Golda Meir's Dilemma & Ours

Newly released [Hebrew link] Israel government protocols [English link] reveal that on October 9, 1970, Yom Kippur Eve, in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Golda Meir called in her top advisers to talk about establishing a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) and possibly Gaza. 

About a month earlier, the Palestine Liberation Organization had come close to overthrowing the Hashemite Kingdom in Jordan, where Palestinians are a majority. Jordan (with the behind-the-scenes help of Israel and the US) expelled the defeated PLO leaders to Lebanon.

Maybe King Hussein's close call got her thinking about the resiliency of the Palestinian struggle. Meir told the group that her mind was open. "I am willing to hear if there is a shred of hope of some independent Arab state in Samaria and Judea, and perhaps Gaza." She seemed to have been thinking aloud about the consequences of a semi-sovereign Arab state that could later develop and give the Palestinians full self-determination. 

This notional partition of Western Palestine would not necessarily have to be Israeli-initiated. It most certainly would not be along the lines envisioned by the 1947 UN Partition Plan – which the Arabs had rejected. She mused that the new entity might be confederated with Jordan, Israel, or both. It would have to be within the framework of a peace treaty. It could not involve giving up Jerusalem.

She had evidently reflected on the chance that PLO leader Yasser Arafat could have defeated King Hussein and become prime minister of Jordan. Israel would not deal with Arafat in his terrorist capacity, but if he already had a country… she pondered the scenario.

The problem was that Meir was convinced then – and Israelis like me remain persuaded now – that a Palestinian Arab state would sooner or later serve as a staging ground for a final attack on the Jewish state. Meir was trying to figure out how to create a Palestinian state while the Palestinians were engaged in a zero-sum struggle with Israel, while they still did not reconcile themselves to a Jewish national home anywhere in Palestine.

Publicly, Israeli leaders like Meir and Yigal Allon denied that the Palestinian Arabs were a "people" distinct from the surrounding Arab world. Privately, they accepted that "Palestine" and the "Palestinians" would not disappear. They seemed to have reconciled themselves to the concept that the Palestinians saw themselves as holding a unique identity. They also evidently recognized that Israel was ethically culpable in the Palestinian conundrum-- even if overwhelming responsibility lay with the intransigent and self-defeating Palestinian Arab leadership.  

"My mind is open to it. It was closed immediately after the Six-Day War, but I'm willing to open and listen, and if there's a shred of hope, some independent Arab state in Samaria and Judea, and maybe Gaza as well, will be confederate ... I don't care what idea it has," she said. [my loose Hebrew translation].

Fast forward to 2023, when there are some 3 million Palestinians in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. Another 2 million in the Gaza Strip. Add in nearly two million Palestinians who are Israeli citizens within the Green Line, and you have 7 million Arabs living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. 

On the other side of the ledger, there are approximately 7 million Jews in Israel.  Seven million and Seven million.

The dilemma Golda Meir faced in 1970 and that we face in 2023 is how to separate our two peoples while ensuring a viable and secure national homeland for the Jewish people. Meir was surveying these matters whilst Israel was riding a crest of military and societal confidence in the heady days after the Six-Day War. (The War of Attrition ended in August 1970.)  

And, still, no solution was within Meir's grasp.

Today, under Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's polity is fragmented, with many of us trying to block his putsch for regime change in the guise of judicial "reform." His government is comprised in no small measure of apocalyptic messianics who believe there is no such thing as a Palestinian. 

Meanwhile, even the most moderate Palestinian Arab official can't bring themselves to call Israel a "Jewish State" or acknowledge that the Jewish people also have a right to a national homeland and self-determination.

Golda's dilemma remains ours, only more so. 

 

 

'Protesters are wrong when they claim that this judicial reform will end Israeli democracy,' says Trump apologist Alan Dershowitz

 Last Night's Weekly Demonstration in Jerusalem Opposite the President's House

Q & A

The government's judicial overhaul putsch has elicited militant opposition.

For good reason. The Netanyahu government's goal is to enervate the judiciary and make the attorney general and state prosecutor stooges of the cabinet. It wants to drain the Supreme Court of its judicial review powers. Since Israel has no constitution or bill of rights, removing the only institution that checks the government's power would transform Israel into an illiberal democracy. Read up on judicial reform here:

The Israel Democracy Institute

Axios

Israel Hayom

Netanyahu refuses to be interviewed in the Hebrew press, but he has told foreign media outlets that "judicial reform" will improve Israel's democracy. The winner of the Pinocchio Prize told Fox News that he doesn't understand why there is so much interest in Israel's internal affairs. After all, he's "never commented about the internal debates in other democracies." And Trump apologist Alan Dershowitz writes in the JC, "Protesters are wrong when they claim that this judicial reform will end Israeli democracy." 

That very much depends on how you define "democracy." If you mean "pure majority rule" with no structural or constitutional protections for the minority, Israel will be more democratic like the UN General Assembly, where the raw majority rules. It's also a matter of aesthetics -- if you are comfortable shilling for Trump, Julian Assange, and Jeffrey Epstein, you might also feel Netanyahu's regime change putsch doesn't stink.

I don't get why things are so visceral?

Start by looking at who we are battling. The main component of the Netanyahu government is the post-Jabotinsky Likud; many of its MKs have floated into the party from the Haredi-Leumi planet or are garden-variety demagogues and ethno-pyromaniacs. 

Next come the Haredi-Leumi parties led by Ben-Gvir (Jewish National Front), Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party), and Maoz (Noam). All are messianic, apocalyptic, and blinkered. 

Rounding out the government are the ultra-Orthodox UTJ and Shas parties. They are benighted, reflect draft dodgers' interests, and are infamously intolerant. 

Together these radical political parties are trying to create an Israel in their own image.

So this is left versus right?

You're really not getting me. Most Israelis no longer see the political map that way. This is a struggle between liberalism and intolerance, middle-class values against authoritarianism, and cosmopolitanism versus parochialism. If you lived here, which vision would you prefer?

Granted, the "reasonableness" amendment to Israel's Basic Judiciary Law was passed by the Knesset 64-0, but you make it seem like the sky is falling...

"Judicial reform" is an amorphous bundle of proposed bills that elements in the government aim to pass into law. The ultimate outcome would be an Israel in which ultra-Orthodox rabbis (haredi and haredi- Leumi) have more power beyond their current control over "who is a Jew," kashrut, divorce, marriage, and burial.

Political power would be ever more concentrated in the extremist government, which anyway controls the Knesset.

When all is said and done, Israel's media (Kol Yisroel/Kan and Army Radio as well as Channel 11, 12, & 13) ) will be hamstrung, patronage appointees will upstage the professional civil service, budgetary resources will be redistributed to the kollel world, the Bank of Israel and the Bureau of Statistics will cater to the political whims of the government. So, too, the National Library. 

Already, West Bank settlement expansion no longer requires the approval of the political echelon, only a green light from "the Minister in the Ministry of Defense," Bezalel Smotrich, also Finance Minister.

And put aside the brain drain that will ensue if Netanyahu gets his way. Elite IDF units will be short on service personnel and training instructors. Doctors studying abroad or on foreign fellowships may not return. The high-tech sector will be depleted. Longterm, Washington and Western Europe will dissociate from us economically and diplomatically. 

Without a strong Supreme Court, our enemies will exploit their lawfare tools at The Hague and elsewhere. Until now, Israel's High Court of Justice has factored international law into its rulings. If the court is sidelined,  Israeli assertions that we honor international law are fatally undermined.

I just feel it will all work out in the end. The good news, at least, is that Likud ministers are saying they will not pursue any further legislation without a consensus.

Pleeeezzz! Insinuating that they will henceforth curb their rapacious appetites might just be a way to lull the opposition into sluggishness. I will take your sanguinity as naivete, not disingenuousness. 

My response is: "You're either part of the solution or part of the problem."  I mean you.

Or, put another way – "If You Can Keep Your Head When Everybody Round You Is Losing Theirs, Then Maybe You Don't Understand the Severity of the Situation."  

Wake up, for God's sake.

OK. OK. Maybe now is a good time for all sides to compromise?

Do you mean maybe we can settle for a semi-undemocratic Israel? Like Poland or Hungary.  Yair Lapid outlined the singular possible road to compromise in this Knesset speech. There needs to be an 18-month moratorium on regime change while talks to rebuild Israel's polity are conducted.

You have to acknowledge that the courts do have too much power…?

There is no question that Israel's political system needs reengineering – from how we elect the Knesset and the lack of genuine representation for everyone living between the Mediterranean and the River Jordan to restructuring numerous state institutions. 

Doing so calls for a constitutional assembly (like the one envisaged by our Declaration of Independence). You might say we need a Strategic Plan.

Fixing what's wrong should be done systematically, prudently, and by broad consensus, not by a bunch of extremists with a four-seat majority-riding shotgun over the rest of us.

Any further reading suggestions for this weekend?

Yes. These two...

BRET STEPHENS

Israel's Self-Inflicted Wound

YOSSI KLEIN HALEVI

The wounded Jewish psyche and the divided Israeli soul

 

A Black Day for Israel's Democracy

 

'We have taken the first step in the important historical process ...'

                            - Yariv Levin, Justice Minister, and key                                                                                     regime change architect.

- Haaretz, Yediot and Yisroel Hayom all have the same black front page today.

Are the anti-regime change protests helping? (Today is the 206th day of the Netanyahu/Ben-Gvir/Smotrich/UTJ/Shas government) | December 29, 2022

 

                                                 Human Chain Protest This Morning Old City, Jerusalem

Just got back from the "human chain" demonstration from the Old City to the Knesset. It was 33 degrees (91F) near the Jaffa Gate by 10 AM.

"Do you think all these protests will make any difference," we ask each other.

Regardless, we have no option but to protest. Whatever happens, my conscience has to be clear.

Either we lose and wind up with an Israel where a pure majority dominates, or we end up strengthening the principle that democratic values trump majoritarian control.

The Netanyahu-Haredi-Hardal camp argues: "We won – let us enjoy the fruits of victory."

But they want to exploit their four-seat Knesset majority to impose – not "judicial reform" but – their unenlightened vision upon Israel. Their Israel is illiberal. In their Israel, ultra-Orthodox/socially conservative values would dominate popular culture, education, media, and the public square. 

We say that to fundamentally change the rules of the political game, you need to hold the equivalent of a constitutional convention, not exploit a four-seat Knesset majority.

So where are we now?

I have never seen Israel this divided since I made Aliya. Both sides feel they are engaged in a zero-sum game.

And the person who brought us to the precipice of catastrophe is Binyamin Netanyahu.

I wish him good health. When he underwent anesthesia last night to implant a pacemaker, he left Justice Minister Yariv Levin as Acting Prime Minister.

The lengths to which Netanyahu has gone to stay in power are unpardonable. I gave up on him when in 2011, he released 1,027 terrorists from prison. Many had blood on their hands. The worst of them went on to restore Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank. But Bibi -- a master manipulator --changed the subject. 

In building his current coalition, he appointed ethno-pyromaniacs, groomed messianic fanatics, empowered convicted criminals, and raised inciteful demagogues to sensitive ministries. He gave the keys to the kingdom to rabid ideologues Justice Minister Levin and chair of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee Simcha Rothman. 

What now? Later this afternoon, Big Capital and Big Labor may decide whether to call for a general strike if the government insists on proceeding with a vote on the first phase of its regime change putsch.

This is not a simple left-right or religious-secular divide. It is a fundamental disagreement about what kind of Israel each camp wants. 

I pray Netanyahu comes to his senses before the damage he has wrought is irreversible.

 

 

An Open Letter to an Old Comrade -

=========================================

Today is the 204th day of the Netanyahu/Ben-Gvir/Smotrich/UTJ/Shas government, which came into office on December 29, 2022

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Dear Alex,

I have appreciated getting your pieces in support of Netanyahu's judicial "reforms." 

And I am impressed by your energy and creativity.

That said, I wanted you to know that I am committed to blocking the government's efforts at regime change on the basis of its slim four-seat majority. 

As Jabotinsky's yahrzeit approaches, I would like to think it is obvious on which side this cosmopolitan liberal democrat would be standing.

Not with the benighted hardalnikim of the Ben-Gvir/Smotsrich messianic ilk but with the Opposition. He might likely look at the benches of Likud and bow his head in dismay at the demagogues and ethnic pyromaniacs among them. 

He would dissociate from Likud and find another political home. 

You cite Evie Gordon, who is a clever thinker. But one in this instance myopically focused on the trees when the forest is burning. 

This crisis has morphed. It is now only tangentially about judicial reform.

Instead, it is about the ethos of the country -- EITHER liberal, Jewish, and democratic OR ultra-Orthodox-halachic, insular, and politically extremist and messianic. 

I wish you good health, an easy Fast, and that we should all hear besorot tovot. 

Respectfully, 

Elliot