Channels
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Election results represent people's will exercised democratically, but that doesn't make it right
Photo: Gil Yohanan

The people were wrong

Op-ed: Israelis went to the polls with their eyes wide shut, thinking the status quo is sustainable. It isn’t. Israel is on its way to becoming an international pariah, and the people – who once again chose might over right – have only themselves to blame.

As conventional wisdom has it, the people have had their say and the people are never wrong. The leaders who lost are being magnanimous in their defeat, praising the democratic process and calling for introspection to identify where they went wrong.

  

 

True, the election results represent the will of the people exercised democratically, and that does give the outcome legitimacy; however, it does not make it right.

 

Simply put, the people were wrong. They were wrong in not recognizing that the fastest road to affordable housing and a lower cost of living is an end to the occupation. They were wrong in choosing the path of isolation over acceptance of the Arab Peace Initiative, with its promise of normalization with the member states of the Arab League. They were wrong in not calculating the boost to the economy that would come from a reduced defense budget and from an end to the funds squandered on building and maintaining settlements.

 

Netanyahu won the election by convincing the public that disaster will befall us if the left were to win; it now falls to the left to convince them that the true disaster awaits us if it doesn’t (Photo: Reuters)
Netanyahu won the election by convincing the public that disaster will befall us if the left were to win; it now falls to the left to convince them that the true disaster awaits us if it doesn’t (Photo: Reuters)

 

They were wrong in thinking that there can be any advancement in the education of the next generation as long as our children are being desensitized to the suffering of others. They were wrong in buying into the fear-mongering around the consolidation of the Arab vote instead of welcoming the Arabs’ readiness to join the establishment and seek reforms by working within the system. They were wrong in reelecting a leader who took a huge bite out of the hand that feeds us, and they matched his arrogance with their belief that there will be no day of reckoning for the affront to the president of the United States.

 

The signs of a downturn in relations with the United States were visible in the delay of the traditional congratulatory phone call, and on Sunday the public statements coming from the Oval Office left no doubt that Bibi’s days as a verbal acrobat are over. If we are lucky, the price will be paid only at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, but the demand for accountability is unlikely to end there. Calls for economic sanctions are gaining popularity, and the European countries may well give in to the pressure.

 

But the biggest concern is the sense of despair among the Palestinians. Netanyahu’s "no" to a Palestinian state took peace talks off the table, extinguishing all hope for a negotiated settlement. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas still speaks of nonviolent resistance, but he isn’t going to live forever and the pressure cooker that is the Palestinian territories may well boil over into violent conflict.

 

The Israeli people went to the polls with their eyes wide shut, thinking that the status quo is sustainable. It isn’t. Israel is on its way to becoming an international pariah, and the people – who once again chose might over right – have only themselves to blame.

 

This is not the time for the left to beat its breast and temper its message. On the contrary, it must raise the alarm louder and clearer and focus all its efforts on the root of all evil: The occupation. Any progress made in any other area will be short-lived unless this fundamental issue is resolved.

 

Netanyahu won the election by convincing the public that disaster will befall us if the left were to win. It now falls to the left to convince them that the true disaster awaits us if it doesn’t. A prophet is never welcome in his own land, but it falls to the left to assume this unpopular role because our future hangs in the balance.

 

Susie Becher is a member of the Meretz National Executive.

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.27.15, 10:02
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment