Gideon Levy, writes for the Israeli paper Haaretz, outdid any western journalist in courage and truth when he wrote his response to the elections this week in what he called “Israel’s new wretched republic”.
The “Second [Israeli] Republic”, he wrote, “will no longer hide anything taking place in its backyard or try to pretty itself up. It will look exactly like it is. The First Republic was characterised by a mixture of reality and deception: the only democracy in the Middle East, but, at first, one with a military government in Arab areas, then one with a military dictatorship in the occupied territories.”
It said it was the darling of the Middle East but was also the last colonial regime in the world, says Levy.
“It says it’s an esteemed member of the family of nations, but it breaks almost every international law, and it doesn’t annex occupied land so that it can create a false sense of impermanence. It takes pride in this country’s rule of law and Supreme Court… All that is over. The next government will be a continuation of the previous one, but stronger, more ultranationalist and racist, less legitimate and democratic. And, it must be admitted, it will be a better reflection of reality... On Tuesday, voters said a resounding yes to this Israel.”
“The fire that began flickering during the previous government will spread. The courts, the media, human rights groups and the Arab community will quickly feel it firsthand. Some op-eds in this paper will no longer be approved for publication, by law. It will be forbidden, for example, to criticise Israeli soldiers. Anyone against?”
“Ben-Gurion Airport will be even more closed to critics of the regime. Nonprofit groups will be outlawed. Arabs will be excluded even more than they are now, on the road to realising the vision of a Jewish state with Jewish-only legislators… And of course, there’s the annexation waiting around the corner.”
Let the world see and judge, says Gideon.
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