One rope, two million necks

The Arab and international chattering classes have been preoccupied with Israel’s election results of late. Political and media circles were especially focused on the so-called “surprise” result for Israel’s centrist and leftist parties, apparently achieving a state of “equilibrium” between the two main blocs on the country’s political, partisan scene: the Right and the Left. In truth, this vision of a balance is dependent on a lack of analysis and scrutiny, especially when you take into account the meanings of words like “right-wing,” “centrist” and “left-wing” within Israel’s historical and political contexts. Definitions understood across the world -- be they related to economics, society or civil rights -- can mean something very different when viewed through the context of the Palestinian Question, the future of the conflict and the two-state solution. With that in mind, and from a Palestinian perspective, you could fairly say that all of the winners in the 19th Knesset are actually right-wing. None of them [with the exception of the Arab List] acknowledges Israel’s responsibility in the Nakba, nor do they accept the right of return of over five million Palestinian refugees in the region. The overwhelming majority of non-Arab Knesset members, maybe 90 percent of the elected body, do not agree with dismantling settlements let alone the existence of settler populations. The idea of a balanced Israeli political scene becomes all the more complicated when one considers the fact that an even larger percentage do not accept the return of the Holy City to its original owners, refusing to divide it and not even considering it part of the 1967 Occupied Territories. I believe what’s more important than the rise of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid [“There Is A Future”] party is the rise of Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home bloc, a fine representative of the settlement lobby in Israeli politics. The latter amassed nearly 10 percent of all votes cast. There Is A Future is incidental to the current political climate. It could retreat and fade away, maybe even vanish entirely – just like Kadima did. However the party of the settlers and their supporters, on the other hand, is based on fixed dogma. It comes from a similar place to the religious Hardeic group, or extremist nationalist parties which supposedly crucial domestic changes have failed to remove from the Knesset. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to begin forming his third cabinet now, according to the time frame provided by Israeli statute. Netanyahu will form a far-right cabinet, studded with centrist and left-wing parties in order to deflect international criticism and secure his leadership that little bit more, as well as allowing the success of internal measures related to the budget, religious schools and ultra-Orthodox conscription. Ever since I first started closely following Israeli elections over three decades ago, there hasn’t been a single round where there wasn’t some sort of “surprise” – some have been genuinely seismic. But Israel’s general direction remains the same: a move to the Right. The latest elections have not broken this trend, despite what commentators would have us believe, who claim Tzipi Livni and Lapid are the bold knights of the centrist Left. The most dangerous political outcome of the election would be this kind of delusion, which bets that Israel will change its stance towards Palestine because the so-called Israeli left can achieve this. This is a waste of time, looking for solutions amid smoke and mirrors – and at a time when the Palestinian people sorely need to prepare for a new diplomatic and strategic era. Like Mohammed Darwish said: "Right to right to centre/I saw nothing but a scaffold/With one single rope for two million necks." --- The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.