@Dan
There are many technicalities that are just there to justify oppression. Israel did not invent them. Yes, technically Palestinians have autonomy in the occupied territories. I wish you never have to live in such an autonomous land. Not very different than the Warsaw or Łódź ghettos which were technically autonomous I guess.
I always try to be optimistic about Israel where most of my father’s family emigrated before the State was formed. What wonderful dreams they had for themselves and for everyone else who suffered under oppression including Ottoman and British. Each time I saw an old uncle or aunt they were more and more bitter. The last one I saw alive was a friend of Ben-Gurion (that was not his name back when they were close) sobbed when I asked him about Arik Sharon and Sabra & Shatila.
Read Arno Mayer’s From Ploughshares to Swords. It is very good.
12
I can’t imagine why Palestinian Arabs are not permitted to vote in Israel’s elections. Could it have something to do with the fact that they’re not Israeli citizens?
Could it have something to do with the fact that they’ve been perpetrating 70+ years of terror wars in an effort to restore Islamic hegemony over a land their Arab forbears invaded, conquered, colonized...and lost?
Arab Palestinians could have had a viable state many times over. The fact that they don’t is solely on them.
25
This is premature. Netanyahu is on the canvas, and the ref is counting. But until the ref finishes, Bibi can still get up and continue the fight.
22
Gantz: "He seeks stable balances, not permanent solutions. He’s sane."
Bret isn't that what has been happening since 1945, bandaids? Insanity.
3
Israel is not, and has never been, a democracy. It is a state run for the benefit of one subgroup of citizens over another. If it were a democracy, its policies would protect and support all religions and races equally. This is obviously and explicitly not the case. Israel, for all its aspirations and disappointments, is more accurately characterized as a “limited rabbinate” than a democracy.
244
@JMJackson
Hmmmmm. Any memory of US history here? Favoring one group over others -- sound familiar? We've mostly solved that in the US, but not entirely, and the US 100 years ago was not so different from Israel today in voting rights, plus the US then suffered nothing close to the existential threats that Israel must endure. That Israel seems to be headed in the right direction is reason for optimism.
31
@JMJackson. Strange definition of "democracy" you have when compared to the facts. All citizens and residents of, and visitors to, Israel are subject to the same laws.
Israel happens to be, by every objective metric, the only state in the region that "protect[s] and support[s] all religions and races equally." That it fails to do so perfectly, just puts Israel on par with each and every other liberal democracy in the world.
59
@JMJackson
Not too long ago Israel was much more secular. They tried to make peace with their enemies. Carter actually brokered a deal with Egypt that got Anwar Sadat assassinated. Israel offered a two state solution back then. Yassir Arafat said "No, we intend to kill you all". Then an ultra-Orthodox assassin got the Isreali P.M. And then along came Netanyahu, GOP stooge and Trump buddy. Here we are. Israel's trying at least. Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (less so) are corrupt terrorist organizations dedicated to annihilating Israel. Israel has some explaining to do, but it's the Palestinians who need to make some changes. Their intransigence in the first place swung Israel to the far right. A sign of willingness from them that they can and will negotiate in good faith would help Israeli moderates and liberals to get back in charge. If not, stop complaining about the treatment.
47
Yes, just fine. Unless you are Palestinian. South African democracy worked just fine 50 years ago- unless you were not white. Myanmar democracy is working fine- unless you are Rohingya. Russian democracy is working just fine- unless you don't like Putin. Etc., etc., and etc.
15
"Safe separation from the Palestinians...." In other words, apartheid. Because the Palestinians are not humans with the right to integrate; they are apparently a dangerous race that needs to be walled off.
5
This has nothing to do with "race" and everything to do with the fact that Palestinian Arabs are not Israeli citizens. If you ever go to the Middle East, you will see that on Arab maps Israel does not exist. Why would you want them to vote in a country that they believe does not exist?
17
"an ultra-Orthodox woman, C"? Explain, please?
1
“ ... just fine” for Israelis, maybe; you might ask Palestinians, Bret, for whom things are very far from “just fine.”
11
Neither side will even consider Arab parties in forming the government and they only represent the Arabs living under Israel's control who can actually vote. Isn't democracy wonderful.
2
Please check on what these Arab parties believe, and then you may understand why they are nof welcome in an Israeli government.
12
Of course full support to Israel “Democracy”
The reason the term "apartheid" will never be successfully applied is that the people who actually live there know it isn't true. The Arabs living in Israel know they have the best deal--the best standard of living, the best representation, and the best security against Arab standards of torture and corruption--in that entire region. The Arabs living in the so-called occupied territories know it isn't true because they voted out any sane government when, in Gaza, they voted for Hamas: something that westerners may forget, but those who live there, day by day, can not forget. So let the chic antisemitic left (of which I'm part) sit at dinner parties and toss around the term "apartheid." This is merely the outsider looking for words to help us demonize that which we had already decided to demonize: the Jew.
17
How’s that Democracy doing on behalf of Arab Israeli or Palestinians in the occupied territories...? Just fine?
5
Any country in which so many people support the grotesque demagogic crook Netanyahu can't be doing so well. Like a country in which so many people support the grotesque demagogic crook Trump. Stephens, of course, is Israel's official cheerleader in the MSM, so we're not surprised that he's giddy with joy over basically a tie between Ganz and Bibi. The rest of us may be less easily impressed or reassured. We need to see a stake through Bibi's heart, just for starters.
7
Netanyahu received 37,165 fewer votes than Gantz out of 4,431,000 votes cast. Netanyahu got .2509 of the votes cast, while Gantz got .2593 of the votes cast. A difference of .0084. This results in Bret proclaiming "...Israeli voters recoiled ..." at Netanyahu. Really Bret? What you been smoken?
5
Some democracy! More an insecure mini-empire.
Israeli citizens vote the fate of the West Bank and Gaza Palestinians without Palestinian participation. Israeli citizens living in the West Bank enjoy privileges denied to their Palestinian neighbors. The Israeli military maintains Gaza as a quarantined concentration camp run by thugs and cut off from the world.
What we have here is not democracy, just never-ending religious arrogance, strife, and oppression among the quarrelsome descendants of Biblical Abraham.
5
Israel is only a democracy for separate and superior Jews.
Israel is no more a universal civil secular plural egalitarian democracy than was enslaved and Jim Crow era America and apartheid South Africa era were for black African and brown First Nations human beings living under their jurisdiction.
How did the 6 million Christian Muslim Arab Palestinian Israelis living under the dominion of 6.1 million Israeli Jews by occupation, blockade/siege, exile and 2nd class citizenship vote in the last Israeli election?
Are Christian Muslim Arab Palestinian Israelis divinely naturally created equal persons with certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Are Christian Muslim Arab Palestinian Israelis legally, morally and politically justified to use and any all means necessary to obtain their freedom and liberty used by the founders of America and Israel?
6
An apartheid state exists where large numbers are disenfranchised. The Palestinians are a good example; the Jews in the settlements across the Jordan have the vote, the Arabs living there do not.
5
It’s curious how many commenters bemoan the “apartheid” of Israel but have no similar qualms about the expulsion and complete absence of Jews from other Middle East countries. Can’t there be one tiny state the Jewish people can call their own? Their a dozens for Muslims.
19
Bret, as an ultra orthodox might say, “ Baruch HaShem” ( bless the name or praise G-d). For me, that means that naming a park and a town for Trump and moving the American Embassy to Jerusalem were trump cards( forgive me) that Netanyahu played that did not win the trick. So, with all “ the love” between Bibi and Trump, Israelis were not taken in. I am convinced that Trump’s accusation that a Jewish vote for a Democrat is anti-Israel is more dead than ever. I give you a hearty thank you. Discussing these issues , by you and colleagues like David Brooks,give a “little something extra”. By that, I mean so called Jewish conservatives who are strong “ small d” democrats.
3
I wouldn't really say its doing fine since the one Arab party is not allowed by the Jewish parties to participate in government. Anywhere else that would be called blatantly racist but in Israel that's just called democracy.
3
Sorry.. but who knows Israeli politics well.. knows it is all based on fear mongering demagoguery. the examples are too many.. i will name a few.. although israel had the upper hand military for the past 7 decades..always its leaders used the Holocaust to rally the base... last of which was Netanyahu and Barak.. even Olmert didn't
samething happened just before the 6 days war in 67. I have seen demagoguery in israel.. sorry ... but it is alive and well. even better.. this style has been exported to by Israelis .. i see it in the US Brazil..Hungary.. Poland.. and some how in France and the UK
btw..note how inflated and corrupt the defense budget and industry.. it is worse than the military industrial complex here in the US
5
If you are a Palestinian or non-Askenazi Jewish citizen of Israel, you know darn well lit isn't a democracy. If your home is threatened with demolition and you daily fear deadly attacks from settlers or IDF soldiers, you know it even more. We should not be supporting this aggressive apartheid state without demanding pro-democracy reforms and standards of human rights.
5
On an entirely irrelevant track:
Hm, if Netanyahu won a clear victory, our Beloved Leader, Bibi's BFF, would be crowing loudly. I have heard nothing.
1
With a little help from Non Jews
"Israel Election Results: How Arab Voters Helped Deprive Netanyahu of Victory"
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-election-results-netanyahu-arab-voters-1.7861259
2
Even if Benny Gantz becomes the new Prime Minister nothing much will change. The Times Op Ed section will have a new Israeli Prime Minister to hate and despise.
Meet the new Prime Minister. Same as the old Prime Minister.
5
Israel is NOT a democracy.
It is a theocracy. Deference to Judaism is inherent. Israelis are Yahweh's chosen people: Israel (and surroundings) are their land of milk and honey.
Thus Israel is troubled by godstory delusions as are all theocracies. The USA (now interfering with Academic Religious Studies) included.
5
Great opinion piece Mr. Stephens. As an American from a Middle Eastern descent I absolutely concur with you that despite all its wrinkles, Israel is about the only functioning democracy in the region. I would bet that a majority of Muslims living in theocracies and dictatorship in the region would gladly trade places with an Israeli Arab, who actually can vote and live in peace and security inside the well protected borders of Israel.
47
Fine column but the growing left wing of the Democratic party will not care until Israel is another failed Muslim majority state from the river til the sea. Then it will blame the USA for the failure.
5
I stopped paying any respect for the actions of the Israeli government on the day Ivanka, Jared, and a dozen other Americans were dancing and partying, celebrating the embassy move to Tel Aviv while fifty miles away troops were killing dozens of protesting Palestinians.
Bret knows his role in this tragic farce.
6
It's clear Israels are as divided as Americans on security and foreign policy issues and Bibi exploited it for all it was worth...it was just not enough at this moment. With Iran rattling the sword, and more than likely fully responsible for the attack against Saudi Arabia, the possible soon to be former Prime Minister will work this to his political advantage. Since being the mouth piece for an all out US led war against Iran that outcome sadly is becoming more and more likely as the Saudi's will clearly retaliate, even while Trump decides to sit on his hands.
This will only strengthen Netanyahu as he as always wanted this fight and sadly it looks like it is right dead ahead in front of us.
A Democracy gives all of its population equal right, at least, to vote. Millions within the domain of Israeli power and current citizenship do not have such rights. Thus, it is not a Democracy.
2
@Loring Vogel
Arabs residing in the so-called West Bank are not Israeli citizens. Prior to 1967, they were Jordanian citizens. Now they’re called Palestinians, and their governing body is called the ‘Palestinian Authority’.
9
Yes, Mr. Stephens, it's true. A career can be built on "shameless pandering, the ignoble kowtowing, the self-serving recklessness".
That arc of history has been playing out for a long time. Taking a snapshot of a current event, such as the recent Israeli election, is convenient if one wants to ignore all the other snapshots. But just as the USA learned recently, sometimes history has another point of view. Just as defeating Donald Trump will not signal All is Well, the defeat of Netanyahu does not make the half of the nation that supported him go away.
3
Why doesn't anyone understand that Israel and the United States are not democracies? The United States is a constitutional republic governed by the Constitution. Democracy was the the last thing the Founding Fathers wanted. Israel has a parlimentary system it adopted from when the British Mandate. In Israel they vote for the party and the party with the most votes wins and gets to form the government. The head of the winning party becomes Prime Minister.
2
This just in: democracy has come in a number of different flavors ever since it got somewhat invented in ancient Athens. It’s reasonable to argue about whether a direct or a representative democracy works best (FYI: we have a mixed system), but it’s just plain silly to claim that our government isn’t democratic.
I really think that this sort of nonsense is the more-tiresome aspect of the leftish. It’s not just that it’s wildly inaccurate and pretty clueless, or even that this kind of stuff papers over the real problems.
It’s that it completely dismisses the idea of hard work that improves things towards “a more perfect union,” and disses everybody in the Civil Rights movements who in many cases ended up dead in a dirt dam because they believed in better.
And I swear, it’s what people who were too lazy to vote say, every time they want an alibi for that.
6
Is "the need to separate from the Palestinians" a code phrase for a two-state solution? Or maybe it's support for the wall.
I literally don't know what Stephens means by this term, which he used at least twice.
2
Bret’s piece also reminds us that, for all its problems, Israel remains the only actual, working democracy in the Middle East. And there are no other countries in that region likely to become so in the future. The rest are all either military dictatorships (Egypt, Syria), run by billionaire sheiks under Islamic law (Saudi Arabia, UAE), puppet governments of other Middle East countries (Lebanon) or theocratic dictatorships (Iran). I’m not sure what to call Iraq these days, but it certainly is not a democracy.
History would suggest that when (and it will be a when, not if) the Palestinians get their own state, it will not be a democracy, It has no oil, so no ready source of cash. It is far more likely a Palestinian state will be run as a puppet government of Iran or others, like Lebanon is, than a democracy.
In sum, there is very little history of democracy in the Middle East other than Israel. Even those who hate Israel, for anti-Semitic or other reasons, need to remember that. At some point they need to decide whether they hate Jews and prefer dictatorships more than they like democracy.
9
Incredible how criticisms are buried while praise is printed and reprinted. Sometimes I wonder if I should just switch to another paper. Not many choices there unfortunately.
3
Israel does not allow its Jewish citizens freedom of religion either. Jewish citizens are not allowed the freedom to marry, divorce, or perform other rituals outside of the orthodox rabbinate. That means that Jewish citizens must be married by an orthodox rabbi, must have conversions performed by an orthodox rabbi, must divorce in a religious court overseen by orthodox rabbis. Many, many Israelis leave the country to get married so they can marry with the rabbi of their choice, or marry civilly. I’m not sure how that fits into any definition of democracy, it seems to fit in more with a liberal theocracy, or limited democracy. Israeli Jews do have more freedoms and rights then Israeli Arabs or Palestinians, but even for Jews Israel is not yet a democracy.
6
No matter how you analyze it, Israel is far from a "democracy." As long as it can't decide if it's a nation or a theocracy, really doesn't matter who wins. Perhaps with the removal of Bibi it might prove easier for them to decide.
2
Like Stephens, I can’t help but be proud that Israel, with real existential enemies , turned away from a demagogue. Hopefully it’s a harbinger of a zeitgeist change away from nationalist right wing politics here and in Europe
4
An ethno-state with millions under military occupation is not a democracy, it is an active dictatorship.
3
I thought this was tongue in cheek at first.
2
Meanwhile the “good” Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority, haven’t had fair and free elections in almost ten years. Abbas is almost a decade into a 4 year term. No young and inspired Palestinian leadership is even given a shot to rise and represent their people. If only the world pressured them like they pressure Israel.
11
Think that Lyndsay Graham once said that the choice between Trump and Cruz was like choosing between being poisoned and shot. Same for Palestinians between Netanyahu and Gantz, who when Bibi announced he would annex a large part of the West Bank accused him of stealing his policies!
Some 5 million Palestinians live under Israeli military occupation and have no say in the governing of their lives. Even the 1.5 million Israeli Arabs who can vote are second class citizens because they live in a religious state and are not Jews. None of this constitutes democracy in any meaningful sense.
3
Israeli democracy is having Brexit-like problems functioning, but it can get past that.
The real problem is that it is not a democracy for about half of the people who are governed by it. It is only a meaningful democracy for Jews. Even those Muslims who can be elected are by common agreement excluded from any role in government, and those Muslims who can vote at all are only a fraction of those effectively controlled by the Israeli government.
You can't call that democracy, because it isn't for all. Democracy only for a privileged few has other names.
6
Steve Siegel: "One small problem. There are 2.7 million people in the West Bank, and 1.9 million in Gaza, who, in all ways that count, are living under Israeli rule. They didn't get to vote in this election." ugh no. The Palestinians in Gaza violently threw out the Palestinian authority and voted in Hamas a virulant anti-Semitic terrorist entity who targets Women and Children. The Palestinians in the West Bank voted once ten years ago for Abbas, and then once in no more elections were held ever. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and the P.A. turned down multiple offers of a Palestinian State and aided and abetted the wave of terrorist bombings in the 2nd Intefada. They absolutely voted for entities that controlled their living conditions..they just voted for corrupt,inept, and violent anti-semitic organizations. They are responsible for their plight.
14
"Israeli voters recoiled at the shameless pandering, the ignoble kowtowing, the self-serving recklessness. In an age of demagogues, Israelis showed that demagogy doesn’t work."
Really? This is the conclusion Stephens draws from an election in which Netanyahu's party came in second, winning only two fewer seats in than the Knesset than the first place Blue and White party? This is supposed to signal the Israeli electorate's repudiation of Netanyahu's overtly racist campaign?
To be sure, we ought to be happy that Netanyahu was denied a majority. But Stephens and the rest of us would have better cause to celebrate if the voters punished Netanyahu for his despicable behavior by abandoning Likud, making it crystal clear that they would not return until Bibi was gone. Then, and only then, might we safely conclude that demagoguery doesn't work.
1
THE VOTING RECORD OF PALESTINIANS IN PALESTINE
No one armed with the facts can celebrate Israeli democracy, which is built on the denial of democracy to others, with Israel's blatantly racist strategy aided and protected at every turn by the United Stares.
Palestinians last voted in a national election in 2006 for the Palestinian Legislative Council. The election was monitored by international groups including The Carter Center.
Hamas won the majority of votes and was poised to take power democratically, but the Israeli response was to arresr Palestinian lawmaker and announce that Israel would not work with a Hamas-led government.
The U.S. responded by accepting the Israeli position and refused to recognize the democratic outcome of the election.
The result of Israel’s subversion of democracy for the Palestinian population living under Israeli military control was that Fatah continued to represent West Bank Palestinians without a mandate to do so.
In Gaza, in 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, working with Israel and Egypt, facilitated the surreptitious entry into Gaza of Fatah fighters, who began a civil war to control Gaza. The US provided weaponry to Fatah but Hamas won the Gaza Civil War.
Source: Please see a 2008 article in Vanity Fair for details. - “The Gaza Bombshell” Vanity Fair, April 2008 by David Rose
2
Whether they like it or not, everyone paying attention knows what Israel is. Any confusion is over what the word "democracy" means to Mr. Stephens.
1
Democracy ? Bret, I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Just saying.
2
One swallow does not a summer make. I’ll believe in Israeli democracy when Bibi is in jail, West Bank settlements are razed and the walls and checkpoints disappear.
1
Unlike the U.S., one never hears about gerrymandering or voter suppression in Israel. The mechanics of democracy are as important as the candidates.
2
“Separation” and a “fair settlement” with the Palestinians: "Separation” is such an odd term. What does it mean? What is it hiding? It means, for sure, something less than a state for the Palestinians. As does the equally vague “fair settlement”. It means, presumably, Israel retains the settlement blocks, all territory inside the wall, all of Jerusalem, and ‘control’ over the Jordan Valley. Which leaves for the Palestinians..some kind of ’autonomy’? Sounds familiar. Good luck with your ‘separation’ Mr. Stephens. Yes, Israeli democracy is doing just fine.
Very disheartening. The majority of comments from readers hold Israel’s democracy in contempt. But in case these readers are unaware, the Arab populations in Gaza and the West Bank are governed by Hamas and the PA, groups committed by their organizational charters to Israel’s destruction. So how is that supposed to work? How is Israel to include a segment of the population within the democratic process when that segment’s sole goal is the anti-democratic demise of another segment of the population?
10
When nearly half your population is not allowed to vote, are you really a democracy? That is the situation in Israel.
1
Bret as usual is incorrect. Israel is fast becoming a human rights violator of the first order. How can one even think Israel is a democracy when 3 million citizens who are not Israelis are not permitted to vote. Its South Africa II.
2
This article is moot because Israel was not a democracy to begin with- no democracy suppresses the rights of another minority, brutalizes them, takes their land and intimidates anyone who dares to challenge it on the global stage. BDS!!!
2
Israel a democracy ?
2
Yep. Because democracy comes in a lot of flavors, all the way back to ancient Athens.
It may not be one I approve of, given Netanyahu and the religious crazies, but there’s voting for most. There’s representation, there’s an elected government, there’re laws and so on.
And yeah, Arabs are treated unequally. And they also turned out in droves to vote, and are represented in the government. And yeah, Palestinians get a raw deal—in no small part from their own squabbling “leaders,” and their vicious little games, not to mention their terrorists, not to mention the manupulative and cynical governments around them.
But it’s not like Stephens is saying, “Hooray for Israel, it’s PERFECT!” Quite the contrary; the argument here is they’re doing okay, don’t let the screen door hitcha, Bibi.
This just in: democracy isn’t a panacea. It’s just the sanest ways—note the plural—we’ve come up with to run a government.
6
Israel's democracy is doing as well as was the democracy of our Antebellum South.
5
I sometimes wish I could stick the people who call slavery and apartheid and nazism at the drop of a hat into a time machine, and ship them back to Mississippi in 1835, or Independence Mizz in 1960, or Soweto in 1980, or Auschwitz itself in 1944, leave ‘em for a week, haul them back here, and ask them what they think about israel now.
Is Bibi a greedy, irresponsible, far-right jerk? Of course. Are the religious nutcakes in Israel a huge problem, just like here? Absolutely. Does the country treat its minorities badly? Well, duh.
But cripes, grow a sense of proporstion. You can’t even criticize Israel intelligently when you use a paint roller like this.
6
Bret, you're wrong. Israel is still an apartheid state. A large number of people in areas occupied and controlled by the Israeli government lack both the right to vote for that government and the right of free movement. If they were Jewish, they'd be allowed those privileges, and if they were Jewish and from another country they'd be allowed to immigrate and gain those privileges.
It's also worth noting that Israel commits war crimes against these disenfranchised people. Collective punishment for individual acts has been considered a war crime for generations, and Israel regularly destroys the homes of families of people who commit crimes.
Don't let a squeaker of an election fool you. Israel is an always has been an apartheid state.
4
Wasn't there a similar situation to the Netanyahu/Gantz deadlocked election in the 1980's between Yitzak Shamir and Shimon Peres? Eventually a power sharing compromise was worked out where Shamir and Peres would take turns being Prime Minister and everything worked out in the end. Why can't Bibi Netanyahu and Benny Gantz try the same thing? It couldn't hurt!!
1
Brilliant as always
6
No. I think as wrong as always. See if this opinion gets printed even though it is the opposite of your opinion.
3
Democracy for a few. Israel controls all aspects of Palestinian lives in the West Bank yet millions cannot vote.
5
@penney albany
Arabs in the ‘West Bank’ are not Israeli citizens, hence they don’t vote in Israel’s elections. They were, in fact, Jordanian citizens....
11
Doing just fine but for the 5 million Palestinians subjected to Israeli control and sanction with no opportunity to express their rights as human beings on this earth. Doing just fine but for the Israeli Arabs subjected to 65 separate laws crafted specifically for non-Jews. It is a defamation of the word democracy when using in the same sentence with the word Israel. It cannot be. It is not a "made up world" no matter the tight focus of your blinders.
4
@Zane Kuseybi
Wars have consequences. Perhaps the Arabs... themselves the descendants of invaders, occupiers, and economic migrants to a land not their own...should have considered the prospect of ‘losing’ before waging 70+ years of terror wars against a sovereign nation in their ongoing efforts to wipe Israel off the map.
There’s not a nation on earth that would tolerate for even one day what Israel has had to endure for over 70 years. The United States certainly wouldn’t...and didn’t.
9
Israel's democracy is doing fine? Is it really? So they said in South Africa, as millions of black South Africans were excluded.
Israel's occupation of Palestinians and their land discredits Israel. They are not like us, and it is time for Americans to distance ourselves from Israel's "democracy" lest they tarnish us further.
5
Bret Stephens hits the nail on the head: Israel is a powerful military state with the mentality of a Polish-Lithuanian shtetl. Israeli politicians behave in strangely childish ways and give the rest of us quite a bit of concern. Not that Boris Johnson or Donald Trump are adults in any sense but I guess we expect more of Israel. Probably that is a mistake.
4
I think Stephens should read a real intellectuals opinion, like Tony Judt who wrote a brilliant op-ed, describing Israels so called “democracy” in the NYT several years ago, worth searching for.
Wow! So we’ve reached the state of excepting the illegal (under international law) half century occupation of an entire people, numbering in the millions; and imposition of apartheid as ‘a functioning democracy that’s doing just fine’? Truly incredible!
4
Israel has been an apartheid regime in practice if not in name since Sharon orchestrated the destruction of the Oslo Accords attempt at a successful two-state solution in late 2000. Prior to Sharon's action, Dennis Ross, who had been the lead US negotiator, wrote that after years of effort he finally sensed success. Arafat had an opportunity to mitigate the impact of Sharon's violation of Haram al Sharif with his 500 armed police force, but once again he once more opted for failure.
Sharon, as Israel's new PM, which had been his goal in ending the Oslo Accord process, withdrew the small Jewish settlement from Gaza, as too costly to maintain, then built the barrier on Palestinian land, effectively prevented access to Jerusalem from most Palestinians, and put Arafat under house arrest, where he died not long thereafter.
4
I think the election results gives alot of reason to hope. The election results signals a possible return to the kind of mature, ethical and uncompromising leadership Israel needs. The center is the best place for bringing people together, diplomacy and getting the necessary work done. Israel made the right decision and I hope this will help usher in an equally centrist, peace focused approach from Palestine.
I'm surprised that the Arab Knesset Members don't pass a resolution to vote Israel out of existence.
1
"What won’t be happening anytime soon is the demise of Israel’s boisterous democracy"
How is Israel a "boisterous democracy" with nearly 3 million residents (not citizens) of the west bank unable to participate?
Bret - apartheid and democracy are not the same, check it out.
2
Sure Brett, the only thing preventing a full blown civil war between the secular Tel Aviv and the military against the ultra orthodox and settlers currently is the others , currently the others are , Palestinians and Iran. Watching ours boys own HBO is amazing eye opener.
If Israeli is to make peace with it’s enemies, then they would be at each other’s throats.
1
By definition, Israel is not a democracy. So you're wrong right off the top
3
Trump/Netanyahu: birds of a feather who try to subvert democracy for their own narcissistic benefit. Israeli - and hopefully soon American - voters have proven the adage that "you can't fool all the people all the time".
2
As long as Israel remaines the occupier of the West Bank in direct violation of international law, ( despite the disingenuous Israeli spin) and engages in the daily repression of the Palestinian people, how in the world can Israel be called a healthy democracy? Does Brett Stevens regard the governments of Alabama and Missisippi during Jim Crow as "healthy democracies"?
2
Actually, the charge of apartheid practice still holds. Israel's policies in the West Bank are effective apartheid, with Jewish settlers in that territory living under Israeli law, while Arabs in the same area are subject to military administration.
Also, within Israel proper, it is not inaccurate to say that certain elements of soft de-facto apartheid are present, such as when government, public municpal rabbis call for no selling or leasing of land or residences to non-Jews.
3
According to Stephens, Israel is perfect.
1
@Nothing wrong with a little diversity of opinion considering that most NYT editorials continuously portray Israel as IMPERFECT while they whitewash the violence and hatred of the other side.
5
Actually, according to Bret, Bret is perfect :-)
1
Sure it is if you're not a Palestinian about to see your land annexed by Israel and your rights suppressed. Other than that? AOK. Just a bunch of noisy Israeli political parties deciding how to divide up the spoils. True democracy.
2
The similarities between Netanyahu and Trump are unnerving
3
As an Israeli I would not jump to such an optimistic conclusion so quickly. The elections were a bit of fresh air but only a first step. Even if our prime minister leaves the stage, the damage he has done to Israel's soul and democracy will not be so easily healed.
119
What is your understanding of a fair settlement with Palestinians? That would imply restitution of the land that was taken from them, and atonement on Israel's part. There is only one possible fair deal: equal rights in a unified State.
9
@Falcon
Except that cannot happen.
The Palestinians have been conditioned by their leaders since '92 that Palestine with be 'From the Jordan to the Sea' with no Jews. Any leader that proposes less then that is a dead man walking. Their media denies that there is a Jewish history to the land at all. Including denial that Temple Mount ever had the 1st & 2nd Temples. In any negotiations, the Palestinians demand everything and will concede nothing. What they want is abject surrender.
The Israelis, left & right, don't trust the Palestinians at all. Not after the carnage of the bus bombings in the early 00's. Also after pulling out of Gaza they got rocket fire in return. Yes, Israel has done incursions into Gaza but never to point that it would probably require: leveling it like Assad did to the Syrian city of Hama on the 1980's.
9
@Rocket J Squrriel
I contend that the denial of Palestinian rights is, in itself, violence. That violence will some day end, kindly or unkindly. Palestinians will be free.
2
I had to look up epigones.
6
Netanyahu is exactly like Trump: wont leave office to face indictment
4
Yes, we can all look to Jerusalem for hope. Just ask any Palestinian.
12
@FJG
Made me smile. I wonder if Bret got it.
"Israel's Democracy is Doing Fine"
Really? Here's a statement from a prominent Israeli politician you may have heard of:
"Israel is not a state of all its citizens. Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people—and it alone."
21
Whew, glad that crisis has passed!
2
The writer needs to speak with more Israelis, and read more Israeli media in Hebrew, since most of his assertions, and facts interpretations are totally wrong.
9
What also won’t happen anytime soon is an end to Mr. Stephens’ whitewashing of Israel’s crimes.
21
No one should debate that Israel is a democracy inside the 1967 borders - by any fair and reasonable measure, Israel is very much a real democracy, with real and regular elections, with vibrant free press, with strong academic institutions, with an independent judiciary, with vigorous and open debate and dissent. Is Israel a perfect democracy? Absolutely not. Is Israel a perfect country? Absolutely not, not even remotely close. Does Israel deserve criticism? Absolutely. Just like every other democratic country deserves criticism for its issues - in the Trump era, it’s hard for us to criticize any other country given who we elected and have as our President; let’s see if we can vote Trump out in 2020 like the Israelis apparently just voted our Netanyahu (but don’t count Bibi out just yet - he is known as magician for a reason). Indeed, my many measures Israel is a remarkable and admirable country inside the 1967 borders. It’s an essential safe haven for all Jews worldwide.
Israel’s problem as a democracy lies outside the 1967 borders - 52 years of illegal military occupation of West Bank, illegal blockade/virtual occupation of Gaza, illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and Golan Heights while not giving Israeli citizenship to Muslim and Christian Arab residents of those annexed areas. Outside 1967 borders, Israel already is an Apartheid state.
12
@MC: Netanyahu won the last election by demonizing the Arabs who live *INSIDE* Israel's borders. It could easily happen again.
All Arabs in east Jerusalem and the Golan are granted permanent residency and offered citizenship. None of them take it.
The Golan is not occupied. Israel has controlled it longer then Syria ever did. It is also strategic. When Syria controlled it they shelled it daily. Ever wonder how Syrian snipers got their reputation? It was from shooting Israelis from the strategic height of the plateau. East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control for almost 20 years. They paved roads with Jewish tombstones and put snipers on the Temple Mount. Should Israel go back to the status quo?
6
@Mat
Israel should follow international law. So should the Palestinians. So should all other countries.
Israel has its own elections and every citizen, including Arabs and Palestinians who are citizens, have a vote. The Arab party is the third largest in the Knesset because they were elected. This is democracy at work.
Palestinians have their own elections in the West Bank, as do the people in Gaza. The latter resulted in Hamas being elected to power. No Israelis or Jews have ever been in either government, nor are they welcome. This is antisemitism at work.
18
@Lori
The West Bank Palestinians haven't had elections since 2006 I think.
5
Israeli or Jew were not in the Palestinian Governments because they know these Governments have no real power, all power is with Israeli Government.
1
@Lori
Are many Jews applying to join the Hamas or Fatah governments?
2
Really?
N has been in power a long long time, and he may even manage to survive this time too, all to Israel's everlasting shame.
But Bret, I do appreciate your assurances and fancy words. You always dance around the distasteful very well.
10
Netanyahu will be, when the prosecutors indict early October, the second prime minister in a dozen years charged with felony corruption. It is uncertain how Israel's next pm will form a government out of Tuesday's results. Ultra-Orthodox parties in check for now are ascendent and inevitable given their birth rate which is akin to rabbits. Their policies are hardly democratic they're racist, misogynist and xenophobic.
That's the present and the future of Israel. It hardly inspires optimism.
5
Israel is not the democracy that the USA is but in that region it is a shining example to which no one comes close.
10
@MIKEinNYC
A classic case of faint praise.
1
@MIKEinNYC
It is a democracy that exists at the expense of an entire nation. It is a shining example to none but those who are blind to oppression.
1
Waiting for elections in Saudi Arabia, Iran, the UAE, . . .
15
@B.
Comparing Israel to outright dictatorships does not constitute a defense of Israel's anti-democratic tendencies.
2
In a true Parliamentary Democracy, the party with the most votes (Giants) would absolutely consider an alliance with the party that came in 3rd. But given that the Arab party came in 3rd, and we are talking about Israel, an alliance is an impossibility. So it’s not much of a democracy then.
9
so I guess you also don't consider the U.K. a democracy either? The SNP was the 3rd largest vote getter in the last election and are not part of the ruling coalition.
1
@S. Jackson Nope...if the party that came in third, being the Joint List, isn't going to cooperatively work with Likud or Blue and White to form a government that the lead party can stomach, then it's not going to happen. This is why Likud and Blue and White are negotiating with Yisrael Beytenu, the party that came in fourth, which is lead by Netanyahu protégé Avigdor Lieberman.
The Joint List is a combination of 4 Arab-Israeli parties which range from far left Communists to conservative Islamist, which as a whole are very divergent in their political beliefs, only sharing the fact that their bases are non-Jewish.
3
I actually am waiting for elections right here in the USA. Very anxiously at that.
2
This accolade is premature.
Bibi did lose a few seats but is only two seats behind the closest opposition.
To me this latest election demonstrates that Israel is divided, as most democratic countries are, and that the apartheid and theocracy vote was still significant.
I will await the make up of the majority coalition before I agree with Stephens.
And again this outcome shows the dangers of proportional representation on counting the vote. Minority parties end up with more influence than their absolute numbers in the population.
6
Like saying “American democracy is doing just fine” when only white American males had a role or a real choice.
Suggested reading for Bret? Elementary texts on what “democracy” and “democratic societies” actually are.
20
Call it what you will. But half of the people living under Israeli sovereignty are Palestinians. Most of them are voteless. And there is an agreement among the majority-Jewish parties to never include representatives of the majority-Arab parties in any government. Thats not a democracy.
24
Let me summarise. The wonderful Israeli Democracy keeps the corrupt politician with grand taste for annexion in contention for the leader position. The party of the second rate citizens, Arabs, are the third party in the Knesset, but it doesn't mean much because the first two parties vowed not to work with this party underscoring the racist nature of resultthese parties, but both of them don't mind to work with far-right smaller party that is very anti-Arabs. Really spectacular result of the wonderful working Democracy.
17
@yulia
How can you work with a party that is all but calling for your destruction?
2
How did we get here is a better question I would think.
Read Arno Mayer’s From Ploughshares to Sword. Holocaust survivor and Princeton professor of history. Still alive.
1
"Israel is a state with the geopolitical considerations of a superpower, the political intrigues of a city, and the personal feuds of a shtetl." Brilliant.
10
Brett,
This article of yours was a masterpiece. Thank you.
I agree 100%
Where else in the entire arab/ muslim world can arabs/muslims vote freely. Only in Israel!!
How ironic...
11
@Andre: Tunisia
1
They can vote in Tunisia.
1
Is it perhaps a masterpiece because you agree with it one hundred percent?
2
There is one problem with your assumption that Israel has a democracy. Here is the statement by Netanyahu explaining new Israel's law to Totem Sela as per NYT new article ; “Dear Rotem Sela, I read what you wrote. First of all, an important correction: Israel is not a state for all its citizens. According to a basic law we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people — and the Jewish people only,” .
How this new law is compatible with Democracy?
26
A 50-50 split between the forces of democracy and those of fascism is hardly what I’d call a resounding victory for our side.
7
@Walt Bruckner Not that the term 'fascism' is at all appropriate here, but if you mean it as a unimaginative synonym for 'right-wing', then 50-50 is still better than what's happening in the US, the UK, India, Brazil, Hungary, Poland and Austria - just to name a few. Switzerland is not looking too cute either. It's a global movement.
Israel has been 10 years ahead of other democracies in terms of political trends. The latest elections show that there are limits to how right-wing the majority of the population is ready to go. It's shifting slightly back to the centre.
It might be a precursor of worldwide trends. We should be rather optimistic.
2
Israel is above all other things an ethnocracy. The use of the word "democracy" to describe who she is and what she does in the world--and especially to the Palestinian people-- obscures to the reader or thinker who uses the word the reality of her situation, which does not fairly include the meaning of "justice" implied by the word "democracy." Israel is trapped in her own blindness--and we do not relieve her of that predicament by facilitating it.
11
Haneen Zoabi, a member of the Israeli Knesset, kept her seat even though she rode on the Mavi Marmara as part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. She has also denounced Israel publicly on an unending number of occasions. No country but Israel would allow that.
12
They did stripped her of the right to vote in Parliament committees, she also was suspended from the Knesset
2
Sure, if you are not an Arab Israeli and/or a Palestinian in the occupied territory. That is a lot of people by the way.
8
@Blunt Palestinians have full autonomy under the PA and Hamas.
Last time they voted was in 2006 and 2007, respectively. They could do it again, but they don't, because they live under a ruthless dictatorship. Nothing to do with Israel.
Israeli Arabs are the 3d largest party in Israel. So far they have refrained from participating in the political system: they have never recommended a PM.
They might do so soon - I would give it 5 years. That's because they are less interested in the whereabout of their Palestinian neighbours than you (think you are) in NYC. Promoting their interests as Israeli citizens is slowly taking precedence.
Here's to hope.
2
There are many technicalities that are just there to justify oppression. Israel did not invent them. Yes, technically Palestinians have autonomy in the occupied territories. I wish you never have to live in such an autonomous land. Not very different than the Warsaw or Łódź ghettos which were technically autonomous I guess.
I always try to be optimistic about Israel where most of my father’s family emigrated before the State was formed. What wonderful dreams they had for themselves and for everyone else who suffered under oppression including Ottoman and British. Each time I saw an old uncle or aunt they were more and more bitter. The last one I saw alive was a friend of Ben-Gurion (that was not his name back when they were close) sobbed when I asked him about Arik Sharon and Sabra & Shatila.
Read Arno Mayer’s From Ploughshares to Swords. It is very good.
Shalom.
1
Please, define ‘democracy.’
8
I sure hope you are correct Mr. Stephens. As we all know, or should know, fear is a powerful emotion, which are the go to tools in Trump's and BiBi's toolbox. My hope is the American voters in 2020 can also rise to the occasion.
3
The one thing both Gantz and Netanyahu appear to agree on is not to bring the Arab List into their government. It is an impairment to democracy when a huge segment of the electorate cannot gain representation in government, even in coalition government.
8
@Portola Israeli Arabs have themselves refused to participate in the Israeli political system so far. They have never recommended anyone for PM.
1
"Israeli voters recoiled at the shameless pandering, the ignoble kowtowing, the self-serving recklessness. In an age of demagogues, Israelis showed that demagogy doesn’t work."
Let's be accurate here. The truth is that Israeli voters shifted slightly from supporting Likud resulting in a loss of four seats. That is hardly a landslide loss for Netanyahu and certainly does not, in my opinion, signify an important change of heart among Israeli voters.
If one considers the shameless shenanigans that Netahyahu has been up to in the run up to the elections, I am surprised that the Prime Minister's party did not suffer catastrophic loss of seats. I think it might be premature to write off Bibi just yet.
11
Bret Stephens focus is so narrow that he should be relabeled as the "Israel Opinion Columnist" because his small aperture offers such rhetoric that it drowns out what he's trying to say.
Bret's claim that Israel possesses "geopolitical considerations of a superpower" is actually laughable. Sure Israel's number one weapons customer is China and Netanyahu would like to think he can rule the Middle East as he and his fellow imperialists desire, but that is not a "superpower" by any measure.
The fact Netanyahu's power would be nothing if the United States declined to invade whatever Middle East country of the month Netanyahu was pushing for is truly what burned at the core of President Barack Obama's relationship with Netanyahu.
Today the good people of Israel are realizing the limitations of Israel's Dahiya Doctrine and apartheid system--- here's wishing them all the best with new leadership. The ship of Netanyahu apparently has sailed---a long time ago as reflected in his corruption. Hopefully we too can have new leadership in 2020 that can work with Israel in a manner that fosters peace and not wacky brinkmanship that essentially seeks quid pro quo for future Trump Towers.
7
@Zdude
You nailed it!
Brilliant!
Early days, Bret. You might reconsider your verdict if parliamentary deadlock between Likud and Blue & White put a small party with narrow interests into a kingmaker role. What concessions would Avigdor Lieberman extract from Benny Gantz in exchange for support that he could pull on a whim? The Knesset has become a game of thrones.
6
Important, thoughtful and fact-based piece, Mr. Stephens. Should be required reading for Israel’s antagonists on the left, who style themselves the sole arbiters of what freedom and democracy mean.
7
@Jerry W. -- If a US party did to blacks and Hispanics what Netanyahu did to Arab Israelis in this election, you would not be defending that.
A democracy is where people vote for their representatives. The great flaw in democracy is, of course, the People. If you want a better democracy you are going to need a better brand of people. We vote our prejudices like clockwork. What is amazing is that some semblance of good will and egalitarianism continues to survive and shine as a guiding light. The great difference between Israel and all the countries that surrounds it is that the great battle between the forces of Facism and Freedom survives at the ballot box. If you want better results you are going to need a better creature. Until then we're stuck with Humanity.
2
The so-called win for secular democracy was 2 votes and it's not at all clear what coalition will be made. And the election still doesn't address the ever-growing illegal settlements of entitled Israelis or the growing power of the Haredi to push through their anti-democratic agenda.
Reports of Israel's survival are premature.
4
Finally, Mr. Stephens' obsession with all things Israel has taken to sanity and respect for both sides of a conflict. Keep it up, Bret - people may actually believe you this time.
3
“Israeli democracy is doing fine.” Misleading; inadvertently or by intent.
1. Personal unaccountability is the daily political culture.
2. Corruption, from local to national levels,in its broadest delineations,
exists. A former President, numerous Ministers, adjudicated and imprisoned, as examples, are but tip of...
3. Knowing and understanding, by grade school students in selected areas, compared with a range of nations, has
decreased significantly.
4. The gap, economically and otherwise, between “haves” and “have nots” continues to grow.
5.The almost annual documentation of approximately 250,000 Jewish and Arab CHILDREN, living under the poverty line continues over the years.
6.The passive complacency about, and active complicity in, street-level to institutionalized types, levels,and qualities
of marginalization. Stigmatizing. Exclusion. And even dehumanization.
7. And on the Seventh Day...
4
Come on, how many years did it take to stop the demagogue. He ruled forever. And maybe it was just the constant wearing down of the corruption by him and his wife, catering, cigars and on and on.
2
Stephens blasts Netanyahu for promising to annex large chunks of the West Bank, while ignoring the fact that Netanyahu’s “opposition” - Gantz and his Blue and White party - actually claimed ownership of the original annexation plan for the Jordan Valley and were a bit peeved that Netanyahu stole their idea.
Does Stephens actually oppose annexation of Palestinian land? I wonder what he’ll say when it finally happens. In any case the fact is that annexation is the de facto reality right now. Formal annexation, once it happens, will change nothing on the ground but simply be legal recognition that Israel includes millions of non-Jews who, by their very identity, are excluded from participating in the supposed democracy of the Jewish state.
Stephens’s paean to Israel’s democracy is undermined by cruel but undeniable logic: no state founded upon preferential treatment of a given ethnicity or religion can be called democratic. By the very meaning of the word, democracy affords the same rights to all equally regardless of tribe or religion.
“Israeli democracy is doing fine, thanks.”
No thanks.
6
There soon could be a regional war, supported and encouraged by Israel’s vibrant democracy. I hope they enjoy the fruits of their votes.
1
Israel has always had a solid democracy. But just as South Africa under apartheid had a racial democracy, Israel has a religious democracy.
The 20% of the population that is mostly Palestinian and Muslim or Christian are treated like second class citizens.
And how does an occupied territory fit into the concept of a democracy? The two million Palestinians are not citizens of Israel, but neither are they citizens of Palestine. They have no passport, no territorial integrity. They are clearly a people under international law and have a right to self determination but cannot exercise that right.
The essence of a democracy is that the people choose their own system of government. This works fine on one side of the Green line, but is non-existent on the other.
Israel is a beacon of democracy in a neighborhood of dictators, but the light of that beacon has been all but snuffed out by 50 years of occupation.
7
First, major political loses for Boris Johnson. Now Netanyahu hanging on by a thread. And his staunchest ally and great friend Trump.....no where to be found. And if Trump can't read these tea leaves.....Oh, that's right. Trump doesn't read. Well he's watching the movie. And he doesn't need to get to the end to see how it turns out. The American voters have no problem spoiling the final scene for him.
2
Actually, Mr. Stephens, demagogy has triumphed in Israel over the past 20 years or so and is by no means defeated now. Your assessment is off-base and partisan, mirroring so much of your analyses of Israel and its adversaries. You have your right to your own opinions, but you would do well to write about other topics where you can be more even-handed.
5
The idea of an ethnonationalist state is antithetical to democracy by its very definition, since one ethnic group is favored over the other. In the case of Israel, the Jews are favored over the Palestinians.
The dream of a democratic ethnonationalist Israel is a logical fallacy. israel is either a democracy with the One State solution, and not a Jewish state, or a Jewish state with Jews favored over Palestinians, and not a democracy.
4
@Ben Boissevain. A democracy requires the equal application of the laws to all, whether or not citizens, who find themselves in the state's sovereign territory, a free and independent judiciary to insure the laws are fair and evenly applied and a mechanism to vote in open, free and fair elections if you are a citizen. Israel does all that by any serious metric, and in circumstances far more dire than any other liberal democracy faces today. That, on top of that, Israel serves preferentially as a haven for the Jewish people should make little difference. Yet, to read many of the comments, that rankles.
Using sinister-sounding labels like "ethnonationalist" serves mostly as a cover for objecting to the fact that the Jewish people, like any other indigenous group, has a right to self-determination in a part of their historical homeland where they can control their destiny and no longer rely on the goodwill of the non-Jewish majority. This particular point has been part of international law since the establishment of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922 and, had we been dealing with any other ethnic group, would be beyond dispute by now.
Using that scientific-sounding label also reveals a desire to impose an historically Christian essentialist understanding of who and what the Jewish people are that the Jewish people do not share.
2
In recent months, Netanyahu has courted far-right votes by signaling his willingness to sit in coalition with a racist party with a terrorist past, courted settler votes by promising to annex large chunks of the West Bank, and infuriated Democratic lawmakers by bending to Donald Trump’s demand to bar Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from visiting Israel. More outrageously, he tried to garner votes by ordering a major military operation in Gaza on the eve of the election — an operation his military chiefs and attorney general scotched.
None of it worked. Israeli voters recoiled at the shameless pandering, the ignoble kowtowing, the self-serving recklessness. In an age of demagogues, Israelis showed that demagogy doesn’t work.
None of it worked? Really? It seems to me that it has been working successfully for Netanyahu a very long time.
2
Personally, I could care less about the state of Israeli democracy and anything else about it for that matter. I just want us to get away from them. Away from AIPAC who have our politicians, emphasis on our, jumping through hoops to please Israel and away from their mess that has been going on for decades and they seem to have absolutely no interest in resolving. I see nothing but trouble in our relationship with them. They will drag us into a disastrous war. And for what? Maybe, just maybe, if they realize we are not going to come to their defense they will be a little more motivated in finding peace with their neighbors. The billions we give to them are needed here. They have a very strong and prosperous economy. Why are we giving them our money?While their citizens enjoy free public healthcare millions of Americans are uninsured. Also, better to build houses for the thousands of homeless here in LA and other U.S. cities that are undergoing a housing crisis than to give it to them so that they can build free houses in the occupied West Bank for the religious zealots.
7
@FXQ According to the latest agreement (under Obama), 100% of the annual $3 billions in "Foreign military aid" from the US to Israel is to be spent on buying - exclusively - American weapons.
The U.S. Aerospace & Defense industry generated $151 billion in exports 2018, and sustained 2,420,038 US jobs (according statista.com and aia-aerospace.org). $3 billion represents about 2% of the annual US defense exports. So the US "aid" to Israel generates about 48,000 American jobs, every year.
The US has never, ever fought on behalf of Israel. If anything, Israel is fighting for US interests in the Middle East - including bombing the nuclear reactors under construction in Iraq in 1981 and in Syria in 2007. It is currently fighting Iranian advances in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon so that the US doesn't need to have boots on the ground.
Israel's opinion of the US it consistently the strongest in the world (together with South Korea and the Philippine). That's the case even when the rest of the world thinks your president is ungallant, or when your president sides with Iran on the question of existential threats to Israel's survival. Israel loves you unconditionally - so far.
By comparison, Jordan (which get $1.7 billion a year) and the Palestinians (about half a billion a year) hate your guts the most in the world - even under Obama. Check pewresearch.org/global/database/indicator/1
If you see nothing but troubles in your relationship with Israel, I'd suggest you reconsider.
3
Israeli "democracy" is doing fine by the same measure that South African "democracy" was doing fine under apartheid. Millions of non-citizen subjects of the "democracy" are unable to vote and live under a separate and unequal system of military law. The citizens who did vote voted for in large measure for two political parties that both advocate the illegal seizure of more on the non-citizens lands in violation of international law. By what measure, Mr. Stephens, is this democratic?
4
@Nathan B. Palestinians have full autonomy under the PA and Hamas.
Last time they voted was in 2006 and 2007, respectively. They could do it again, but they don't, because they live under a ruthless dictatorship. Nothing to do with Israel.
3
How about Gantz joining with the Arab party which came in 3rd and Labor? It seems only democratic to include the party that came in 3rd......but of course, including Arabs in an Israeli government seems to be totally unacceptable. Democracy? Not so much.
4
Mr.Stephens,
Israel is on a precipice right now. There are glimmers of a better government, but we don’t know for sure that Netanyahu won’t stay in power. The corruption of the Netanyahu government is sinking Israel’s democracy as it stands right now. I have hope that Israelis will find their center, and work to build it, keeping the courts strong, and the rule of law intact. But I also see how fragile those concepts are both in the US and in Israel. We cannot take these things for granted. The idea that “Israel’s democracy is just fine, thank you very much” seems a bit premature.
4
The argument here that Democracy in Israel is strong and that the turnout and election of Arabs (not Palestinians of course) puts to rest the charge of Apartheid. But this ignores several realities.
First, the high turn out among Palestinians in Israel does not cover the fact that nearly 5 million Palestinians living under Israeli control had no right to vote in an election about their future. The state controls these people and limits their rights.
Second, while it is the third largest party, the Palestinian Joint List will not be invited into any government. There isn’t a coalition that can be formed where the Jewish Israeli parties involved will agree to sit with a Palestinian party. This will likely mean that, despite their antipathy for one another during the campaign, Blue and White and Likud will likely form a coalition. This also means that, despite turnout and involvement, the voices of Palestinians will continue to be ignored. Token involvement of Palestinians isn’t a sign of a healthy democracy, it is a sign of power where it is acknowledged that power can be held and is not threatened by Palestinian inclusion. This is majority misrule.
Gantz may be more socially liberal than Netanyahu, but his position on Palestinians in nearly the same as Netanyahu. He supports settlements, maintaining the Jordan valley, bombing Gaza, and more. Those are not good signs for the future.
Apartheid continues.
183
@Merlot
If you are right that there will be a coalition government of Blue and White and Likud, then Aymen Odah, the leader of the Joint List will become the leader of the parliamentary opposition. This is an official position, which, among other things, means that he will get the same security briefings as the Prime Minister. This is certainly a strange definition of apartheid; only Israel’s enemies would so define it.
38
There is a reason for the similaries between Gantz and Netanyahu with regards to the Palestinians. The peace process began its death spiral with Palestinian terror attacks at a time when Israel was offering to follow up on its withdrawal from Sinai with withdrawal from 95 percent of the West Bank. The Israeli electorate concluded that it had no partner for peace. Let us see Palestinian leadership in Gaza and the West Bank that ceases trying to undo the UN's 1947 establishment of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people, that ends acts of terror, that stops the brutalization of it's own people, and that addresses endemic corruption. The fate of the Palestinians is in their own hands.
56
@Dr. B while I agree with the gist of your comment, as a purely factual matter the UN did not establish Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people in 1947 or at any other time. It lacked the power under its Charter to do that. It was the League of Nations through its Mandate for Palestine in 1922 that created the borders of a specific territory that was designated as the historical homeland of the Jewish people.
What the UN did in 1947 was to propose a second partition of the land of the Mandate (which was still being administered by the UK), the first having taken place in 1923 and comprising 78% to create today’s Jordan. This non-binding resolution that would have left the Jewish people with about 12%, with half of it desert, was rejected by the Arabs with consequences we still see today.
17
What a peculiar op-ed this is.
Despite the numerous and dramatic charges against him, Netanyahu lost the elections by a hair, and is still at the head of the largest political camp by far. Moreover, it's not inconceivable that he may still find a way to retain most or all of his power, either through coalition wrangling or by forcing yet another election, which he may then spice up with a well-timed military engagement in Gaza (an option he flirted with only a week ago). Had Netanyahu managed -- or if manages still -- to keep his place, Israeli democracy will die. This is no exaggeration. The man has already demonstrated that he would stop at nothing to save himself from indictment, including demolishing the country's already badly eroded separation of powers, while demonizing the High Court and General Persecution, effectively dissolving the rule of law to god-knows what implications. Far from "doing fine," Israel's democracy is presently at one of the most most fragile and precarious moments in its short story. And things can still go south very quickly.
149
Although encouraged by the Arab parties gain in Knesset seats in this election, I do not see it as a solution to the problem of the millions of Arabs in the west bank who were not able to vote in the election and thus are not represented. Until Arabs in Israel have full equal rights and representation as citizens, Istaeli democracy is deeply flawed
137
@Rebecca Hogan. The millions of Arabs in the West Bank, and don’t forget Gaza, can vote - but for the PA or Hamas, as the Palestinians formally agreed under the Oslo Accords a quarter century ago. No one forced Arafat to sign the Oslo Accords, that was his decision. The flip side is that Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama all proved unable to get him or his successor Abbas to agree to a final peace treaty. So, that’s where matters stand today.
The Palestinian Arabs can’t vote in Israel's national elections for the same reason that Canadians can’t vote in the US's, they are not citizens. That only citizens can vote and that each nation decides for itself who can be a citizen are rules of universal application in democracies, but there are always those who would apply special rules when the target is Israel.
192
@Charlie in NY. Palestinians last tried tried to vote in a national election in 2006 for the Palestinian Legislative Council. The election was monitored by international groups including The Carter Center. Hamas won the majority of seats and was poised to take power democratically, but the Israeli response was to arrest as many Palestinian lawmakers as they could find and announce that they would not work with a Hamas-led government. Western countries—notably Canada and the U.S. responded supinely by accepting the Israeli position and refusing to accept the democratic outcome.
The result of Israel’s subversion of democratic values was that Fatah continued to represent West Bank Palestinians without a mandate to do so and Gaza ended up controlled by Hamas after a brief civil war with Fatah. This conflict was encouraged by the United States which provided training and weaponry to Fatah. (A 2008 article in Vanity Fair provides more details.)
Mr. Stephens’s celebration of Israeli democracy ignores the fact that it is built on the denial of democracy to others, and American involvement in the attempt to subvert Hamas is just one more example of U.S. selectivity in choosing which supporting nascent democracy to support —so, really, not much to celebrate.
115
Except that Israel has now governed those non-voting non-citizens for more than have of its existence. How is this not a problem?
79
One small problem. There are 2.7 million people in the West Bank, and 1.9 million in Gaza, who, in all ways that count, are living under Israeli rule. They didn't get to vote in this election. Or have any say whatsoever about the political system that runs their lives.
So much for Israeli democracy.
401
@Steve Siegel Not to be callous, but the reason Palestine has no representatives is because it hasn’t held elections for ten years. Palestine is meant to be its own state. It makes no sense that they would vote in another country’s elections.
Yes, obviously the root cause is the occupied territories. But Palestine could do a lot worse than show its readiness for self governance. That would in turn provide Israel with a negotiating partner.
53
@Steve Siegel
The Palestinians vote in their own elections, when they bother holding them. The people of Gaza elected Hamas, remember? They regularly fire volleys of rockets into Israeli cities, not exactly under Israeli rule. Their elected and failed government is far more responsible for their suffering than what Israel needs to do to defend themselves. And nearly all West Bank Palestinians live in Area A, under PA jurisdiction, another failed government that could use a newly elected leader.
When Palestine was under British rule, "in all ways that count", no one argued that Arabs should be voting in British elections. And imagine if had they been firing rockets into London and demanding the right to vote...
41
@Steve Siegel Gaza is ruled by the terrorists called Hamas. Hamas wants to kill all Jews. If you were the govt. Of Israel what would you do?
31
In 2016 Trump’s election seemed to preface a wave of right nationalist victories around the world. It was well represented by Netanyahu’s leadership of Israel for many years. Now in 2019, It seems a center right party was able to finally overcome Likud’s increasingly far right party under Netanyahu. Clearly profound implications for Israel. Does it signal anything about global political trends? A new governing coalition in Italy, Demonstrations in Egypt, the global student environmental protests world wide and a Parliamentary rebellion against Boris Johnson with mass defections from the Conservative party seem to be some signals. 2020 looms large. Will US Republicans cling to floundering, corrupt Trump? Or reject him was rejected his icon Netanyahu? Will Democrats nominate Joe Biden, an older version of Benny Gantz? Will the US follow Israel on the path of moderate competence? The end of history was proclaimed far too soon.
1
Israelli law protects the rights of all its citizens, including its Arab minority. People confuse societal prejudices and discrimination, as disturbing as this is, with the false impression that there exists the suppression of legal rights established by law. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, are not Israeli citizens, and have been denied their right to free elections for their own governance, led by a a corrupt,feckless leadership of demagogues, which has never accepted the legitimacy of Israel, and does nothing to pursue what appears to be a current fantasy of a two state solution to the age old conflict. Stop bashing Israel. Israeli democracy, as Bret Stephens writes, is alive and well. Maybe others can learn from their example.
6
Hard to see how a area where another government controls the day to day lives of the population can be considered self governing. Yes the PA is corrupt and that does not change the fact that Israel controls the lives of millions who have no vote on their conditions. Such a situation cannot continue forever if Israel is to remain a democracy.
1
Looking at the comments as an Israeli supporter of the left , I get the feeling that many Times readers are terrified that their negative stereotypes of Israeli society may be proved wrong. Then they would have to deal with vibrant Israeli society as it is. Perhaps they would prefer that the ridiculously right wing government remain, thus letting them release familiar sound bites, and preventing the thought that there are elements of our country and society actually worth emulating.
3
The democracy is doing just fine, it's simply that the occupation of Palestine isn't going so well.
5
Israel is not a "democracy" it is a theocracy, alway has been, and as such I believe it is unconstitutional to support them. They will only become a democracy when ALL the people in what was once Palestine can vote with equality.
16
Another love letter from Mr. Stephens. But just as we have Trump because 1/100th of 1% of the vote went his way instead of Clinton's, so the plurality of seats for Blue & White in Israel resulted from a few thousand votes assorted other than to Likud. The latter outcome no more proves the vitality of Israeli democracy than Mrs. Clinton's victory over a demagogic narcissist - who would still have won 60.000.000 votes - would have signaled a rejection of gutter politics in America.
4
I’m not as sanguine about this as you are, Bret. Israel’s democracy survived this go-around only because of Bibi’s political miscalculations. If he’d won, the government he hoped to form would most likely have carried out his plan to pass laws guaranteeing him what would amount to life tenure in his position. As they say - power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Bibi was yearning for the “absolute” side of that equation.
Chalk up the survival of Israeli democracy not to its vibrancy, but to Netanyahu’s hubris.
5
Perhaps Israel's democracy is in good shape or perhaps this last election was nothing more than final seizure prior to democratic collapse. Let's hope for the former. If that's the case then we will soon see a just conclusion to the Palestinian issue. If it's the latter then Israel can count me out. I'm a Jewish American and I don't support autocratic, racist governments anywhere in the world (including here). A Jewish state, like any other state, that is not democratic, is not a legitimate state
5
It’s doing better than US democracy which isn’t saying much.
3
"Israeli democracy is doing fine, thanks."
Uh huh.
How democratic would America be if none of its Hispanics were allowed to vote?
9
@Michael Doane Arab citizens of Israel did vote. The Joint Arab list party won the 3rd most seats in the government. There is much to critique about Israeli democracy, but try to get your facts right.
3
@Michael Doane - Which Israeli citizens aren’t allowed to vote?
1
The Bell tolls for thee, Donald.
Congratulations, Israel.
2
will. more balanced view from your editorial board: What’s Next for Israel? https://nyti.ms/2M4bfFD
Israel is not a democracy but an ethnocracy, giving privilege to Jews over all others. We must cease ignoring the horrific moral and legal catastrophe that is Israel. The sooner the better.
16
all we need is for israel to lower their racism and entitlement over millions of their neighbors then it'll be an alright country
9
It's wonderful that Israel is a modern country and a theocratic democracy ( A Star of David on the national flag means that other philosophies are not ignored, but are definitely second class.). Now that Israel is doing so well, when does the United States get out from under Israel's heavy thumb on all our foreign policy decisions? Being a constant self-congratulatory democracy should not be the reason the United States is beholden to this tiny nation, quite unlike our relationship with any other country. The measured response we'd give to any other nation under threat that we are bound to by actual defense treaties would be nothing compared to the panic-driven calls to rescue Israel, a nation we have given only oral, but as we have seen in 1973 and 1991, iron-clad guarantees of defending.
14
The democratic nature of the Israeli elections is not only represented by the results for Likud and the Blue and White parties but as importantly, the 60% Arab turnout who voted for the Joint (Arab) List which is composed of a range of ideologies (communists, socialists, feminists, Islamists, and Arab nationalists). They are the third largest party in parliament and as a consequence, they are entitled to seats on the Foreign Affairs and Defense committees or even be declared the Opposition with the influence it provides.
Those representing the Arab communities are not diluted in one of two parties, as would be the case here, but retain their effectiveness as a unit.
This is something that just can't happen here with the American system of "winner take all". Even though the Democrats won 53% of the vote in the 2018 mid-terms they are basically ineffectual in guiding policy on anything as the Republicans were when the roles were reversed.
That's why Trump has been able to act as an authoritarian contrary to wishes of the majority of American citizens. I don't know what kind of government this is but it sure isn't democratic in any real sense.
The amazing reality is that for all Israel's problems the Arab minority has apparently more influence on the Israeli government than the majority polling Democrats here.
13
@GerardM Thank you for explaining to uninformed NYT readers how Arab-Israelis DO in fact have political representation in the Knesset, and possess all of the rights of citizenship as their Jewish-Israeli counterparts.
The population of Israel is about 20% Arab, the majority being of the Muslim faith, which should NOT be confused with those Arabs living in Gaza, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank, who are under the political supervision, or suppression, of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Palestinian Authority.
I'd love to see a survey taken of Arab-Israeli's, especially women, asking what other Middle Eastern country they'd prefer to live in, and why? I'm guessing that most are happy to be Israeli citizens.
6
This is playing out to be a prequel for our 2020 election. Trump knows that the only thing that will keep him out of jail is to win another term. And he’ll get more and more desperate if it looks like he’s going to lose. And unless he loses in a blowout, I don’t think he’s going to voluntarily leave office.
6
An apartheid state is in no way a democracy.
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Thank you for your truth George. A is A even when applied to Israel.
2
@GeorgeNotBush Explain how Israel is an apartheid state, when 20% of the population, almost 2 million people, are Arabs who hold the exact same rights of citizenship as their Jewish counterparts?
How can Gaza be deemed an apartheid state when it's wholly controlled by Hamas, since 2007, without any political interference by Israel?
2
Stephens assumes that Netanyahu will go....without any evidence. Israel is hailed as “the only democracy” in the Middle East despite Netanyahu. Until Netanyahu is gone we wait to see if democracy is still a meaningful description of Israel.
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@Joseph Huben. Are the bets similarly off about US democracy until we see whether Trump leaves peacefully should he lose in 2020? That has actually been a subject of discussion here, unbelievable as it may sound.
Having lobbed your accusation, can you point to anything substantive to back it up? Or is this another instance of, if you have nothing good to say about Israel, post a random comment. Surely The NY Times would have been all over such a story, if only to draw another parallel between Trump and Netanyahu.
As far as I’m aware, there is zero indication that Netanyahu would not vacate his office peacefully and on time following past precedent, including his own. It’s not as if Netanyahu is in the 15th year of a 4 year term, as is the case with Abbas, or pretending to have an indefinite electoral mandate, as is the case with Hamas in Gaza.
2
For me the testament to Israel as a democracy imbued with liberal values is its private sector production of ‘Our Boys’ and its subsequent world wide airing. There are few nations in the world which would permit the production and dissemination of such a hypercritical review of its society and government - not China, not Russia, not India, nowhere else in the Middle East and certainly not Gaza or the PLA. That freedom to speak and criticize openly one’s government and society is the foundation of real democracy which permits a democratic government.
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@Michael Ashner
Helen Hunt Jackson published “A Century of Dishonor” in 1881. The US continued to steal Native American land and keep them on reservations. Wounded Knee happened in 1890.
You can be a democracy for some and allow criticism and still be an apartheid state and violate human rights on a massive scale.
Let's not get carried away. The fact that Netanyahu desperately needs to win in order to avoid prison time, and the fact that he ran a campaign with the explicit promise of violating international law--and the election resulted in a virtual tie--indicate to me that Israeli democracy is in deep trouble. Not to mention the fact that millions of Palestinians did not get to vote for the government that is controling their daily lives. I wouldn't regard any of that as an indication of democratic success.
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@Andres Hannah. You do need to familiarize yourself with the substance of the Oslo Accords of 1993, negotiated and signed by non other than Yasser Arafat for the Palestinian Arabs. As a result of this agreement, over 95% of Palestinian Arabs are ruled (unfortunately for them but that wasn’t their choice) by the PA or Hamas. That they have held no national elections in over a decade is neither Israel's fault or problem.
In contrast, Israeli Arabs are fully enfranchised and their Joint List is now the third largest party in the Knesset. Perhaps the success of the Joint List could serve as an inspiration to their Palestinian Arab brethren and lead to the type of liberal and democratic Arab Spring that the West fantasized about when Mubarak and Ben Ali were overthrown.
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@Charlie in NY
Hamas and the PA are corrupt, but the PA is little more than Israel’s subcontractor for security in the West Bank. Israel controls things there.
In Gaza, the Gazans live in a giant prison under a blockade established by Israel and Egypt.
1
"Above all, there’s the purported unwillingness to come to grips with the need for a safe separation from, and fair settlement with, the Palestinians, to assure Israel’s survival as a Jewish and democratic state."
In other words to be a strong democracy we need to get rid of the potential voters who are the wrong ethnicity.
That's a weird kind of democracy. But then, it's what the Republicans in the US are trying to do in their own way, through gerrymandering and voter suppression. And it's certainly what Jim Crow did.
The problem with democracy worldwide is that it is rapidly empowering ethnic nationalists in most countries. I have trouble seeing how Israel is an exception to that. A far more interesting question to me, though, is whether its system of proportional representation that results in many coalition governments helps or hurts. I haven't made my mind up on that.
16
It's a huge stretch to say any of the world's democracies are doing just fine. America certainly isn't.
The strongest indication that Netanyahu is finished comes from an unlikely source.
Trump refuses to even call Netanyahu, and publicly stated his "relationship is with Israel", not Netanyahu. It is news to plenty of us, as Trump made it crystal clear what he thought of the "Disloyalty" of all Jews who refused to support him and his twisted vision of America, and Netanyahu and his twisted vision of Israel.
This was primarily a revolt by secular Israelis against very religious ultra-Orthodox Israelis. If you read English language versions of Israeli papers, you'll find headlines like: "Many Israelis chose a leader willing to do battle for the rights of secular people against religious coercion."
The election was anti-Theocratic; not so much right against left, but secular against very religious.
The political spectrum of secular Israelis seems different than Americans. The left, center, and right, are apparently liberal, or very liberal, on social issues and economic issues, with great resentment against very religious Israelis, and Netanyahu, their corrupt authoritarian leader.
It would be like Democrats on the left and center, joining with some hawkish Republicans, to back a social and economic liberal who is tough on border security, to stop Evangelicals from destroying American secular democracy. It's unimaginable, but it's closer to what happened in Israel.
11
In Bret Stephens' op-end last week he argued that open-borders-style immigration into the USA is a necessary step to preserve American democratic principles. Yet when he writes this week about Israeli democracy he never mentions the importance of open-borders immigration policy as a necessary part of preserving Israel's democratic principles.
Why does Bret Stephens have such an inconsistent approach toward immigration control for these two countries?
3
Different neighborhoods. Duh! Open borders with Hamas and Hezbollah? Suicide is not an immigration policy
2
@Elaine Braffman
Last week, Stephens specifically referenced the need for open immigration from the Middle East -- but only in the context flying the immigrants 10,000 miles to the USA, where he said they are crucial to maintaining American democratic principles. A bus trip past the nearby Israeli border for the same people -- duh, no way.
Democracy might be a goal but not until the authoritarian machismo cools down and land grabs are stopped. Otherwise, Israel has the stuff of dreams regarding education, innovation and enterprise. Technological problems and opportunities are readily addressed within the culture with imagination and verve. Israel needs to solve many more political problems to become the new enterprise center of the universe. Maybe this new crop of politicians might grab this inventiveness brass ring and enjoy unimagined global leadership standing and influence.
2
Israel's democracy is reminiscent of democracy in the US during the Jim Crow era- indeed, throughout most of American history. It works just fine for some people, but it's also structurally designed to oppress others. In this election, Arab voters finally got out and made a difference, despite Netanyahu's efforts to intimidate them from voting and using them as the racist inspiration for his own voters to turn out (as he has done in the past). But the Arab citizens' ability to have some impact on the election is limited by the unwillingness of past Israeli govts to include them in govt - underlining the extent to which Israeli Arabs are not regarded as legitimate citizens by many of their Jewish counterparts - and the fact that their participation is derided by the Israeli right. Even more, it does nothing to help the millions of Palestinians living under brutal Israeli occupation even as their land is systematically stolen by Israel, a decades-long theft that was perpetrated by Labor as well as Likud governments. Israel's democracy will only be a healthy one when it ceases to be an ethnocratic democracy that is designed to discriminate against and oppress millions of people living under the control of the state. That seems unlikely to happen anytime soon, so long as ultra-nationalists like Liberman hold the key to Israeli govts.
18
With the passage of the "Jewish nation-state" Basic Law Israel ceased to be a democracy. Stephens is correct in noting that Israel's democratic institutions have been under attack by the right-wing nationalists and clericalist religious parties for a while. Indeed, the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza means that about half of the people of Israel have no democratic rights at all. They cannot vote. They cannot be citizens.
Stephens remarks that the Arab Joint List is now the 3rd largest party. But he fails to mention that this is irrelevant because ALL of the Jewish parties refuse to even consider it as a potential partner in forming the next government. There is a wall-to-wall consensus among the Zionist parties that no Arab party will ever be part of any government of the Jewish state and that no non-Jew will be a minister.
This is not the definition of a democracy.
35
Imagine that we lived in a democracy where 5 million citizens didn't get to vote because of their religion. Would we say our democracy is "doing just fine?"
What a totally myopic perspective.
19
@Tom Q There are about 2 million Arab-Israeli "citizens", and they have all the rights of citizenship as their Jewish counterparts, including the right to vote for political parties that push a pro-Arab agenda within the Knesset, being Israel's version of our Congress. All Arab-Israeli citizens, be they Muslim, Christian, Druze, or any other religion, have the right to worship as they please, where they please, without constraint.
The millions of "Palestinians" that live in Gaza, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria are NOT Israeli citizens, and therefore have no right to vote in Israeli elections.
5
What five million citizens??
2
Israeli democracy is not doing well at all. It is just a slice of democracy. Yes, by regional standards it is boisterous, but that is a depressingly low standard. And even there: Jordan, Lebanon are also democracies of a sort (even theocratic Itan).
You cannot take public transportation on a Saturday in Israel. You cannot have a civilian marriage there. Democracy revival is more than about a corrupt leader being outvoted.
But then again the US democracy is on probation these days, with a degenerate supported and cheered by 40% of voters.
11
Bibi's electoral losses likely also signals a politically signifiant loss for Trump
in Israel and in the USA.
Trump and Bibi have been close political allies, and Trump has gained political strength in the USA by his ostensibly close relationship with the Prime Minister of Israel.
Now a key player in that political alliance has suffered a significant loss at the polls. Not a favorable straw in the wind for Trump.
I always did support the idea of a Jewish homeland and in the mid-east at that. I've taken the trouble to read 19th century travel diaries of mid-eastern travels and books on the history of the area under the Ottomans and it has left me with a conviction that there has long been a strong Jewish presence in Israeli lands and that pressures on Jewish mid-eastern populations after the emergence of nationalism in these lands led to their resettlement in what is now Israel. Thus I find most claims of Israel's non-legitimacy contemptible. But I do worry about Israel evolving into an apartheid state especially after any substantial annexation of West Bank lands. It is well known that Arabs have a much higher birth rate than Jewish Israelis and that any annexation would in a few decades result in a state with an Arab majority. How it could remain a "Jewish" state without restricting the rights of its Arab majority eludes me. It is not what Israel is, which offers sufficient hope, though diminishing, so that I still support it with some enthusiasm, that worries me; it is what it would become.
4
@Bill H others have taken the trouble to read similar sources, plus the records kept by the Ottoman authorities for taxation purposes. The evidence for a "strong Jewish presence" is not exactly overpowering. There were Jews, and there were Arabs. Jews escaping oppression in other parts of Europe arrived in greater numbers after 1920-1930. Yet, this discussion is made largely academic by the events of the last 70+ years.The state of Israel has come into being, and is here to stay. The question really is what should happen to the 5 million Arabs that currently live in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip. The current policies of the Israeli government the do not seem to provide for a logical, peaceful settlement.
1
@Bill H. In the Jordan Valley area that is recently in the news, there are only some 50,000 Palestinian Arabs living there. Also, the "demographic time bomb" argument is quite exaggerated giving that the Arabs' reproduction rate has been dropping rather dramatically.
1
@Bill H
Yes, there were Jews living in the area in the 19th century and in centuries before that. They were a small minority. But none of that is relevant. Was it just to expel 700,000 Palestinians in 1948 to establish a majority Jewish state?
Israel exists now and the question is how everyone in the area can live peacefully together without oppression. It probably doesn’t help to see it all in demographic terms and birth rates and who lived where in the 1800’s.
Israel's political democracy may be functioning, but under Bibi its soul has been crushed. Justice, mercy, and compassion are left in tatters.
2
@HPower Predictably, there is always an extra requirement for Jews. Ever heard of someone asking “where is the soul of Finland or Sweden?” (the “good countries”).
2
Not blowing people up, but coming very close, in a last minute ploy to get votes by the Prime Minister is not a sign of a healthy democracy, it’s a sign of a complete, and almost catastrophic, mess. When the bar is this low, you got a serious problem. ,,
2
I sure hope your prognosis of Israel's democracy is right. Every candle lit against the darkness of political violence and divisiveness is valuable for world peace. I can see that the main obstacle to a unity government is Netanyahu himself. He has too much baggage for the people of Israel carry. The people of Israel need a leader that is less hungry for personal political power and more motivated to advance the common good.
6
Thanks in large part to Benny Gantz and the commons sense and decency of most Israelis, democracy is alive and well in Israel – so far.
If in Israel or any nation, the segment of the population which wants to have governance by the will of the citizens, rather than by fiat from a ruler or ruling junta, has full access to the ballot box and the freedom to be noisy critics of the leadership, that is still not enough.
Unless the citizens demanding democracy win from time to time and make some changes, the democratic freedoms amount to little more than the right to vent.
That may be the status quo in America, where most of the federal government is controlled by Republicans loyal to the authoritarian bias of Donald Trump.
2
demagogy doesn’t work? Too soon to call, let's see what government will result from these elections.
1
By rejecting mr. Netanyahu's autoritarian tendencies, the Israeli's did the decent thing.
But as long as it's 'not done' in Israeli politics to include the Arab Joint List in any coalition just because they are Arab, I don't think it would be wise for the West to look to Jerusalem.
12
Democracy doesn’t exist if the same elected person is on power for more than 4-8 years. 20 years later is not an indicative of a functioning democracy not matter what the country is.
31
Only Term Limits can hope to save any democracy.
12
@LiberalNotLemming The downside to term limits is that the person become an automatic lame duck, which affects governing.
I don't know if this is good or bad, but unintentional consequences always transpire.
Spain is heading to its fourth election in four years, and nobody says its democracy is doing just fine.
30
@Joseph
I was in Spain this past fall. Compared with the US (and with anywhere in the Middle East), it's a bastion of sanity.
22
@Joseph. There also isn't an entire cottage industry devoted to Spain's destruction.
7
@Mitchell. Now that Spain's central government has at least temporarily crushed Catalonian aspirations for independence and prosecutes the movement’s leaders for sedition, perhaps calm of some sort exists there.
2
Bret, as usual, I agree with most everything you say.
But you miss one major point. This election isn’t about the moribund peace process. As someone with immediate family in Israel, I can tell you that’s it’s about taxes, housing, the cost of living, and most of all the takeover of civilian life by the ultra-Orthodox, and their lack of service to the state.
The Palestinian leadership has squandered every opportunity for a solution over the years. And now Israelis, secular and religious alike, think they’re irrelevant.
The NYT Editorial Board wrote a hopeful piece today about restarting the peace process. I laughed out loud. Israel doesn’t care anymore, and the Arab states of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf States don’t care much either, despite the lip service.
So let the progressives wring their hands and tear their hair out. Nothing will change in the short term. The only thing that’s been averted is Netanyahu’s crazy ideas about annexation.
49
The elections were purely and simply a referendum on whether Binyamin Netanyahu will have immunity from prosecution on several criminal charges. No other issue was discussed in the campaign. Israeli democracy, such as it is, is in serious danger not only because of the occupation but because there is no principle of "a country of all its citizens". Even within the Green Line, Arab citizens are discriminated against. A partial democracy is no democracy at all.
6
I'm watching MSNBC's coverage of America's election night, 2008, as I read Bret Stephens' words.
That Benjamin Netanyahu didn't "win" this Israeli election is about as meaningful, in the perspective of time, in the perspective of the present, as was Barack Obama's victory in 2008.
It should be clear, certainly to any American, to any Israeli, that demagogues can only be temporarily set back, if all our efforts are focused simply on the outcomes of elections. Demagogues never give up.
Let us, going forward, learn to tell the difference between mere battles, and the long term wars. Because this is how the enemies of democracies view these events. Those who would champion democracy must learn this lesson. Otherwise, democracy will always lose.
20
@Robert Henry Eller. I fail to see how Bibi winning numerous elections is an affront to Democracy.
2
Looking at the other comments it just seems to me that like here in the U.S. it will keep getting worse before it gets better. The issues will not change, the people have to move them and what a push things need.
8
@ExileFromNJ You mean that Pres. Trump will employ even more of the people who were shut out of work under the previous administration?
The workers - whom your party ONCE championed - can't wait for more of your ''getting worse.''
@L osservatore
Yes, if you mean continued decrease of inflation adjusted wages, more minimum wage jobs, and loss of health care, workers will surely be ecstatic. Upward mobility in the US has been sharply curtailed as well, so, more good news for workers.
4
Democracy for some and not all, is not Democracy. It we all knew that.
93
@Ted. But, we all knew that!
A voting process is not the entirety of what democracy means. It is well known that Arabs within Israel and other groups are discriminated against.
78
@Natalia F. Roman And Jews were discriminated against in all of the Arab states to the point where outside of insignificant populations in Morocco, Tunisia, they are non existent. Meanwhile, populations in states like non-Arab Turkey and Iran, are down over 90% from their peaks and are treated as political deadweight rather than have any meaningful political participation in either country. As for discrimination, that occurs worldwide in such 'Democratic' states such as the UK, where Jews are treated as an anathema by the Labor party under Corbyn.
12
@Natalia F. Roman
If Arabs are being "discriminated against", then it's not working.
The only reason the Arab Joint List didn't get seats in proportion to the Arab population, is that only 60% of the eligible Arab voters turned out to vote. But 60% percent did, and their votes resulted in the 3rd largest party in the Knesset.
That's democracy.
5
@Natalia F. Roman Don't Arab citizens of Israel have the right to vote just like anyone else?
3
What an odd interpretation of what democracy is.
146
@gratis what does one expect from a "conservative"?
2
"Israeli democracy is doing fine, thanks."
Fine? More like hanging by thread. Just like American democracy.
"The outcome of the election is still up for grabs"
"Up for grabs" is hardly a "rebuke" even if Netanyahu ends up leaving. It does not fix the damage he has done anymore than a close election loss in 2020 will fix the damage Trump has done to American democracy. Too many Israelis (and Americans) have supported the unsupportable.
The best you can say, the best Americans can say in 2020 is: "It's a necessary start. Now the reconstruction starts".
But Israeli democracy "doing fine"? Not yet. Maybe in a decade or so. Just like the U.S.. Maybe.
210
@LT
Thank you for pointing out what is blindingly obvious to any objective observer. Netanyahu's Likud coalition only suffered a relatively minor setback. If the average Israeli voter really had a change of heart, Netanyahu would have been definitively banished forever. Meanwhile the almost status quo reigns.
5
@LT
What 'damage'is their in Israel? The leftist/pro-peace at any cost parties are near dead. Even honest leftists say that the Palestinians won't negotiate in good faith and can't be trusted to keep any deals. Israel pulled out of Gaza and got rocket fire in return.
They support what you consider 'unsupportable' because they have to live there. They also went through the nightmare of the early 2000's when you were never sure you would get home without being blown up.
3
@LT
Oh, I see.
If the Israelis agree with you, then its good democracy. If they disagree with you then it's not "doing fine", i.e. bad democracy.
I think I understand you.
2
Israeli democracy is dying slowly. If politics is the art of people living together in society, it is not working in Israel. The severe polarization that Mr. Stephens points out is the main cause of Israel's troubles. The only thing holding the factions together is their common fear and hatred of the Palestinians. The acclaimed series, Our Boys, shows this. When people cannot compromise with the help of democratic politics, then a tyrant or dictator will take over.
58
@Diogenes polarizing to the radical left for sure. But to sensible moderates not so much.
3
@Diogenes Our boys is no more a reality than the HBO series Veep. You see what the artists and writers want you to see rather than reality.
4
@Diogenes
Israel was ranked 30 out of 167 on The Economist's Democracy Index. That's better than Greece, Cyprus & at least a dozen other European countries.
Israel has maintained democracy even though Israel has been under continual attack. By contrast, we Americans locked American citizens of Japanese descent in concentration camps during world war 2 & we confiscated Joe DiMaggio's father's fishing boat because he was of Italian descent.
Even Palestinians think that Israel is a democracy.
“57% say democracy in Israel is good or very good”
http://pcpsr.org/en/node/723
5