundreds of thousands of children, Jews and Arabs from the periphery. The terrible result, felt today as a social scourge, is violence in the streets and in schools. This is not how we build a healthy economy that works for the equal benefit of all.

The Israeli formula is not limited to preferring high-tech over other industries. Its economy remains captive to the Reagan doctrine, which espoused the principle that “government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem.” In other words, any public expenditure on education, health and welfare is a waste, since in order to finance it taxes must be raised, and high taxes hurt investors’ motivation to invest. That is why Israel has become a paradise for foreign investors, who want to convert their dollar into shekels. With an inflated defense budget on the one hand, and a tight fist in everything related to education, health and welfare on the other, the Israeli economy grows while its society shrinks.

The Bennett-Lapid “government of change” is talking about a “social” budget, that is, big reforms, especially in imports at the expense of local production. But this will not alter the image familiar to all. Classrooms will continue to be crowded, teachers’ salaries will remain low, preschool assistants will continue to receive starvation wages without any professional training, the queues for specialist doctors will continue to lengthen, overcrowding in hospitals will only increase, the wait for a child psychologist, or a communication clinician, will last a year or more, the elderly in public nursing homes will wait patiently to die without respect, and public transport will shut down every weekend to preserve the Jewish character of the state, thus increasing traffic congestion.

Private education, private health, private geriatrics, private psychological treatment, private enrichment classes, and the flourishing towers in the heart of Tel Aviv, all create not just gaps between the rich and everyone else. They divide the people themselves between those who have everything, and those who see with wide eyes how they are left far behind. This social rift has become the habitat of the populism that Netanyahu and those around him represent today. The hatred toward the arrogant Ashkenazis and the governmental system that works for the rich, is a result of the inequality, that is, a result of contempt toward the idea of a state for all its citizens. This is also what happened in the US, when a populist, anarchist and racist figure like Donald Trump, a soulmate of Netanyahu, was chosen on the basis of his promise to “dry the swamp”, meaning the administration in Washington. As is well known, this ended in a violent attempt by marginalized white citizens to act against state institutions and the democratic election process under the slogan “Stop the Steal!” Just as Wall Street is responsible for undermining the American democratic regime, the strong shekel is undermining democracy in Israel.

This is why the Biden government is working hard to get rid of Reaganism, adopting the opposite formula, which holds that “the state is the solution.” Biden has set the motto “Build back better!” no longer relying on the formula that the richer the rich become, the more the poor will benefit. “Tax the rich” has become a common slogan vis-a-vis billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, but not in Israel. The Israeli ” government of change” continues to adhere to Reagan’s old formula, with Right, Left and Islamists locking arms to prevent the return of Bibi.

They act stupidly and blindly, and as with the Palestinian question, they bury their heads in the sand and refuse to face reality. Racism, violence and xenophobia are a direct product of the social disease from which Israeli society suffers, and Bibi simply nurtured it in a populist way. The gaps between Jews and Arabs, between Ashkenazis and Mizrahis, between Israeli and Palestinian citizens, all create the sad reality in which we live: violence in Arab society, hatred and violence within Jewish society, and the continuing daily bloodshed in the West Bank and Gaza. The country’s priorities need to change from top to bottom, but as long as the government sticks to the same old path, this reality will continue to explode in our faces day after day.

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“Living alongside the coronavirus” is the new mantra of the Bennett-Lapid “Government of Change,” based on the tenets of top epidemiologists. The coronavirus, we are told, “is here to stay.” In contrast to Netanyahu’s populist stance, which saw vaccination as the means to eradicate the pandemic, under Bennett and Lapid the vaccine is supposed to enable the public to live with the virus. In their opinion, the way to do this is to endlessly vaccinate yourself, that is, to go for the booster shot as a means of preventing lockdowns and lowering the infection rate, even if it does not completely flatten it.

Therefore, as of October 1, anyone who received two doses more than five months ago will be considered unvaccinated if they refuse to take a booster third shot. The “green pass” will be taken from them; they will therefore be excluded from public events and be ostracized.   

The United States lags behind Israel by a month, yet even there the American administration is calling for a third dose to be administered as early as September, coining the slogan “this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated.” The percentage of those refusing to be vaccinated in the U.S. is very high and it overlaps with the political rift tearing American society apart: the Democrats are getting vaccinated, while the Republicans are refusing.

While there is much truth in the administration’s declaration that the pandemic is of the unvaccinated, it is not the whole truth. The Biden administration refers to those 100 million American citizens who refuse vaccination, but there are the billions of people in poor countries who want to be vaccinated but cannot. That is why 4.5 million people in the world have already died from COVID-19 and have not been able to ‘live alongside it’. All of them are victims of a criminal health policy that puts the profits of the so-called “big pharma” drug companies above the needs of humanity.

“The end will only come when the whole world becomes ill or vaccinated. It will take a long time,'” says Israel’s number one expert in virology, Prof. Gili Regev from the Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital (Ynet 20/8/21).  Regev is expressing the cruel and absurd paradigm on which Israel’s epidemiological position is built, that is, “living alongside the coronavirus.” Regev is saying that until we reach herd immunity of 70% for all of humanity, which requires 11 billion vaccine doses, we will continue to live with the virus. We will fall ill, we will die, or recover, and we will continue to be vaccinated every few months.

The interesting question is, if epidemiological logic clearly indicates that the sole way to eradicate the coronavirus is to vaccinate the entire world, why does Professor Regev shy away from the question: what prevents the vaccine from reaching the whole world? Professor Regev knows the answer to this question, as does Dr. Fauci, the world’s number one expert in infectious diseases. They refrain from touching it because they too are captives of big pharma.

To vaccinate the whole world, one has to give up the patents registered in the names of Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, companies which earn billions from the pandemic. Prof. Regev, Dr. Fauci and in fact almost the entire medical establishment situated at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus, will not touch the sacred cow of the modern capitalist regime: intellectual property. In fact, the pandemic revealed that the sanctity of intellectual property transcends the sanctity of life itself. Intellectual property, or in simple language the ‘patent’, the abolition of which is key to eradication of the coronavirus, remains in the hands of pharma company shareholders, whose whole purpose is to put fat dividends into their overflowing pockets.

Almost all scientific research is funded by the big drug companies. Thus, they gain a monopoly not only on drug production but also on scientific research, which turns intellectual property into an untouchable topic not to be discussed or criticized. The absurdity is that research is therefore legitimate as long as it generates profits. Entire branches of medical science are neglected because they are not considered profitable. Ever since government in Israel withdrew from the public arena and privatized entire sectors of health, education and social welfare, capital has become the primary player determining the fate of human beings. Not only has this created social disparities that endanger the democratic regime, capital is today leading humanity to an unnecessary health disaster.

To understand the extent of the absurdity, let us look at the position paper published by The People’s Vaccine, which unites world-renowned personalities and organizations. This paper discusses Covax, which was established in a partnership between Bill Gates and the World Health Organization with the aim of vaccinating the impoverished world. Covax’s policy has collapsed. Gates’ insistence on preventing the abolition of patents, resulting in exorbitant vaccine prices, has resulted in a vaccination rate of only 1% in poor countries.

The position paper states that the production cost of one vaccine dose is about $1.18, but that the published prices demonstrate that countries have paid 4 to 24 times more. Since the priority in vaccine distribution goes to the highest bidder, 90% of all production goes to rich countries. The paper holds that Pfizer and Moderna charged $41 billion more than the estimated cost of production.

The Israeli Ministry of Health published a censored version of its agreement with Pfizer, intending to reassure its citizens that the confidential medical details of the vaccinated will not reach Pfizer. Only one figure does not appear and will not appear in the published agreement, and that is the amount the government paid for the Pfizer vaccines. Well, not only is intellectual property sacred, but so is the so-called “trade secret”. In other words, the price of the vaccine should not be publicly known, so that Pfizer can charge any price it pleases regardless of the production cost.

Israel, for its part, is doing everything to promote Pfizer. From a serological study at the Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital to comprehensive research on the vaccine’s effectiveness and side effects, conducted jointly by the Clalit HMO and Harvard University on about two million Israelis.  That is, in exchange for a continuous supply at a price of $30 per vaccine, compared to the $14-19 paid by the European Union, Israel does Pfizer’s public relations. We don’t need to be convinced that the vaccine is important and beneficial, we know that. At the same time, we understand that the third shot, which is unequally distributed between rich and poor, does not bring about the end of the pandemic. This unequal division is described by the Director General of the World Health Organization himself, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as “vaccine apartheid.”

The way in which Israel, the United States and the rest of the rich world are behaving is not only selfish and immoral, but epidemiologically inefficient. The abolition of intellectual property for this vaccine, for the sake of the rich and the poor, is the only way to end this pandemic. Furthermore, it can be done. By its total reliance on the third dose, without addressing the Covid 19 crisis in the poorer countries, the Israeli government is short-sighted. Those poor countries are the ones from which new mutations will come. The real breach is not Ben Gurion Airport, the gateway to new variants, it is the millions of unvaccinated people throughout the world who continue to get sick, enabling the virus to evolve. In failing to act on this elementary fact, the Bennett-Lapid government is driven by the same nationalist blindness that views the fate of Israelis as detached from the fate of humanity.

We say to our country and to every rich country: Instead of waiting for the enemy at home, go out to the world and eliminate the chances of further mutation. Most importantly, abolish the patents!

The post Abolish the patents on those vaccines! first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.

Less than a month has passed since Israel’s “government of change” was sworn in, and to bridge the gaps in the country’s most heterogeneous coalition ever, it has declared itself “anti-ideological.” Controversial issues between Right and Left are off the table, such as West Bank settlements, religion and state, and the composition of the Supreme Court. However, ideology is the bread and butter of Israel, and ideological issues cannot be kept from the morning news. The first of these was the fate of Eviatar, an illegal settler outpost erected on the lands of the Palestinian village of Beita; initially, when the new government took over, Eviatar was slated for evacuation and demolition.

At the same time, the Citizenship and Entry Law came up for its annual approval. This is a temporary order from 2003, the height of the second intifada. Eviatar and the Citizenship Law are both purely “ideological” issues. A right-wing party led by Naftali Bennett supports the establishment of new settlements and does not call them “illegal” even if built without permits. On the left side of the same coalition, Meretz denounces settlements, and it has been petitioning the courts against the Citizenship Law since 2006.

The commitment not to engage in ideology for unity’s sake has brought the coalition’s left side, Meretz for instance, to rotten compromises, dictated by the right-wing composition of the government and the Knesset. Although in the new coalition there exists a kind of balance between Right, Center, Left and the Islamic movement, the weight of the Right is decisive. Labor, Meretz and the Islamic Movement must make allowances for their right-wing partners, who have the right-wing Knesset opposition, led by Netanyahu, breathing down their ideological necks. This—even though that opposition refuses to recognize the government’s legitimacy, calls Bennett a traitor, and describes the coalition as a danger to Israel’s security.

Meretz, Labor and the Islamic Movement were forced to swallow the compromise reached by Bennett with the settlers in Eviatar, according to which the settlers will be voluntarily and temporarily evacuated from the outpost, their houses left intact, and the army will occupy the place until the status of the lands is clarified. What began in Netanyahu’s time as a demolition by agreement, became under Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked a new “legal-to-be” settlement for the first time in 20 years. This is an impressive achievement for the settlers and a scorching loss for the Left.

We did not manage to recover from the blow of Eviatar before the Citizenship and Entry Law fell on us. Under pretext of security, this law keeps citizenship from West Bank or Gazan Palestinians who marry Palestinian citizens of Israel. It discriminates against (Arab) Israeli citizens on ethnic grounds, with the justification that spouses from the territories might be terrorists. As noted, the law originated during the second intifada, when there were 45 cases in which residents of the Occupied Territories holding Israeli identity cards took part in hostilities. For 17 years, this discriminatory law was renewed without debate, although in recent years violence by Palestinians holding Israeli IDs has dwindled to zero. The number of families whose lives are hamstrung by the Citizenship Law today stands at 13,000.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has openly declared that the problem is not security but demography. Lapid, architect of the new government, has thus confirmed the claim of the law’s initiators, who declared that marriage serves the Palestinians as a means of “exercising the right of return.” Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin, who wrote the majority opinion in the decision not to repeal the Citizenship Law, ruled that “Palestinian residents of the area are enemy nationals who constitute a risk group for the citizens of Israel, and therefore the state may enact a law prohibiting their entry into the country.” In so doing, Cheshin camouflaged this discriminatory law under the guise of a security need—instead of its real motive, demography.

Not only is Cheshin’s claim not backed by facts, but it doesn’t make sense. The Palestinian Authority (PA) maintains intimate relations with the State of Israel, primarily by the close security coordination between the parties, confounding the notion that it is an “enemy state.” Accordingly, its citizens cannot be considered enemy nationals. Moreover, the PA itself is an Israeli invention. Newborn Palestinians in PA territory are listed in the Israeli Population Registry and given an ID number, which appears in a green ID card issued by the PA. The card is identical to the blue Israeli identity card, but its color determines the civil status of those who carry it, or rather, their lack of status.

Furthermore, 150,000 “enemy nationals” enter Israel daily to work; the accepted currency in the PA is the Israeli shekel; Israel and the PA have a uniform customs arrangement; Israel controls all entries and exits into and out of the West Bank and Gaza; and Israel can shut off the electric power at will. In other words, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza are Israelis for all intents and purposes, except that they lack civil rights. In the West Bank, they are subject to the Israeli Civil Administration, subordinate to the military commander, the supreme sovereign who determines everything; the Palestinian depends completely on his will.

In fact, Palestinians have no need to exercise the right of return through the back door. Those who are enabling that back-door return are precisely the half million Israeli settlers. By preventing a Palestinian state, they have, in effect, transformed the entire territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean into a single political unit. The Citizenship Law was meant to reinforce the illusion of a Green Line separating the West Bank and Gaza from Israel. If this imaginary line ever existed, however, it has long been erased, despite the porous Separation Barrier.

While the Knesset clashes over the Citizenship and Entry Law, which affects 13,000 Palestinian families who pose no security or demographic threat, the “government of change” avoids discussing the fate of 5 million Palestinians of the territories whom it controls in all matters, from freedom of movement to family reunification. The use of legislation to keep Palestinian citizens of Israel from marrying and starting a family only reveals the contradiction in a state that defines itself as Jewish and democratic. The Citizenship and Entry Law violates the most basic human rights. It is no coincidence that it has not become a standing law, because it harms Israel’s image as a democracy. More importantly, this discriminatory legislation cannot stop the processes taking place before our eyes, which are creating a single political, economic, demographic and geographical reality between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

In recent weeks, Palestinians have been demonstrating against the PA for cancelling the parliamentary elections, and for the beating to death of social activist Nizar Banat by Palestinian security forces. These demonstrations should help the Israeli public, and the international public too, to understand the “enemy entity.” The PA is oppressing the people it is supposed to represent, a people that strives like all others for democracy, social justice and basic rights.

The participation of Meretz, the Labor Party and the Islamic Movement in the Bennett-Lapid government gives a boost to the Israeli Right, which is trying to halt political, demographic and geographical processes created by its own actions. The Right regards the Palestinian question as “shrapnel in Israel’s ass” (Bennett), a problem with no solution. It legislates racist laws to delay the end, while simultaneously settling on every hill and under every fig tree, abusing Palestinian farmers and shepherds, plundering their lands while the army stands idly by. As we get closer to the reality of one state, Israel will continue legislating racist laws, on the way to becoming a state that is indeed Jewish but certainly not democratic. This is now happening with the help of the Zionist Left, which by linking its fate to the right-wing parties is losing its right to exist.

The post Geography, Demography and Racism first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.