Who has lost its compass – left or right?

Geoff Sifrin

TAKING ISSUE

The question of how much we understand Israel, has been aggravated anew by its national elections, and will provoke many debates and even anger over Yomtov as we discuss freedom.  

Nobody can be truly happy about the election outcome or Israel’s situation. If they say they are, they are either lying or in denial. Whether one is on the left or right, both camps are disturbed about whether the Jewish hope of creating a free, secure homeland in Israel is actually feasible.

Yes, Netanyahu won the election through brilliant, blustering political skill. And yes, Yaakov Herzog’s Zionist Union – and the centre-left Israelis it represents – lost. Which proves, according to some, that the left doesn’t represent the “true Israel”.

But even Netanyahu’s supporters know that despite his forcefulness, he will not bring peace: the Middle East is so violent and chaotic today and major powers like the US and Europe don’t seem to understand how much of a threat radical Islam is to them and Israel.

Jews on the right – at least the moderate ones – who cheer at the left’s defeat, know there is profound importance in its conviction that the occupation must end and settlers must not be allowed to decide Israel’s fate.

This is crucial to the Zionist dream, if Israel is not to become a bi-national state, or even, as some gloomy commentators are saying, eventually an Arab state with a Jewish minority.

Neither side is completely correct or incorrect. So what’s new? We’ve been on this merry-go-round before. But to say there is nothing new is not to throw up one’s hands and give up the fight.

Commentators speak about two different Israels existing in contrasting realities: the romantic one in the cafes of Tel Aviv, Herzliya and Ra’anana in its bourgeois bubble of intellectualism and fanciful dreams and the other, tougher Israel – in the south, Jerusalem and the settlements, who think Israel must, above all, be uncompromising and militarily tough.

The latter are disdainful of starry-eyed notions of Israel and the Jews being finally embraced by the Arabs and the world if only they behave well.

Excluding the extremes on both sides – lunatic religious nationalists who think the Palestinians can be wished away and tiny Israel can thumb its nose at the world, and lunatic dreamers of the left who think if we lay down arms and give land to the Palestinians they will hug us and we’ll all live happily ever after – most Israelis and Diaspora Jews want an Israeli society that gives hope, that is open and just and still a “light unto the nations”, but understand it won’t happen easily or quickly.

It is apparent that it is the right which has more passion and vigour; the left is largely listless and has lost its compass. It’s the same in this South African Jewish community, which is often accused of being too rightwing. On the contrary, it is rather the left that is too insipid and has surrendered the territory to the right – it sits around whining about the “rightwing” Jewish community instead of actively building its own kind of community.

One of the most stirring speeches on this topic came from Leah Rabin, the late widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

After his murder in 1995 by a rightwing religious Israeli opposed to the Oslo agreement, she addressed a gathering in the square in Tel Aviv where her husband was shot. She lamented the apathy of his supporters, their failure to rally to his defense when he was harshly attacked at rightwing protests.

”They were too silent when the writing was on the wall,” she said.

Once again, the voice of the right has triumphed on the surface. But deep inside, they know that their way is not sufficient to bring peace to Israel. That task needs the idealism of the left as well.

Geoff Sifrin is former editor of the SAJR. He writes this column in his personal capacity.