2020 Israel: Shattering the illusion

Orly Noy

Left to right: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Israeli nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party and retired General Benny Gantz (AFP)

As Israelis prepare for a third election in less than a year, the start of 2020 finds Israel mired in a political impasse of unprecedented proportions. Theoretically, this deadlock could have presaged a breakthrough in a new direction - given that, for the first time in years, the right wing in Israel has been unable to form a government. 

In 2020, Israeli citizens will be forced once again to choose between two war criminals - and as far as Palestinians are concerned, the differences between the two are mainly semantic

The left could have jumped at this chance to offer voters a real political alternative to occupation and apartheid. The more placatory stance of the Joint List's chairman, Ayman Odeh, could have been a good point of departure to at least consider the possibility of a leftist government supported externally by Arab parties (guaranteeing support in the event of a vote of no confidence). 

This would of course be contingent on substantive policy changes regarding Palestinian citizens of Israel and the oppressive occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. But not only was the Israeli left, insofar as it exists at all, unable to present a real alternative to the status quo, the man heading the opposition to the rightist bloc, Benny Gantz, did not even sit down with the Joint List representatives for an authentic, candid discussion of some sort of cooperation.

So in 2020, Israeli citizens will be forced once again to choose between two war criminals - and as far as Palestinians are concerned, the differences between the two are mainly semantic: one engages openly in wild incitement against them; while the other is prepared to sit with them at the table to discuss nothing more than crumbs of civil rights stripped of any collective or comprehensive dimension.

As for their respective policies towards the occupied territories, differences between left and right are even harder to find. Apart from whatever government Israel may end up with, 2020 symbolises the ultimate shattering of the illusion of an alternative to the Jewish Israeli stance of superiority that has been the essence of Jewish Israeli politics across the entire political spectrum.

Thus, the role of international actors clearly becomes even more crucial for leveraging the kind of change that Israeli citizens themselves cannot and will not bring about. The decision of the International Criminal Court in the Hague to investigate war crimes committed by Israel could be an important step in that direction.