Israel’s leftist monopoly
Op-ed: Rightist camp has renounced its right and duty to take lead on human rights issues
Recently I drove by a military roadblock on the way to Jerusalem. On the side of the road I saw handcuffed Palestinians kneeling down as Border Guard police officers were searching them. I did not stop. I don’t know if these were illegal aliens or terror suspects, but as I drove by I felt a pang in my heart. Seeing a handcuffed adult is unpleasant, even when it’s necessary.
I’m recounting this story not in order to come across as a bleeding heart, but rather, because that pang in my heart is not exclusively mine. It’s shared by the majority of sane Israelis, regardless of their political views. Settlers or Tel Aviv residents, fans of withdrawal or Greater Israel supporters, the sensitivity to other human beings does not stop at ideological roadblocks. And this is precisely where one of the rightist camp’s main problems lies in recent years.
Against the backdrop of the political debate, Israel’s leftist camp became a monopoly on the human rights front. We see an equation that for some reason appears logical to everyone, whereby those who support withdrawals and delusional peace deals are also necessarily concerned about maintaining our humane attitude and morality. The rightist camp is very much at fault for creating this distorted picture. The Right was the one to bow its head, without protesting, in the face of the stereotype bestowed upon it.
One cannot argue with the facts: The Association for Civil Rights, Machsom Watch, Physicians for Human Rights and all sorts of other groups are clearly associated with the political Left. Within the rightist camp there are almost no organizations set up to safeguard human rights. When such group was established in Judea and Samaria, it was only concerned with settler rights, to counter the selective leftist groups.
Even if we forget about the familiar populist discourse for a moment, it’s clear that tough situations stemming from the need to contend with Palestinian terror in Judea and Samaria raise questions among rightist voters too. There is no black or white, neither in politics nor in respect to morality.
Right’s absence must end
Moreover, even if today it appears that human rights are a leftist matter, this was not always the case. Rightist leader Menachem Begin was the one who in the 1960s led the protest against Israel’s military administration and the undermined rights of Arab Israelis, despite security concerns. He faced off against members of the old leftist camp of all people.
Since then we indeed fought and conquered, yet fundamental moral perceptions have not changed; what changed is that the rightist camp renounced its right and duty to take the lead on these issues.
The cause for this has to do with shallow antagonism. Leftist human rights groups don’t make do with preserving our morality and ensuring adherence to human rights; they also attempt to force radical leftist worldviews upon us. Some of these groups even undermine the State of Israel’s legitimacy while spreading venom and destructive instead of constructive criticism. The Right sees this and recoils, yet a simple cost-benefit analysis shows that we can’t do without these leftist groups. There’s simply nobody else.
The Right’s absence from the human rights discourse reinforces the monopoly enjoyed by these organizations and the need to have them, despite the harm they cause to the State. If that’s not enough, this reality gives rise to twisted myths whereby one cannot firmly fight terror while at the same time safeguard the rights of other people.
Finding the middle road isn’t simple, yet the rightist camp does not have the privilege of continuing to ignore these issues. With or without withdrawals, the Palestinians will be staying here, and we need to care for them in the spirit of Judaism.
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