Our Wednesday News Analysis | Israel election: Extreme right in Netanyahu's government won't dent western support

Source: Middle East Eye
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-election-extreme-right-western-support-wont-end

By Jonathan Cook
Published November 4, 2022

The most disturbing outcome of Israel’s general election this week was not the fact that an openly fascist party won the third-biggest tally of seats, or that it is about to become the lynchpin of the next government. It is how little will change, in Israel or abroad, as a result.

Having Religious Zionism at the heart of government will alter the tone in which Israeli politics is conducted, making it even coarser, more thuggish and uncompromising. But it will make no difference to the ethnic supremacism that has driven Israeli policy for decades.

Israel is not suddenly a more racist state. It is simply growing more confident about admitting its racism to the world. And the world - or at least the bit of it that arrogantly describes itself as the international community - is about to confirm that such confidence is well-founded.

There will be no statements calling for the Israeli government to be ostracised as a pariah, nor moves to sanction it

Indeed, the West’s attitude towards Israel’s next coalition government will be no different from its attitude towards the supposedly less-tainted ones that preceded it.

In private, the Biden administration in the US has made plain to Israeli leaders its displeasure at having fascist parties so prominently in government, not least because their presence risks highlighting Washington’s hypocrisy and embarrassing Gulf allies. But don’t expect Washington to do anything tangible...

Read more: Israel election: Extreme right in Netanyahu's government won't dent western support

WHAT KIND OF ‘2–STATE SOLUTION’ IS ISRAEL'S LAPID SPEAKING ABOUT?

Source: Daily Sabah
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/what-kind-of-2state-solution-is-israels-lapid-speaking-about

By NAJLA M. SHAHWAN
Published November 1, 2022

Addressing the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly last month, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid called for a two-state solution to the decades old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel’s security, for Israel’s economy and for the future of our children,” Lapid said.

"Despite all the obstacles, still today, a large majority of Israelis support the vision of this two-state solution. I am one of them," he said, adding that any agreement would be based on a peaceful Palestinian state that would not threaten Israel.

Just one day after Lapid made his U.N. General Assembly speech, a new poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) found that the majority of Jewish Israelis are opposed to advancing a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, at least in the near term.

The poll said that only 31% of Jewish Israelis think that a government formed after the Nov. 1 elections should try to advance a two-state solution. This figure was down from 44% in February 2021. According to the poll, 58% of Jewish Israelis opposed such a move, with another 11% undecided. Among Arab Israelis, the support for a potential two-state solution was far higher, with 60% agreeing the next government should push for such a diplomatic outcome.

The IDI survey included 753 respondents (605 Jews and others, and 149 Arabs). It had a margin of error of 3.59%...

Read more: What kind of ‘2–state solution’ is Israel's Lapid speaking about?

OPINION | RACISM IS PART OF THE DNA OF THIS PLACE

Source: Haaretz
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2022-11-07/ty-article/.premium/racism-is-part-of-the-dna-of-this-place/00000184-4e3c-d91b-adcc-ee3fc5100000

By Tamar Kaplansky
Published November 7, 2022

The wailing and mudslinging and accusations began as soon as the results of the first exit polls were reported. Merav Michaeli is to blame, all those who voted ideologically rather than “strategically” are to blame, and of course – those ingrates, the Arabs, are to blame. Because of them, Benjamin Netanyahu, a man who has done and will continue to do everything possible to get his criminal trial canceled, is returning to power, with the Kahanist Itamar Ben-Gvir and the messianic racist Bezalel Smotrich by his side.

Make no mistake: The 14 Knesset seats claimed by messianic Kahanism is dreadful news, even if it was foreseeable. Less understandable is the feigned surprise and search for scapegoats on the losing side.

We should not be surprised by the rise of an ultra-extremist right like the “New Zionism.” Not only because an ideological vacuum – whether you call it “Anyone but Bibi” or a “centrist party” – is no alternative to a solid ideology, which is exactly what the ultra-extremist right has to offer; not only because the camp that calls itself “center-left” in Israel is by and large a privileged bourgeois group that ignores the weaker parts of society; and not only because a violent thug like Itamar Ben-Gvir, who should never have been issued a gun, became a darling of the media studios.

What happened in this election, and essentially in the other elections of the past decades in which Israel shifted rightward, is that the racism that’s built into Zionism came back to bite its adherents in the ass. You simply can’t have your cake and eat it too...

Read more: Opinion | Racism Is Part of the DNA of This Place