Here’s an interesting leftist perspective on the current crisis:
A number of American friends have been asking about my thoughts on Israel so I figured I’d just do a thread. This isn’t some academic analysis or anything, just some things I’ve noticed as someone who follows the news closely and has been to probably a dozen protests. Here we go:
1. The threat was real. American Left is (rightfully) wary of anyone that leans on unelected Supreme Court, but in this case they were final line of defense before dictatorship. Israel has no other checks or balances. No constitution, no separation between exec. and legislature
2.Bibi’s extremist coalition was trying to push reforms that would turn supreme court into rubber stamp. First to suffer would be Palestinians, LGBT and unions. Imagine Trump (who couldn’t even cancel Obamacare) with no obstacles, no challengers. What would he do?
3. If the reforms would have passed, many of the Palestinians with Israeli citizenship would have been disenfranchised because they have become the crucial piece in any non-Netanyahu coalition. As a result, Bibi would never lose an election ever again. Game Over.
4. The protests were driven by elites. Capital, PMC, academics, tech workers, military pilots, etc. This led to some cringe moments for me at protests. I met some Druze at Haifa protests but Palestinians mostly stayed out of this. Radical Left was present but its small.
5. In the end Bibi was forced to stop reform (for now) for 3 reasons: A. Millions of people took to the streets over the past few weeks. B. Elite military reserves said they would not serve . C. The biggest unions in Israel joined in the 11th hour and called a general strike.
6. The big unions are mostly part of the Likud now that the center-left parties have gone full neoliberal. Also, they have been burned by neolib supreme court in the past 30 years, who have curtailed their right to strike. Having them join was a huge deal. Real game-changer.
7. I understand those who sneer at protests. So long as there is apartheid in occupied territories, Israel can never be a democracy. Supreme Court has been key player in legitimizing occupation. But if Bibi had his way, the lives of Palestinians would have gotten so much worse.
8. Yet as someone who often went to the protest with an anti-occupation sign, I can tell you the elite PMC crowd never once yelled at me. I felt that slowly but surely the protests were normalizing the anti-occupation agenda. I saw an alternative path for the first time in years.
8. More Israelis are realizing that the occupation was the root cause of all of this. It had bred the right wing autocrats who were now going after them. As an American historian, it reminds me of the middle-class northerners who, in the end, joined forces with the abolitionists
9. Slavery ended in part because these middle class elites realized that slavery – and the slaveholders it empowered – were a threat to their way of life. Hopefully more and more will realize that if Israel doesn’t end the occupation, the occupation will end Israel.
Originally tweeted by Eli Cook (@Eli_B_Cook) on March 28, 2023.
A lot of leftist types have been understandably cynical about the protests, noting that Israel isn’t a true democracy because well … apartheid. This struck me as a possible glimmer of hope on that count. Maybe it’s too pollyannaish, but but it’s always wise to keep hope alive.