Stop Whining. Long Live Israel's New and Honest Government
Israel's new government won't spout hollow slogans about peace, human rights,
and justice. The truth will be thrust in the faces of Israelis - and the world.
By Gideon Levy
May 11, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "Haaretz"
- The 34th government will deserve Israel; Israel will deserve the 34th
government. This is an authentic and representative government, the true
manifestation of the spirit of the times and the deepest feelings of most
Israelis. It will be a true government, without pretense, without makeup and
without self-justification. What we’ll see is what we’ll get. Welcome to the
fourth Benjamin Netanyahu government.
They won’t talk haughtily and they won’t spout hollow slogans.
Not about peace and not about human rights; not about two states and not about
negotiations; not about international law, justice or equality. The truth will
be thrust in the faces of Israelis and the world. And the truth is this: The
two-state solution is dead (it was never born), the Palestinian state will not
arise, international law does not apply to Israel, the occupation will continue
to crawl quickly toward annexation, annexation will continue to crawl quickly
toward an apartheid state; “Jewish” supersedes “democratic,” nationalism and
racism will get the government stamp of approval, but they’re already here and
have been for a long time.
Neither Netanyahu, nor Habayit Hayehudi’s chairman MK Naftali
Bennett nor that party’s faction members MK Ayelet Shaked and MK Eli Ben-Dahan,
started this whole thing. They only expedited things. And there should be no
shock or outrage, no bewailing the bitterness of fate. This government is a
government of continuation, not a government of change.
True, some of its members are more extreme than their
predecessors, but that is mainly about rhetorical differences. Even the most
inflammatory appointment, of Shaked as justice minister, which reverberated
throughout the world over the weekend, is less revolutionary than it seems.
Shaked is blunt and violent, whereas Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni, her
predecessor, was delicate and proper. But Justice Minister Shaked will not have
to work hard to break open cracks in our democracy; they opened a long time ago.
The best test of the nature of the regime in Israel is the
test of the occupation and the war crimes: the foundations of apartheid are
already deep and the war crimes remain uninvestigated. From her office in the
heart of occupied Jerusalem, Livni has not made Israel more just in that
respect. True, Shaked’s ideas are more nationalistic and her understanding of
the essence of democracy is nil. True, many in the world were shocked that a
person who identified with one of the most violent articles ever written here
against the Palestinian people (by Uri Elitzur), was appointed minister of
Israeli justice. But there’s no place for such sanctimoniousness. Elitzur
expressed what many people are thinking.
The appointment of another racist, Eli Ben-Dahan, as deputy
defense minister, responsible for the Civil Administration, should not be
earth-shattering either. True, Ben-Dahan said that “the Palestinians are
animals, they are not human, they are not entitled to live” – but don’t these
statements reflect the true attitude of many Israelis? Ben-Dahan will speak for
them. That is how Israel has been treating the Palestinians for almost 50 years;
Ben-Dahan is only saying things overtly. Now he will be responsible for the
Civil Administration and the whole system of “humanitarian gestures” will be
torn up. Ben-Dahan is the right man in the right place at the right time. An
excellent appointment.
A person who proudly says “I killed masses of Arabs” and calls
them “shrapnel in the buttocks” will be education minister – and who in Israel
doesn’t think that? The general of Operation Cast Lead, with its crimes, the man
who contravened building restrictions, Yoav Galant, will be construction
minister. Is that not a fine appointment? MK Uri Maklev of United Torah Judaism
is to head the Knesset Science Committee? Does that not correctly reflect the
attitude of some Israelis to science?
Stop whining. Maybe Israel’s shadow government should be more
enlightened, but not its real government. It is what the Israelis chose, it
reflects their true stands. And so, long live the new government.