South Africans brace for backlash against right-wing Israeli government

As the dust settles after Israel’s fifth general election in four years, voters have returned a resounding mandate to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Bibi” – as he is known to friend and foe – and his right-wing and religious allies won 64 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. This is practically a landslide given the razor-thin margins between the major blocs in previous elections. He is expected to easily form the most right-wing government in Israel’s 74-year history in the next few weeks.

How did this happen? And though life will go on for Israelis with the government they have elected, what does it mean for Jews in South Africa?

The incumbent government coalition had little in common apart from opposition to Netanyahu, who is facing fraud, corruption, and breach of trust charges in the Israeli courts. He has demonstrated a Jacob-Zuma-like knack for deferring and deflecting legal proceedings. It says something about the electorate, the quality of leadership on offer, and his undeniable charisma that they plumped for Netanyahu again, even with this cloud hanging over him.

The outgoing coalition included an Arab party, which has never happened before. The government froze religious parties out of power for the first time in many decades. Naftali Bennett became prime minister in spite of having just a handful of members of Knesset (MKs). According to the coalition agreement, Yair Lapid, the head of the centre-left Yesh Atid, became prime minister once new elections were called. The government lasted just more than a year, longer than many had expected.

This time, haredi (religious) voters came out in greater numbers, as did Netanyahu supporters. The electorate clearly repudiated the incumbent anti-Bibi patchwork-quilt government. What’s left of the left lies in tatters, as Meretz failed to achieve the 3.25% threshold to be represented in Knesset and the once-mighty Labour Party, which governed Israel from its founding in 1948 to 1977 and intermittently after that, has just four MKs this time.

Netanyahu’s presumptive government will include the ultra-Orthodox Shas (11 seats), United Torah Judaism (seven seats), and the far-right alliance of Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit (with 14 seats together, the third largest party). Many in Israel and the diaspora are appalled at the naked anti-Arab stance and general intolerance (including of homosexuality) exhibited by the leaders of the latter two parties, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The horse-trading by Netanyahu to form a government will place these politicians in pivotal positions in return for their support. They have intimated that they would be open to reforming the judiciary and changing laws so as to quash Netanyahu’s court cases. This possibility has made Israel and Jews around the world worry about the resilience of Israeli democracy.

Jews in the diaspora are often more liberal and progressive than those living in Israel on human rights, tolerance for multiple streams of Jewish practice, and negotiations with the Palestinians. Divisive issues, like allowing mixed-gender prayers at the Kotel, have driven a wedge between the American reform and conservative movements and the Israeli government, which repeatedly fudged its responses. The influence of the Orthodox rabbinate in Israel is formidable, and its parties are now back in power.

A right-wing Israeli government will be easily demonised by Israel haters, who will no doubt pounce on its every move, especially in an illiberal direction. Diaspora communities are sometimes embarrassed by their Israeli sisters and brothers, but nevertheless are called on to support them, and they usually do.

Some, like Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft of the African Jewish Congress, have said it’s the job of the Israeli ambassador to defend Israel not the job of Jewish communities. This is a hard sell in South Africa, where most Jews are staunch Zionists.

Diaspora communities face heightened antisemitism whenever violence erupts in the Middle East, such as during and after the string of Israeli operations against militants in Gaza for the past 15 years. This is no different in South Africa. Often, it’s worse here as the country is in the eye of the anti-Zionist storm. It also doesn’t take long for sentiment against Israel to become a backlash against Jews.

But let’s be frank – the anti-Israel crowd will criticise and demean any Israeli government for whatever it does. Does it really matter to them or us which government runs the Knesset? Witness the outcry over Israel’s Nation-State law a few years ago that sought to undergird the Jewish character and essence of Israel while protecting non-Jewish minorities.

Anti-Zionists ultimately desire the total destruction of the Jewish state and deny any legitimacy to the very basis of that state. A right-wing government is just a slightly easier target. South Africa’s Jewish community should be ready for the barrage of bile that’s about to come our way.

• Steven Gruzd is a political analyst at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg. He writes in his personal capacity.
• Photo credit: JTA via Office of Benjamin Netanyahu