Sabemos poco de
la política israelí contemporánea, más allá de la verborragia guerrera del
actual gobierno de ese país. Uno se pregunta si son sus propias especificidades
geoestratégicas (el país fue definido alguna vez como el “portaaviones” del Imperio
en Medio Oriente) las que condicionan sus distintos matices políticos, o si son
los vientos globales de la época los que imponen su impronta. Un poco y un
poco, claro. La siguiente nota del escritor y político israelí Uri Avnery
apareció hoy en Counterpunch. Avnery ha escrito, entre otras obras, 1948, El
Círculo Vicioso de Israel, e Israel sin Sionismo. A ver si les gusta:
Título: The
Center Doesn’t Hold
Epígrafe: “The
best lack all convictions, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity!”
Texto: Is there a
better description of what is happening in Israel now? Yet these words were
written, almost a hundred years ago, by the Irish poet W. B. Yeats.
Yeats was writing
shortly after the terrible slaughter and destruction of World War I. He
believed that the world was coming to an end, and expected the second coming of
the Messiah.
As part of the
chaos, he foresaw in the same poem that “the center cannot hold”. I believe he
took this metaphor from the battlefields of former ages, when the opposing
armies were arrayed in two lines facing each other, with the main force in the
center, and the two flanks protecting it.
In a classic
battle, each side tried to destroy one of the flanks of the enemy in order to
encircle the center and attack it. As long as the center held, the battle was
undecided.
In Israel, as in
most modern democracies, the center is composed of two or more establishment
parties, slightly left and slightly right. The leftist is the classic Labor
party, now hiding behind the name “Zionist Camp” (which automatically excludes
the Arab minority, some 20% of the electorate.) The rightist is the Likud, the
present incarnation of the old “Revisionist” party founded nearly a hundred
years ago by Vladimir Jabotinsky, a liberal nationalist, in the Italian
Risorgimento style.
This was the
Israeli center, supported by some conjuncture-born parties.
It ruled Israel
since the day of its founding. One party constituted the government, the other
acted as the loyal opposition, and they swapped roles every few years, as they
should in a decent democracy.
On the ‘flanks”
there were the Arab Parties (now united under duress), the small but principled
Meretz on the left, and several religious and proto-Fascist parties on the
right.
It was a “normal”
set-up, like that in many other democratic countries.
No more.
On the
center-left, a mood of resignation and defeat prevails. The old party has
fallen into the hands of a number of political dwarfs, whose quarrels among
themselves obliterate all its other functions.
The present
leader, Yitzhak Herzog, the scion of a good family, carries by law the glorious
title of “Leader of the Opposition”, but doesn’t even know what opposition is.
Some call his party “Likud 2”. On all the vital subjects – such as peace with
the Palestinian people and the Arab world, social justice, human rights,
democracy, separation between state and religion, corruption – the party is
mute. For all practical purposes, it is moribund or worse.
“The best lack
all conviction,” as Yeats lamented. The best elements of Israeli society are
dispirited, defeated, mute.
On the
center-right, the picture is even worse, and much more dangerous. The Likud,
once a liberal, democratic right-wing party, has fallen victim to a hostile
takeover. Its extremist wing has pushed everyone else out, and now dominates
the party completely. In the sense of the same metaphor, the right flank has
taken over the center.
“The worst are
full of intensity”. These rightist radicals are now in full cry. They enact
atrocious laws in the Knesset. They back and encourage detestable acts by
policemen and soldiers. They try to undermine the Supreme Court and the Army
Command. They are intent on building more and bigger settlements. These dangerous
barbarians are indeed “full of intensity”.
The addition of
Avigdor Lieberman to the government completes the frightening picture. Even the
former Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, a measured politician, publicly announced
that this government includes fascist elements.
Why has this
happened? What is the root cause?
The usual answer
is “the people have moved to the right”. But that explains nothing. Why have
they moved rightward? Why?
Some seek the
explanation in the demographic schism in the Israeli Jewish community. Jews
whose families come from Islamic countries (called Mizrahim) tend to vote for
the Likud, Jews whose families come from Europe (Ashkenazim) tend to the left.
That does not
explain Lieberman, whose party consists of immigrants from the former Soviet
Union, about a million and a half, generally called “Russians”. Why are so many
of them extreme rightists, racists and Arab-haters?
A class by
themselves are young leftists, who refuse to support any party. Instead, they
turn towards non-party activism, regularly founding new groups for civil rights
and peace. They support the Palestinians in the occupied territories, fight for
the “purity of our arms” in the army, and do wonderful work for similar causes.
There are dozens,
perhaps hundreds of such associations, many of them supported by foreign funds,
which do wonderful work. But they abhor the political arena, would not join any
party, much less unite for this purpose.
I believe that
this phenomenon comes close to the explanation of the trend. More and more
people, especially young ones, turn their back on “politics” – by which they
mean party politics – altogether. They do not “lack all convictions”, but
believe that the political parties lack all honest convictions and they want
nothing to do with them.
They don’t see
that political parties are a necessary instrument for achieving change in a
democracy. They see them as groups of corrupt hypocrites, lacking real
convictions, and don’t want to be seen in such company.
Thus we come to
an astonishing fact: developments in Israel resemble processes in many other
countries, which have nothing to do with our specific problems.
A few days ago
there were elections for the presidency of Austria. Until now, the Austrian
presidency, a ceremonial office as in Israel, passed between the two main
parties. This time something unprecedented happened: the two final candidates
came from the extreme right and the Greens. The voters just eliminated all the
candidates from the central establishment. Worse, the near-fascist candidate
only lost by a tiny margin.
Austria? A
country which enthusiastically welcomed (the Austrian) Adolf Hitler only 80
years ago, and suffered the full consequences?
The only
explanation is that Austrians, like Israelis, are fed up with the established
parties. The two nations, of equal size, which have nothing else in common,
feel the same.
In France, the
far-right anti-establishment politician Marine Le Pen is celebrating. In Spain,
Holland and some of the Scandinavian states anti-establishment parties are
winning.
In the UK, the
mother of democracy, the public is about to vote for or against the Brexit, a
cause identified with the establishment. To leave the European Union looks (to
me, at least) totally irrational. Yet the chance of it happening seems real.
But why speak
only about smaller countries? What about the lone superpower, the United States
of America?
For months now,
the world public has been watching with growing amazement the incredible ascent
of Donald Trump. From day to day, the drama, which started as a comedy, becomes
more frightening.
What, for god’s
sake, has happened to this great nation? How can millions and millions flock to
the banner of a loud-mouthed, vulgar, ignorant candidate, whose main – and
perhaps only – asset is his distance from all political parties? How could he
overcome, actually destroy, the Grand Old Party, a part of American history?
On the other side
there is Bernie Sanders, a much more appealing character, but one also detested
by his own party, with an agenda that is quite remote from that of the majority
of Americans.
There is only one
similarity between the two: they loathe their parties and their parties loathe
them.
This seems to
have become a world-wide pattern. All over South America, not so long ago a
bulwark of the left, leftist parties are thrown out, and rightist figures take
over.
Considering that
this is happening at the same time in dozens of countries, large and small,
which have absolutely nothing else in common – different problems, different
issues, different situations – this is nothing short of amazing.
For me, this is a
riddle. Every few decades, new ideas come up and infect a large part of
humanity. Democracy, liberalism, anarchism, social-democracy, communism,
fascism, democracy again, and now this kind of chaos, mostly radical
right-wing, are world-wide trends. They don’t yet have a name.
I am sure that
many people, Marxists and others, have a ready-made explanation. I am not
convinced by any. I am just baffled.
Coming back to us
poor Israelis: I just published in Haaretz a practical plan to stem the deluge
and push it back.
I am still
committed to optimism.
