Second in a series profiling Israeli voters ahead of the January 22 Knesset elections.
By HADAS PARUSHAnthony Levine 370(photo credit: Hadas Parush)
“Anybody who has lived under real apartheid would know that Israel is the most un-apartheid country on earth,” said Anthony Levine, who lived in Gush Etzion when he first moved with his family to Israel.Originally from Johannesburg, Levine, his wife Jenny and their four kids moved to the US before deciding to make aliya. They arrived at the West Bank settlement in 2002, during the second intifada, because they wanted to show more support for Israel during that period. They felt that Israel was being unfairly treated by the rest of the world.“The entire Western world completely misunderstands that Jews have just as much of a claim to the West Bank as the Palestinians do,” said Levine.An electrical engineer in the hi-tech industry, he had to leave Gush Etzion and move to Ra’anana to find work in his field. Levine said, however, that Gush Etzion offered a more welcoming and authentically Israeli environment, whereas Ra’anana was a more competitive enclave with a larger Anglo population.Levine and his wife strongly support a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, but he says that the Israeli politicians are not making any concrete decisions to secure Israel’s borders ahead of the elections.“The strategy of almost every Israeli party of being vague about what they want and keeping their bargaining chips hidden is backfiring on Israel. We risk losing the entire West Bank,” Levine said.“Until Israel comes up with a definite map, the entire world will continue to view Israel as an illegal occupier.”When asked about Likud chairman Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s approach to the West Bank, Levine said his policy was absurd.“He is building in the West Bank not because the Jews have a legitimate claim to the West Bank, which I think that they do. He uses building as a punishment for some Arab provocation, which is an absurd policy.”Levine said that his three main concerns are the economy, a strong citizenship requirement, and a solution to the West Bank.
“I plan to vote for Likud because [regarding] these three things, they are the least worst in that they provide a strong sensible economic policy. They are less good on the citizenship requirement however, with the combining with Yisrael Beytenu which has a strong requirement on citizenship responsibilities, I think I get both by voting for Likud.”Despite the lack of a clear policy on the West Bank, Levine said the Likud Beytenu is the list that best suits him.“I think the most important thing to me is economics, simply because with a strong economy the Zionist dream can flourish. In this case clearly the people that have the strongest and most sensible economic policies are the Likud.”
