Recent polls indicated that only a quarter of voters, and half of Likud voters, believe the current Benjamin (Netanyahu), is better suited to be prime minister than the other Benjamin (Gantz), who garners the support of half of those polled. Gantz’s numbers are no surprise – in difficult times, people seek change and hope. But what goes through the minds of those who still believe the incumbent is a good match for the job? What has he done to justify such loyalty?
I have an idea, but first, let me repeat some facts. The gap between rich and poor in Israel is among the widest in the West, and grows faster than in other countries that have high inequality. Whoever takes to the road knows how clogged they are. School pupils do miserably in international tests. As for housing, salaries trail far behind costs.
As these phenomena deepened, ministers and officials came and went, while the head of government remained. The Number One executive prided himself on his abilities and skills when asking for our vote, again and again, in order to remain our top administrator, responsible for everything.
It is entirely possible that people who knew all that continued to vote for him, due to his image as Minister Security. The truth was exposed on October 7, and with it went the image of the public relations wizard, along with promises on billboards before elections, which showed him with world leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and declared “Netanyahu – a league of his own.” Whence then, the relics of support?
MY SUGGESTION draws on “identity politics,” a term coined in the 1970s in connection with empowering weak groups (and has since taken on a life of its own). Thus, feminism is a challenge to structural male dominance, and affirmative action helps disenfranchised groups find their rightful place in society. It addresses groupings that are viewed as opposites – blacks in a white society, members of a minority religion, disabled vs healthy.
'Jewish' and 'leftist' are not contradictory terms
But in Israel, a meaningless contrast came to be. There are clear ranges between fat and thin, lazy and diligent, honest or not. Most of us move along these spectrums. But there is not, nor can there be, a line between Jewish and leftist, concepts drawn from entirely different fields, unless one is determined to sow discord, in order to benefit from it.
As a skilled manipulator, Netanyahu strives to inculcate that Judaism and the Left are diametrically opposed, in which case the Left threatens our very basic identity as Jews. Only Netanyahu will protect it (and us) and defend it (and us) against those who rise up to threaten it (and us), after it (and us) survived 2,000 years of Diaspora, and so on.
Let us not ask what being Jewish means to him, or how Jewishness expresses itself in his personal life, and just say that he spread a clearly false line of reasoning, designed to divide and rule.
People, like situations, are complex, not the simpletons as we are viewed and treated when hollow slogans are directed at us in a deep baritone. We have numerous real challenges and true divides. The time has come to dispense with the fake ones.
The writer was Israel’s first ambassador to the Baltic republics after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, ambassador to South Africa, and congressional liaison officer at the embassy in Washington. She is a graduate of Israel’s National Defense College.