OPINION
6 Obiter Dicta
The View From Here
A Canadian Israeli’s (surprisingly optimistic) perspective on
the recent elections and what the future holds for Israel
esther mendelsohn › staff writer
I
sr ael has a new government, and not everyone is happy—including many progressive
Israelis.
As a Canadian Jew by birth and an Israeli by
choice, I offer a perspective shared by many here and
in Israel—and it is a surprisingly optimistic one.
I am always worried about Israel—worried about
its security, my family and friends’ safety, the price
of housing, the rate at which the Dead Sea is receding—but I know one thing for certain: Israel has survived thus far, and she will survive this government,
too.
Israelis’ resilience and commitment to pluralism and democracy will not be so easily shaken. One
must understand the context in order to understand
the poll results. Moreover, the poll results are only
one chapter in a much longer story of Israel’s ongoing progressive legacy.
Like most Israelis and Zionists, I am deeply troubled by the racist pronouncements made by Prime
Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu regarding ArabIsraeli citizens. They were obviously a desperate
attempt made at the eleventh hour in a bid to maintain his own personal power; that in no way diminishes their impact or his blameworthiness.
Israeli society has made tremendous strides
in terms of equality for its Arab-Israeli citizens.
Equality is enshrined in Israel’s founding document and has been a priority from the very beginning. Arabs who stayed in Israel after the War of
Independence were immediately granted full citizenship and have always enjoyed the same political and civil rights as all Israelis. They cast ballots in
the first Israeli election, and the suggestion that they
cannot be trusted to exercise this most fundamental right is appalling. Bibi has since apologized, but
Arab-Israelis have every right to feel hurt, angry, and
disgusted. The rest of us share that sentiment.
To be sure, some of the Arab parties proffer startl i ngly
a n t iS em it ic v iews
and do so openly.
MK
(M e m b e r
of Knesset, the
Israeli Parliament)
Haneen Zoabi didn’t stop at statements; she was on
board an arms-laden ship that tried to violate Israeli
maritime sovereignty in an attempt to smuggle the
arms into Hamas-controlled Gaza. She was initially
barred from running in this election, but the Israeli
Supreme Court ruled that she was allowed to run,
which she did. Even Zoabi’s actions, however, cannot
excuse what Bibi said.
But the history of Israel stretches far earlier than
Bibi, his recent statements, his speech at Congress
(which, whether ill-advised or not, was quite accurate and lucid), or the poll results of this last election—and it will stretch much further into the future
as well.
I could fill pages with all the progressive pronouncements that have come from the Israeli
Supreme Court; all the statistics about women,
minorities, and LGBTQ individuals in high-ranking
political and military positions, on the judiciary, in
ê Photo credit: cija.ca
the professions, the arts, and business; the liveliest
Pride parade in the Middle East (hosted in Tel Aviv);
the flourishing arts and culture scene; the critical
discourse in Israeli universities, cafes, or the pages of
HaAretz, one of Israel’s leading newspapers, whose
rhetorical attacks on the government would make
The Globe’s editorial staff blush. I could go on for
pages about the government and civil society programs in place aimed at bridge-building, equity, and
peace, or about Israel’s unparalled humanitarian
efforts which include sending aid to the Palestinians.
I could write an entire treatise on the Israeli army’s
code of ethics and explain at length the measures
taken by the IDF to minimize civilian casualties and
ensure the highest ethical standards are adhered to
when interacting
with civilians and
enemy combatants alike. None of
these are perfect,
but it’s something
that can be built upon and improved. Indeed, Israel is
an imperfect, but thriving democracy.
There is still much work to be done. The Rabbinate
is still a thorn in the side of most Israelis. Social
programs are not getting the resources they need.
Corruption scandals, not unlike the Senate spending scandals, happen in Israel, too. The Bedouin
communities in the South are living in squalor. The
Israeli SATs (psychometri) suffer from the same cultural biases as the LSAT. Indeed, as Israel’s first Prime
Minister, David Be n Gurion predicted, Israel is like
every other democratic country—complete with
crime, corruption, and social strife. There is still
much work to be done, and much fodder for legitimate criticism.
And I would never suggest that criticism of Israeli
policy should be labelled anti-Semitic, lest I be
labelled an anti-Semite myself. Criticism of government policy is not only permissible, but necessary.
“Indeed, Israel is an imperfect,
but thriving democracy.”
The distinction between legitimate criticism and
anti-Semitic rhetoric is simple: the former is based
on facts and logic, and is nuanced. It does not single
Israel out for opprobrium, nor does it seek, directly
or otherwise, the destruction of the Jewish state. The
latter is based on fiction or a perversion of the facts;
it is illogical and hyperbolic. The aim of the former is
to improve Israeli democracy; the aim of the latter is
to undermine it.
Israel is one of the few democratic countries whose
democracy has been truly tested, and a trial by fire
it has been—figuratively and literally. It has had to
grapple with the issue of individual freedoms in the
context of a very real, very imminent, constant, and
unrelenting existential threat.
A country that faces no threat but is nonetheless
authoritarian is not the proper model; neither is a
country that faces serious threats and does nothing
to prevent or deal with those threats.
Ethical boundaries cannot be delineated in a
vacuum; the importance of context cannot be overstated. Only when one comprehends the threat Israel
faces can one pass credible judgment on its actions.
It is too facile to sit back in the comfort of our North
American or European security and shake the finger
at Israel. I submit that those who do so without
examining their own security privilege are doing a
disservice not only to Israel but to the broader discourse on individual freedoms and security.
Faced with a foe who has no qualms about using
children as human shields, who indoctrinates children to hate Jews, who finds financial patron and ally
in the Iranian regime, who violently silences political
dissent, who outlaws homosexuality, who threatens
foreign journalists to ensure an acceptable narrative
is published, who endorses honour killings, who for
the last decade has been using Gaza as a launching
» see election, page 16