Oaklandsocialist recently carried this interview with the courageous Israeli anti-apartheid activist Ofer Neiman. One issue that really requires further discussion is how far can Israel go in crushing democracy domestically. Recent reports from the Israeli daily Haaretz raise that question again.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Netanyahu. Is Gallant on his way out?

Yoav Gallant on the way out
For example, Haaretz reports that Netanyahu is planning replace the less overtly aggressive Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in his cabinet with the more overtly right wing Gideon Sa’ar. This would also be a step towards the policy of “officially includ[ing] the return of northern residents [of Israel] to their homes among the war’s goals.” The only way that can be accomplished is through a further military offensive into Lebanon, which Gallant is known to oppose. It seems unlikely that such an offensive would be as extensive as past Israeli invasions, which did not end well for Israel, but it would still be significant. (Note: Those wanting to read the full Haaretz articles who don’t subscribe to the paper can plug the url into archive.fo to get an archived version.)

Replacement of Gallant would also be a step towards placating the far right ultra-orthodox

Succot participating in the riot at Sde Tieman military base. He and the other rioters were defending Israel soldiers arrested for sodomizing a Palestinian prisoner with a pipe.

parties. That is part and parcel of the tendency of the far right, including fascists, to move into the government. There is, for example, Knesset member Tzvi Succot.  Haaretz reports that Succot is “ a serial detainee and former Shin Bet person of interest, one suspected of torching a mosque and removed several times from the occupied territories by administrative decree… [He] is a distilled expression of the radical right wing’s hostility towards the symbols and agents of the state…. Succot participated in the break-in at the Sde Teiman army base, pinning down army forces [and] the provocative sukkah he erected in the Arab town of Hawara on the eve of the October massacre.” More significantly, Haaretz comments on “the process by which the radical right has taken over several state institutions and their resources, mainly the legislative and executive branches of government, and its ambition to complete the takeover of institutions that are permitted to use force, namely the police and the army…. State resources are being swallowed in a black hole overseen by extremist lawbreakers.” Nor is this happening with Netanyahu’s resistance. “Bringing Kahanism under the mantle of ruling national power is one of his two major crimes against the state, along with the instilling of a culture of conflict and divisiveness,” writes Haaretz. (Meir Kahane was a U.S. born Israeli politician. In the U.S. he was founded the violent Jewish Defense League and in Israel he was actually convicted of terrorism and was ultimately barred from running for office. He called for the total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.)

Israelis “too worried about safety”
Another Haaretz article is headlined “The Government is hoping Israelis are too worried about their safety to think about democracy.” It is a report of a podcast by a Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, who reports that support for Netanyahu has recently increased. This is actually due to Netanyahu’s escalation of the war against the Palestinians. Scheindlin explains, “”Those determined to weaken [democratic institutions] know that they need to get as much as they can done under the fog of war, and hopefully the citizens won’t notice. The government is hoping that citizens will be too busy worrying about how to get to the nearest shelter and having a stockpile of water and cell phone batteries” to worry about “luxuries like the question of democratic governance.”

To return to the question of an expanded war into Lebanon, Haaretz reports that it likely won’t be until after the US elections. That is significant, partly because Biden opposes such an expansion but Netanyahu knows that Trump would support it. He also knows that such an expansion would free up Harris to further criticize Israel without harming her chances of defeating Trump. 

MK Yuri Edelstein

These leaflets calling for a hostage deal were placed in Edelstein’s synagogue. Edelstein calls the women who placed them there rioters. According to Haaretz, far right leaflets are left on synagogue seats commonly.

An example of Israeli politicians’ turn to the right is Knesset Member Yuri Edelstein. According to Haaretz, Edelstein “is still seen as one of “the five” – that is, the five members of the governing coalition who are ostensibly sane and statesmanlike, who will one day… bravely stand on the liberal democratic side of the political map.” In other words, he is one of the few great hopes for Israeli democracy. Recently, however, Edelstein has taken to denouncing hostage family protesters as “rioters” and calling for their arrest. Their crime? Placing hostage family leaflets on the seats of Edelstein’s father’s synagogue. His speech calling for their arrest “could have done quite nicely as a Pravda editorial during the Soviet Union,” wrote Haaretz. Edelstein calls such protests a “slippery slope”, but is Israel on the slippery slope towards total authoritarian rule?

Netanyahu “destroying Israel”?
The Haaretz’s article about Succot concludes that Netanyahu “is using [those like Succot] as subcontractors in his campaign aimed at destroying this country.” Netanyahu is no more trying to physically destroy the State of Israel, than Trump is trying to destroy the United States. What it means is the destruction of Israeli democracy, of a state with democratic rights for Israeli Jews and even partial such rights for Israeli Palestinians.  At Haaretz’s

Steffen Seibert, German ambassador to Israel, speaking at Haaretz “peace conference”

recent “peace conference”, the German ambassador to Israel put it bluntly. “Germany won’t stand on the sideline and let annexation [of Gaza and the West Bank] happen,” he said. Even the US representative was oh-so-cautiously critical. But the point is clear: All Israel’s allies need the fig leaf of democratic domestic rule to continue supporting the government. In the case of the U.S., if Trump is elected, Israel’s crushing of even the outer forms of democracy would not be an impediment, which is partly why Netanyahu hopes Trump wins.

A West Bank school torched by settlers. They are also attacking Israeli left activists. How long can ethnic cleansing and bourgeois democracy coexist?

But more to the point is this: Those of us outside Israel must be very cautious about making conclusions about the political situation inside the country. However, from this standpoint, it seems that the opinion inside Israel is that the majority wants the hostages returned and at the same time want to see Hamas obliterated. These two are mutually exclusive. The longer the war continues, the more hostages will be killed, either by Israel or by Hamas. Once all hope for the lives of the hostages is lost, what will restrain the general mood from being for all out slaughter even greater than today? What is to stop a call for vengeance and blood lust from becoming even stronger among Israeli Jews? What will restrain that mood from turning towards all-out ethnic cleansing in the West Bank? Wouldn’t such a move also lead to a similar turn inside Israel itself? And would that necessitate the crushing of all remnants of bourgeois democracy inside Israel?

Repercussions in U.S.
As for US politics, if Trump is elected, he will at the very least not oppose such a direction if he doesn’t fully support it. But it would mean further fragmentation and divisions inside US capitalist politics. That would include inside the Democratic Party (if this party continues to exist if Trump is elected). For the first time, there would likely develop a faction of the Democrats that opposes US arms to israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Netanyahu. Is Gallant on his way out?