Antisemitism is a severe threat to Israel’s national security. A major government ministry tasked with analyzing and countering those threats could be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s legacy.
To a great extent, Israel has regarded antisemitism as a matter of concern only or primarily for the distant Diaspora. As such, Israel has regarded it as a minor issue, the purview of a minor government ministry.
However, the wave of antisemitism that began last October makes patently clear that antisemitism threatens the very existence of Israel, its international relations, academy, science, technology, art, theater, culture, economy, and much more. It is high time that Israel responded to antisemitism in a totally different way and with significantly more urgency.
Factors that drive antisemitism, such as religious prejudice, socioeconomic factors, cultural stereotypes, political scapegoating, nationalism and ethnic identity, conspiracy theories, historical events, ignorance and misinformation, and political extremism, all suggest that it is practically impossible to eliminate antisemitism. Nonetheless, Israel must confront antisemitism relentlessly and directly in order to keep it to a minimum.
The three levels of tackling antisemitism
How Israel deals with antisemitism must be reconceived at three levels: at the governmental level, in terms of parliamentary oversight, and with a long-term plan.
Optimally, a major governmental ministry would be charged with countering antisemitism. The natural candidate is the Foreign Ministry, as is the case in the US and other countries.
Currently, it is the Diaspora Affairs Ministry – a relatively minor ministry led by Amichai Chikli – that is tasked with combating antisemitism. As it does to other minor ministries, the Finance Ministry constantly threatens it with elimination. The task of countering antisemitism is too important to allow that to happen.
Instead, first, Chikli and his ministry ought to be incorporated into the Foreign Ministry, and be charged quite explicitly with combating antisemitism and with Diaspora affairs – and be given the financial wherewithal and power to carry out this task. Becoming a part of the Foreign Ministry will finally enable Chikli to draw on the existing infrastructure of 163 embassies, consulates, and ambassadors worldwide dealing with Israeli foreign relations. At present, he cannot do so.
Second, a new ministerial committee in charge of antisemitism issues and Diaspora affairs needs to be established, a committee headed by the Foreign Ministry, with the ministers of Justice, Finance, and perhaps others as members, and the heads of the National Security Council and the Jewish Agency as permanent invitees. The advantage of such a ministerial committee is that, unless a minister has reservations, its resolutions are regarded as final within two weeks, enabling quick decision-making that is impossible to accomplish if one defers to the overworked government.
Third, in such a scenario, the necessary oversight parliamentary committee could be the existing foreign affairs subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset. Empowering an existing committee to be given such oversight instead of creating a new committee will make political machinations unnecessary and save time and eliminate wrangling.
Fourth, after establishing the executive and oversight bodies, instead of the existing short-term practice limited by the typically two-year government tenure, designing a long-term plan to counter antisemitism will be an urgent priority. What would be the structural basis for such a long-term plan?
The fifth component and the structural basis for that long-term plan should be a global report by a global management consulting firm, such as McKinsey, analyzing what is in place, who is doing what, and what are the lacunae. It will propose what needs to be done and how. Such a study has never before been conducted. For the Finance Ministry to determine the budget and the manpower necessary for this activity, such a report is vital.
The conceptual and practical components of the global long-term plan, I have already outlined in my article “A global war on antisemitism must start now” (The Jerusalem Post, October 18). That article proposes a global structure for a global war on antisemitism.
The global report should include a global list and analysis of hundreds of existing bodies dealing with antisemitism, and determine what issues they are overlooking; and an analysis of every country’s effort at combating antisemitism.
The checklist for such an analysis would determine: the existence of an executive government body; parliamentary oversight; legislation; a strategic plan; an operational three-to-five-year plan; milestones; special envoys; coordinators; legislation; budget; IHRA membership; teaching the IHRA definition of antisemitism, etc. This analysis will enable Israel to suggest to every country a measure for practical action. For example, in 2013 the Foreign Ministry presented the European Union with a detailed proposal to declare Hamas a terrorist organization, after analyzing existing EU legislation and existing EU procedures, a proposal that was duly approved.
Sixth, Israel’s ambassadors worldwide could monitor the antisemitism activity of every country in conjunction with a working local group of ambassadors whose countries are included in the working global team of countries leading the war on antisemitism, proposed in my previous article. Israeli ambassadors’ involvement will enable them to collect data on antisemitism in each country for an annual global report. Combined with other reports, that report could be submitted to Israel’s president, who then can be tasked with being involved whenever and wherever necessary.
Seventh, the Global Forum on Antisemitism led by the Foreign Ministry could be reinstated.
The benefits of my proposal are that: the proposed structure can be carried out relatively quickly, as it is based mostly on existing procedures and existing bodies; the largely disempowered Foreign Ministry would welcome ownership of such an important long-term issue; the Finance Ministry would welcome closing a minor ministry, and be able to release those monies for the war on antisemitism; basing a minister devoted to dealing with the war on antisemitism and with Diaspora affairs in a major ministry will enable solid footing for those issues in the long term.
Will Netanyahu step up to lead this historic reform, and will Chikli gallantly take on this task?
The writer is a historian, economist, activist, and a former adviser on Holocaust restitution at the Prime Minister’s Office, former senior director at the Finance Ministry, and author of an upcoming book on Holocaust restitution.