Dr. Limor Samimian-Darash..Israel Hayom..
11 March '20..
Link: https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/have-you-given-up-on-the-jewish-state/
The past election year presented us with no shortage of important issues, beyond partisan divisions and the question of who Israel's next prime minister will be. The recent election was over the defense of democracy against the courtacracy, the public's trust in the legal system, and also about the application of sovereignty versus the idea of territorial disengagement.
But the uproar to emerge in recent days over Benny Gantz's intention to establish a government with the support of the Joint Arab List, crystallizes the essence of the battle, perhaps the most significant Israeli society is facing. We've again reached a junction where the arrows pointing Left or Right are unclear, leaving us only with the fundamental argument about the very Jewishness of the Jewish state.
What began as slanderous campaigns decrying "religious coercion," which continued with blatant anti-religious propaganda and assurances of a "secular and liberal" government – now appears to be a type of abdication of the country's Jewish character, rather than its supposedly religious character. This is undeniably a fight over the very existence of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. A democratic state that espouses human and civil rights for all its citizens, but a state whose national identity is singular: Jewish. A country which promotes and ratifies the right of Jews to return to their homeland, encourages their arrival and grants them immigration benefits and support. It is a country whose national flag is with the Star of David and whose national anthem specifies the "Jewish soul" and "an eye toward Zion."
Apparently, what seems natural to so many Israelis is perceived by others as discrimination or racism. Whether we are headed to a fourth election or not, this is a fundamental question that demands an answer: Is Israel a Jewish state or a state of all its citizens? And the question isn't new; for years it served as the basis for various arguments, for example over the policies the country adopted to combat illegal immigration or disqualification of a Knesset candidate or another. This time, however, the question appears as an explicit argument, almost as a blunt accusation against those who support the state's Jewishness. In just one example, political pundit Amnon Abramovich told viewers this week that if we don't include the Joint Arab List in the next government, we are no longer a democratic state. In other words, if we reject a government that rests on anti-Zionist views and opposes Israel's Jewish character, we have reached the end of democracy.
The attempt to present opposition to relying on the Joint List as racist – is contemptible. Neither religion nor skin color forms the basis of this opposition, rather an ideology that strives to erase the existence of the Jewish nation-state. After turning out in large numbers in the recent election to insist on strengthening the Knesset and idea of sovereignty, we don't need to prove our commitment to democracy to anyone. But our rivals certainly need to be asked: Have you given up on the Jewish state? Have you given up on Zionism? And no, I'm not asking this cynically or as a provocation, in the vein of "the Left has forgotten what it is to be Jewish." I am asking out of deep concern and pain. Is our nation starting to give up on the Zionist idea, from the inside, by itself? Not at the hands of the United Nations or the BDS movement? Is the country's Jewishness no longer justified in their eyes? Does being a Zionist equate to being a racist? It appears we have reached the home stretch; the very character of the Jewish national home hangs in the balance.
Dr. Limor Samimian-Darash is a senior lecturer at the Federmann School of Public Policy and Government at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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