Sol Salbe
Palestinians and their supporters were generally indifferent to the March 28 Israeli election. And for a good reason: they couldn't tell the difference between most of the parties. Few of the parties offered even the most minimal program to end Israel's occupation in a manner that could be accepted by Palestinians.
In terms of dealing with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, Israel has at least a "Likud Aleph" and "Likud Bet", if not the rest of the Hebrew alphabet. The differences between Kadima, Likud and, to a lesser extent, Labour are only a matter of degree — not substance. None accept the 1967 borders as the basis of a future border between Israel and a Palestinian state. So the fact that incapacitated Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's Kadima party obtained 28 seats in the Knesset (Israel's 120-seat parliament), the most of any party, will be greeted by most Palestinians with a yawn.
But Israelis did go to the polls, and the nuances of what happened tell us a lot about the future — and some of it is actually good. The ideological hold of the nationalist camp has been broken. Above all, Israelis voted to get on with their lives without being beholden to the settlements in the West Bank. The parties they voted for might not solve the problem, but the movement for change has begun.
For Israeli workers, the best news has been the massive rejection of those who pushed neoliberal policies. The redneck Shinui party, which disguised its attacks on the poor with an anti-religious veneer and drew support from the aspirational middle class, lost all of its 15 members of the Knesset (MKs).
Likud's support, on the other hand, was rooted in the poorest working-class neighbourhoods of Jews from the Arab world. It suffered a massive defeat, going from 38 MKs to just 11. In some of the development towns (established in the 1950s and '60s for new immigrants to Israel) it was even more pronounced. Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu is reviled for the massive cutbacks in health, welfare and education that he presided over as treasurer.
Some of Likud's support went to the Labour Party, whose political emphasis, membership, rhetoric and image underwent a complete change. The party ended up with 20 MKs, almost the same as before. But instead of being dominated by the Ashkenazi (European-origin) middle classes, its activists are overwhelmingly Mizrahi (Middle Eastern-origin) workers. Superficially at least, Labour has taken on the appearance of a classical social-democratic party.
Another of the election's surprises is the success of Gil, the pensioners' party, which gained seven MKs. Anecdotal evidence suggests that most of its support came from young people! This is for a very good reason: most older Israelis were organised workers and receive reasonable social benefits; only a small minority rely on the appallingly small government pension. Young people know that under modern working conditions, with no permanency of employment, they have to start worrying about their old age now.
The party campaigned for providing every citizen with a pension. However it is unclear where the money is supposed to come from. Unlike the Labour Party, Gil has not committed itself to reducing spending on the settlement project — the heaviest burden on the Israeli budget, both directly and indirectly.
Of course, not all who were disillusioned with Likud went to Labour or Gil. There were some significant developments on the right. The National Union-National Religious Party bloc remained steady at nine MKs. This is an alliance of the messianic settlers and right-wingers who want to "transfer" all Palestinians (including those who are Israeli citizens) out of historic Palestine.
They were expecting a boost from those who regarded Netanyahu's opposition to "disengagement" as being too half-hearted. If nothing else, it shows that for the first time in over 30 years, the settlers feel isolated. No wonder their spokespeople are screaming blue murder at Netanyahu for saying that the election was a referendum on further withdrawal from Palestinian territory. If this was a plebiscite, then Israelis overwhelmingly voted against the settlements.
The right wing had some good news: their most extreme component is now the largest. Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu ("Israel is Our Home") won 12 MKs. Lieberman's political program would leave the likes of France's Le Pen or our own Pauline Hanson smelling like roses.
It is important to look at precisely what Yisrael Beitenu stands for: an exchange of territory, whereby predominantly Palestinian areas of Israel would fall under Palestinian jurisdiction, while large Israeli settlements in the West Bank would fall under Israeli sovereignty. This is just a fancy form of ethnic cleansing.
The party also proposes a new citizenship law that would require an oath of loyalty to Israel as a Zionist Jewish state. Citizenship would be subject to civil or military national service military. Palestinian Israelis and many Jewish Israelis would be unable to sign such a declaration and would presumably be stripped of voting rights.
In the first post-election interview with the Globes newspaper (Israel's equivalent of the Australian Financial Review), newly elected MK Yitzhak Aharonovic, a retired police officer, said of the transfer plan: "The concept of transferring population is both serious and feasible. I don't know if it will be carried out this year or next year."
There are many aspects of these elections that are yet to reveal themselves in full. But one thing is clear: Israelis did not vote for or against peace. The whole issue was ignored. Now Israelis are set to go through a process of learning that unilateral setting of borders is not going to solve their problems. Ironically, opinion polls on both Israeli and Palestinian sides suggest overwhelming support for a negotiated peaceful solution.
The election did not directly reflect this, but the results indicate that the potential is there. It is up to the Israeli left and peace movement to take advantage of it.
From Green Left Weekly, April 5, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.