Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is now poised to form the next Israeli government, after defeating his main opponents Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid in Tel Aviv’s fifth election in only three years. However, the longest serving Israeli Prime Minister has come out at the expense of putting himself at the mercy of fanatical ultra-nationalists that may have a devastating effect on Israel itself.
The former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, came out of Israel’s latest round of elections with a comfortable majority over his centre-right wing adversaries, with the aid of fellow far-right alliances as part of the Netanyahu bloc. The election saw one of the highest voter turnouts, amongst the Jewish Israeli population, in years, with the election turnout reportedly surpassing the 70% point. Amongst the Palestinian citizens of Israel, voter turnout was reportedly lower than expected and resulted in only two Palestinian lists surpassing the required threshold to make it into the Knesset [Israeli parliament].
Whilst the election resulted in a resounding victory for Benjamin Netanyahu, who still faces an ongoing corruption trial, the victory may turn out to be pyrrhic for Tel Aviv’s stability in the long-run. Whilst Netanyahu has proven himself as the most popular politician in Israel, with powerful connections both in and outside historic Palestine, he now puts himself at the mercy of the extremist ‘Religious Zionism’ alliance.
The Israeli government has always been formed as a coalition, historically, with a multitude of parties or lists allying themselves with a leading party to enable the formation of a government. For the Israeli Prime Minister and ruling party, this has meant that they must put themselves at the mercy of smaller parties and make concessions to them in order to successfully govern. Whilst Netanyahu’s Likud Party represent a far-right brand of Zionism, they have also proved politically savvy, and the long-time PM has not proven to be an ideologue, but rather Machiavellian in nature. What will be the second most powerful alliance in the future Israeli government, however, Religious Zionism, seem to be nothing of the sort and are consistent with a religious-fanatic activist mentality.
Whilst the fanatical right-wing majority of voters continue to make countless irrational arguments against what they call “the Left” in Israel, referring to Yair Lapid and his allies, one talking point that they are currently espousing is absolutely correct, the people of Israel have spoken. The Jewish Israeli population turned out in large numbers to vote in this last round, and the majority chose to elect a fanatical racist alliance. Meretz, which is the furthest left Jewish party in Israel, didn’t even pass the threshold to score seats in the Knesset and have been completely wiped out, whilst the once powerful Labor Party proved again a resounding failure. The third largest list, that was elected to Knesset, was Religious Zionism, filled with ideologues that represent the most radical fascistic version of Zionist belief. Before explaining more about the Religious Zionism alliance, it must first be noted that the outrage and shock from Western Liberals over their victory is irrational, as this should come as no shock — Israel is already recognized by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to be an Apartheid regime.
Religious Zionism and it’s potential impacts
Religious Zionism is comprised of two central figures, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who brought together their parties to form the strong alliance we see today. Smotrich, of the ‘National Unity-Tkuma’ Party, has called for segregated maternity wards, to keep Jews away from Arabs, he says that Jews are forbidden by God from selling property to Arabs, and he is so extreme that the leading pro-Israel group in the United Kingdom, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told him to leave the UK, for his “hate-provoking ideology”, when touring Jewish communities there.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, of the ‘Jewish Power’ Party on the other hand is an extremist activist, former Kach Party member and disciple of Meir Kahane. Kahane’s followers are today called Kahanists, which subscribe to their former leader’s fascist, anti-Arab, ideology. Meir Kahane’s Kach Party was so extreme that it was banned from the Israeli Knesset in 1988 for being “manifestly racist” and was later proscribed as a terrorist organization in both Israel and the United States. Ben-Gvir took over as leader of Jewish Power, replacing his colleague Ben-Zion Gopstein who was banned from running for the Knesset over extreme racist remarks. Gopstein remains an ally of Ben-Gvir and heads up the Lehava group, which advocates against mixed marriages between Jews and Arabs. Lehava is also involved in the organizing of the infamous “Death to Arabs” marches in Jerusalem’s Old City and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. Itamar Ben-Gvir owns a home in the illegal settlement Kiryat Shimona, in Al-Khalil (Hebron), reportedly having a framed image in his home of Baruch Goldstein, the Kahanist settler terrorist who massacred 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahimi Mosque of Al-Khalil.
Ben-Gvir’s record of racist statements against Palestinians and Arabs is never ending, but it suffices to say that he is not only a racist, but a thug too. He has admitted to being indicated 53 times, with charges ranging from supporting a terrorist group, to inciting racism and violence against Arabs. The Jewish Power Party was labelled as “racist and reprehensible” by the pro-Israel Lobby, AIPAC, in 2021. The pro-Israeli Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has now warned that the Religious Zionism alliance being included in the next government will hurt Israel globally.
Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are vying for leading cabinet positions in the new Netanyahu government, which neither of them seem to be backing down on — meaning that they will have a direct impact on Tel Aviv’s policy. The Religious Zionism alliance’s major policy positions include; overhauling the judicial system, introducing a death penalty for Palestinians who kill Jews, introducing immunity laws for Israeli soldiers so that they cannot be prosecuted for war crimes, annexing the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank into Israel, deporting Palestinian citizens of Israel for “disloyalty” to the Jewish State and stripping them of their Israeli citizenship, in addition to introducing long-term prison sentences for illegal immigrants. The list goes on, with a 10 point plan put forth by Religious Zionism, which even includes changing the Jewish ‘Law of Return’, to prevent people who have only one Jewish grandparent, but are not a Jew by Jewish law, from becoming an Israeli citizen.
In the short term, regardless of what positions both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich end up in, they will be the second most powerful alliance in government. This will mean that their sway over the direction of the Netanyahu regime will be significant. In the short term, Religious Zionism will oppose the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and will likely make things tougher on them, also pushing for a more brutal approach to dealing with Palestinian armed movements which have emerged inside the occupied territory. Undoubtably, the extremists of Religious Zionism will make things tougher for Palestinians everywhere inside historic Palestine and may encourage a rebellion. This will mean that a much greater death toll will come as a result and living conditions for Palestinians may become worse.
In the long-run, however, this government is a bullet to the foot for Israel. To begin with, the more success Religious Zionism has in influencing Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the more they will end up isolating the Global Jewish communities outside of occupied Palestine, with even the most pro-Israel Jewish groups in Europe and the United States already expressing their dismay. Not only Jewish people around the world will be impacted, however, as it’s likely that we will see more vocal opposition to Israel around the world, in general, due to the extreme nature of the new Israeli regime.
Then we have the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The extremists of Religious Zionism pit themselves squarely against the PA in the West Bank, which they view to be an integral part of the Jewish biblical homeland “Judea and Samaria”, due to the PA’s ambitions for a Palestinian State on that land. They view the PA as a force that backs “terrorism” and opposes their Zionist dream. In reality, the PA is there to protect Israel and do the heavy lifting for the Israeli Army in the major city centers where Palestinians live. If PA President Mahmoud Abbas is pressured too greatly by the Israeli regime, he will be faced with an ultimatum; fight Israel or dissolve (by force or choice). The fall or switching sides of the PA, will mean that the Israeli military will need to deploy into the major populated areas of the West Bank and will result in a war-type scenario.
Further racist persecution of Palestinian citizens of Israel will only make things worse, as they have the potential to make the streets a nightmare for Israel’s security forces, as we saw occur in May 2022. If even more pressure is applied on Palestinians in East Jerusalem, with greater strides to force them from their homes and more frequent attacks occur against the Holy Sites — to both Muslim and Christian Palestinians — in Jerusalem’s Old City, war may also break out with Gaza.
There will be many repercussions for Tel Aviv if it adopts the extremist policies that are advocated by Religious Zionism. The two most prominent results of such racist approaches, will be: 1) Isolation on the international scene and 2) Chaos and uprising throughout occupied Palestine. In the short run, Israel’s violence will harm the Palestinian people the most, but in the long-run, the fanatical criminals that the Israeli public have just voted to power will cause more harm to Israel itself.
