The first to take to the streets against the rising tide of anti-democratic legislation was the LGBT community on July 22, 2018. They protested the government’s surrogacy law that discriminates against gay men, raising the banner of equality and drawing support from both the private sector and liberal circles. This was undoubtedly an opening shot that ignited new protests, this time against the nation-state law, which prioritizes Israel’s Jewish sector. On August 4, the Druze, waving their five-colored flags, filled Rabin Square. They received a warm embrace from the security establishment, led by former Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin, who delivered a scathing speech against the law. This Saturday, the Israeli Arab Monitoring Committee will try to fill the square to protest what they see as an emerging apartheid regime. However, there is a split within the opposition camps: the LGBT, Druze, and Palestinians will always march separately.

While sectoral flags are being raised, one flag is absent – the flag of democracy. Fifty-five Knesset members (MKs) voted against the nation-state law – 14 were from the largely Arab Joint List. The remaining 41 failed to organize a rally that would unite all forces opposing the national law, in order to demonstrate their power against the right wing, fractious government that is tearing Israeli society apart.

MKs and activists from the Left attend various demonstrations: they support the LGBT community on Saturday night, return a week later to show solidarity with the Druze, and some will also appear on August 11 as a sign of solidarity with the Arab sector. They hide behind the downtrodden but refuse to stand in the forefront of the struggle against a racist law that tramples the principle of equality.

Why? What prevents the heads of the opposition, the Labor Party, aka Zionist Camp, and Yesh Atid from calling for mass protests against the nation-state law that they opposed in parliament? Both parties are in lockstep with key sections of Israeli society that are fed up with the behavior of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his ministers. This group attempts to secure its electoral future by inciting against the Supreme Court, the New Israel Fund, Ashkenazi elites, the press, writers, and artists, and especially against the Arabs. Why are the opposition MKs hiding behind the LGBT and Druze instead of storming the barricades themselves? After all, the nation-state law was not intended to harm the Arab or Druze population. The real target is the Supreme Court and the liberal character of Israeli society as expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

Signed and proclaimed in 1948, the Declaration of Independence reflected a broad consensus that included Communists and Revisionists, the National Religious and Herut. It promised “full and equal citizenship” for all of Israel’s citizens, “irrespective of religion, race or gender.” This statement did not prevent the enactment of discriminatory laws against the Arab population that favored the Jewish majority: the Law of Return, the Absentees’ Law, zoning and building laws, and tax and budgetary policies that have discriminated against the Arab population for 70 years.

What led to the enactment of the nation-state law are the rulings of the Supreme Court of Israel, such as decisions that prevented the expulsion of asylum seekers from Africa, that allowed Arabs to purchase land in Jewish towns, that evacuated illegal outposts in occupied territory, and other decisions that impeded the Right’s attempt to change the face of Israeli society. In the wings is the “Basic Law on Legislation,” which will define the limits of judicial review for years to come. In other words, the Arabs are the excuse, but the goal is to change the liberal lifestyle and the fruits of democracy enjoyed by the Jewish majority. It was not necessary to pass a nation-state law. Discrimination thrives without it.

The government openly admits that the Left is the target; the Left is the internal enemy and it must be defeated. “If we look at the hysteria that has gripped the Left in the face of this law, I think it is excellent,” Minister Yariv Levin said in an interview with Haaretz on August 6. What is of great importance to Levin is the hysteria of the Left and not the panic gripping the Arabs. The factor that threatens the peace and security of the coalition is undoubtedly the Zionist leftist opposition, not the Arab-dominated Joint List.

The purpose of the nation-state law is to ensure that the right-wing government continues to rule for as long as possible. When Standard & Poor’s upgrades Israel’s credit rating, and Trump continues, with Putin’s help, to drive the US and the world crazy, the nation-state law is just a sideshow, a global footnote that helps Netanyahu mobilize his base and neutralize the opposition.

How can the Zionist Left dare oppose a law that says that the State of Israel belongs only to the Jewish people? How can Avi Gabbay, head of the Labor Party (a.k.a. the Zionist Camp) support the protesters in the square when he himself has declared that the Left “has forgotten what it means to be Jews,” adding, “We are Jews, living in a Jewish state. I think one of the Labor Party’s problems is that it has distanced itself from that”? After all, it is clear that Netanyahu has the upper hand in the ‘who is more Jewish’ competition. The nation-state law aims to pull the rug out from under Labor’s Gabbay, and it gives Netanyahu the competitive edge over Yesh Atid’s strongman, Yair Lapid, who is trying to out-bibi Bibi.

Nevertheless, the Left is content to see the LGBT and the Druze rallying at Rabin Square, since they aren’t necessarily leftists. Both groups represent a broader spread: MKs Itzik Shmuli (Labor) and Amir Ohana (Likud) are gay, while Ayoub Kara is a Druze Likud minister, and Salah Saad is of Labor. If they were leftists, Netanyahu would have no trouble dismissing them. But because they represent a wider circle in public opinion and enjoy public support, he is in danger of having to pay a political price.

Despite the above, Tzipi Livni (recently appointed as leader of the opposition) is still trying to spearhead the struggle, and promises, if elected, to override the nation-state law with the Declaration of Independence. However,the Declaration of Independence does not have the power to build a truly democratic and egalitarian society. Moreover, it even prepared the ground upon which the nation-state law is built. Discrimination against the Arab population and the division between Jews and Arabs are the fertile soil from which the Israeli Right arose. Since 1948, and despite the Declaration of Independence, Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza and established an occupation that has lasted 50 out of its 70 years of existence.The marriage between the revisionist and messianic Right, together with the Ashkenazi and Mizrahi ultraorthodox, forms a stable coalition that can lead a counter-constitutional revolution and set up a benighted nationalist-religious regime.

In order to block the right-wing revolution, the Left must adopt a comprehensive program that will be a clear and unambiguous answer to the Right. Confronting the Jewish State, we must advocate for a truly democratic state, a state of all its citizens. Confronting the Occupation and the separate laws for settlers and Palestinians, we must present a far-reaching solution based on a single democratic state with equality and majority rule. Ironically, the Declaration of Independence states that Israel will “ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or gender. It will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education,and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions, and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations…and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel.”

Economic unity already exists. It is based on the single Customs Envelope for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, one currency, and almost complete economic integration, but without equality or political rights. The Left has lost its vision; it has no political path and no socioeconomic alternative, and therefore it remains weak and doomed. The vision of a single state, a shared economy,and one constitution can defeat the Israeli Right and ensure peace and democracy. This is conditioned, of course, on Israelis and Palestinians finding a way of joining forces for the creation of a new reality.

*Translated from the Hebrew by Robert Goldman

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At the time of writing (early March 2018), it is not clear whether Knesset elections are in the making, or whether Netanyahu will get a “pass” that promises him quiet until November 2019. This highly politicized drama dwarfs another drama taking place somewhere on the corner of Sheinkin and Rothschild, upscale streets in Tel Aviv. The question of elections for the Meretz leadership would not have had much impacton public consciousness had long-time leader Zahava Galon not dropped from the race. At the same time, her main challenger, Ilan Gilon, also decided to quit for reasons of health. Thus, Tamar Zandberg remains almost unchallenged. What began as a half-gimmick has turned into reality. Zandberg has announced her desire to participate in a center-left government, and she has indicated awillingness to sit in the same coalition with right-winger Avigdor Lieberman. Galon tweeted: “Zandberg is flushing ideology down the toilet.”

Indeed, she is doing just that.But it has become quite clear that most Meretz voters are ready for a horse-trade in ideology. The person who found herself down the toilet was Galon herself. Meretz members let her understand that ideology does not paygrocery bills. Zandberg decided that the best way to tackle Galon’s ideological “purity” and social-democratic platform was to sell an illusion:“Meretz headed by me will receive ten seats. I will be an important partner in a center-left government, and I see myself as a minister.”She thinks she will win on a promise to make Meretz great again. Of course, the difference between Trump and Zandberg is immeasurable. Trump, like Bibi, is a right-wing extremist, whereas Zandbergclaims to be a leftist and makes no apology. However, her willingness to sit with the likes of Lieberman shows that she has lost the ability to distinguish between leftand right.

Zandberg has abandoned ideology to sell an illusion. Her prescription for reviving Meretz is to forget about purity, stop talk of human rights and the occupation, roll up her sleeves and get 10 seats, i.e. not to sit in the opposition but in a chair at the government table. The illusion is not that Meretz cannot win 10 Knesset seats, but rather that such an achievement, at the price of principle, will render Meretz impotent in any government it joins. If Zandberg looks to the Right(and that is precisely what she is doing) she will notice that the seats she gains for Meretz are bled from the Labor Party. In other words, Labor may hemorrhage seats, but this will not alter the inter-bloc balance. Bibi, or whoever replaces him, will form the next government with “natural” partners in the rightist bloc.

Zandberg is hardly to blame. The strengthening of the extreme Right is not a uniquely Israeli phenomenon. Netanyahu’s friends seized power in Poland, Hungary, and Austria, and his good pal Trump sits in the White House. In order to beat the Right, one has to win over the “periphery,” a politically correct way of describing Likud’s Mizrahi electoral base. The formula is simple: fight Bibi on his own turf.It is naively believed that with Avi Gabbay at the head of Labor, and Buskila or Dabush (both Mizrahi from the periphery) near the top of Meretz, they will poach seats from the Right. But the numbers don’t add up. For most Mizrahis, anyone opposing the Likud is a traitor, a “fake” Mizrahi, a lover of Arabs, not really a Jew.

Attempts to cajole Mizrahi workers to vote”Meretz” are like trying to convince white coal miners in Kentucky to vote Democratic. Bibi is an Ashkenazi who gets his kicks from cigars and champagne, while Trump is a New York billionaire who gets them from women and power.Butboth are seen by the poor as “one of us,” anti-establishment, anti-elite, anti-fake-news and anti-law-enforcement. The anti-list goes on: Mexicans in the US, North Africans in France, Syrians in Germany, both Arabs and asylum seekers in Israel. This trend cannot be altered by gaining a seat as a minister in a left-center government, or by watering down messages and surrendering principles.

Concerning the rise of the Right, it is necessary to point out that we are not facing an “Israeli” phenomenon. Sheldon Adelson finances both Netanyahu and Trump, Channel 20 is a twin Fox News, and xenophobia, accompanied by neoliberal capitalism and excessive nationalism, is a global blight. What sets Israel apart from the rest of the world is its colonial character: A fifty-year occupation has turned the two-state solution into an outdated and impractical paradigm. In addition to the occupation, which effectively steersits political agenda, Israel is run by an old-fashioned neoliberal economic structure. It is based on monopolies that corrupt politics and prevent the kind of modernization that can only come about through highly digitized industry, infrastructure spending, and alternative energy.

In a recentKnesset speech, Netanyahu boasted of his achievements.But these are built on his cooperation with weak or bizarre leaders such as Trump, Abu Mazen, and General al-Sisi of Egypt. These, each in his respective reality, do not benefit from the support of core elements in society.Trump’s bizarre decisions, such as raising tariffs on steel and aluminum or denying climate change, have caused near panic in the global economy.

As for Zandberg’s low regard for ideology,the Israeli Left long ago abandoned any. It has no political and economic agenda to counter the revolution led by the Right, with Netanyahu in frontwhile Naphtali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked occupy his flanks. Zandberg and her friends have long been blind to the political map. The Right wins because it projects and maintains a virtual reality of security, economic stability, a strong alliance with Trump, and a sense of well-being(despite huge socioeconomic gaps). Bibi’s power consistsin his ability to market this illusion, which will soon explode in Israel’s face. Meanwhile, the opposition presents no revolutionary alternative. Its platform is based on peace with the settlement blocs, a “humane” capitalist economy, and a “Jewish and democratic” state – inherent contradictions that cannot be resolved.

A “Jewish and democratic” state is a smokescreen for religious nationalism, and “two states for two peoples” is a smokescreen for continuing the occupation. If you wish to be an alternative, you have to tell the Right: “You have destroyed the possibility of a two-state solution; you made the country Jewish but trampled democracy along the way. Therefore, we offer the one-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians as the only way to safeguard civil rights, to achieve real peace, and to maintain a lifestyle that is both democratic and secular. We challenge the neo-liberal economy by means of a modern, shared economy based on the democratization of the social network and alternative energy. Palestinians and Israelis can and should be partners in building a progressive, democratic and egalitarian society!”

The Right has always found support among those most affected by change. In our case, these are white workers in the UK or the US.But they cannot stop history. On the other hand, Israel’s continuation of the settlement enterprise, its refusal to compromise, its reliance on an alliance with Trump, his recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, all will bring about the demise of the Palestinian Authority.Zandberg, lacking an economic and political vision, envisionsten seats and a place at the cabinet table, but she does not see the future: Meretz is not a left-wing alternative, but a sham that leaves the right wing playing alone on the stage.

* Translated from the Hebrew by Robert Goldman

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