[Socialism Today, No 28, May 1998, p. 6-7]
The prestige of Israel’s politicians is at an all-time low. Not long ago it was common to see photographs of the prime minister hanging in shops and kiosks, but that seems like a different epoch.
The Israeli economy is in its worst recession for 30 years. Taxi drivers report that their takings have halved over the last six months. Clothes shops have permanent ’sales‘, sometimes offering 70% discounts. The normally crowded banks are empty – debt-ridden customers afraid their credit cards and cheque books will be confiscated.
Israel is celebrating its 50th anniversary, but the atmosphere is not one of jubilation but despair and impending doom.
The prestige of Israel’s politicians is at an all-time low. Not long ago it was common to see photographs of the prime minister hanging in shops and kiosks, but that seems like a different epoch. Even those who voted for Netanyahu see him as a shallow, self-seeking PR man who constantly breaks his promises and betrays his supporters. Since taking office, he has staggered from scandal to scandal, each time managing to wriggle out of it, at the cost of further undermining his credibility. The leader of the opposition, Barak, is seen as no different. The contempt for Israel’s political leaders is part of a wider undermining of Israelis‘ faith in their national institutions, such as the army and Mossad (secret service), which were once treated with reverence, but which are now seen as corrupt and inept. Even the state committee set up to celebrate the 50th anniversary has been riven with corruption, its legal advisor resigning in protest.
The Israeli ruling class is split as never before. The biggest arguments are about the peace process. The main wing of the Israeli state saw the need for some kind of deal with the PLO leadership as a result of the Intifada. The Palestinian uprising showed that the attempt to repress Palestinian rights by repression alone was counter-productive and unsustainable in the long term. The Oslo process was an attempt to move from direct military repression to indirect rule through the agency of the corrupt PLO leadership.
Netanyahu was elected in 1996 in the wake of a series of bus bombs, by basing his campaign on old-style anti-Arab propaganda. He had no alternative to the peace process, but once elected was dependent on the Jewish religious right to keep his parliamentary majority. Netanyahu is caught between the demands of the right for new settlements and other acts of provocation against the Palestinians, and the pressure of the more rational sections of the state, like the army and big business, for progress on the peace process. The result is a stalemate in the peace Process, which has also undermined the basis of Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
On 10 March three Palestinian workers on their way home from a building site were shot dead by Israeli soldiers at an army checkpoint. The soldiers have not been charged with any crime. This massacre galvanised the anger of the Palestinians at their continued subjugation. It underlined the fact that four years after the Oslo accord was signed, Israel can still kill unarmed Palestinians with impunity. Israel still controls the vast majority of the West Bank, and Palestinians still routinely have to endure delays, humiliation and sometimes death at Israeli checkpoints. While the Palestinian Authority organised state funerals for the workers, the funeral procession was dominated by the green banners of Hamas. The mood was angry. Women at the funeral chanted, ‚We want to hear explosions in Tel Aviv!‘ Days of clashes between Israeli troops and stone-throwing Palestinian youth followed in Hebron. Israeli soldiers entered the Palestinian areas. These protests spread across the West Bank after the killing of Hamas bomber Muhi a Din Sharif, in what Hamas claim was an Israeli assassination. The call for Hamas to return to its suicide bombs was again raised, showing the extent to which the peace process had been discredited, but also the lack of any leadership capable of advancing the strategy of mass struggle.
Demonstrations and Intifada-style clashes, which left 20 demonstrators and 16 police injured, followed the Israeli bulldozing of three houses in Um el Sahli near Sahnin. Viewers of Israeli television saw police lash out indiscriminately at young people trying to rebuild their destroyed homes. Police also used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. The police commander of the northern region said ‚this is an Intifada‘. But Um el Sahli is within Israel proper. Its residents have Israeli citizenship and some serve in the Israeli army. While the 850,000 ‚Israeli Palestinians‘ are discriminated against in nearly all walks of life, they have a relatively comfortable and prosperous position compared to the Palestinians in the territories. They did not participate in the Intifada (except for providing solidarity aid for their brothers and sisters). The clashes in and around Sahnin were described as the most serious in Israel proper since 1976. The Maariv newspaper said Arab soldiers in the Israeli army are threatening in future to use the weapons to defend their homes and their honour.
At last the Israeli working class is beginning to appear as an independent force, with an enormous leap in consciousness over the past year.
Israel in its 50th year seems to be hurtling towards disaster on all fronts. The old capitalist political parties and institutions arc discredited, with no solution to the region’s problems..But now at last the Israeli working class is beginning to appear as an independent force, with an enormous leap in consciousness over the past year (see Socialism Today 26, March 1998). The Histadruth, which had been written off by many as an anachronism, has organised two successful general strikes. In the coming elections to the Histadruth leadership the Labor Party is running a joint list with the government Likud party! However, the Israeli aircraft industry workers‘ committee leader (i.e. senior convenor), Haim Katz, is running a list of workers‘ committee leaders for the Histadruth leadership, arguing that ‚for too long the workers‘ issues were entrusted to party political appointees‘. This is the first time a workers‘ list has contested the Histadruth elections, and it may be the first step in the formation of a workers‘ party.
Amnon Cohen
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