Israeli Extremism Threatens Jews

The Jewish people are once again under the same threat that they have been for most of their history: that of extremism. Jews have faced many forms of extremism, ranging from the Spanish Inquisition, to Eastern European pogroms, to the Nazis. Today, radical Islamism and growing populist anti-Semitism pose serious threats to Jews across the world — threats that are difficult to combat. But even more concerning than radical Islam and populist anti-Semitism is Jewish extremism itself, which could undermine the vast progress made by the Jewish people.

Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, which just last week won a plurality of seats in the Israeli parliamentary elections, virtually guaranteeing a continuation of its government, has engaged in extreme militarism toward Palestinians. These policies delegitimize Israel in the eyes of its international supporters, and moreover, threaten the Jewish people by failing to preserve the legitimacy of their national homeland, Israel.

For so much of history, the Jewish people have been oppressed and persecuted by governments and societies that failed to recognize Jews as citizens, limited their educational opportunities and professions and circumscribed where they could live. But now, approximately 14 million Jewish people flourish in Israel, North America and other parts of the world. To be sure, there is still organized anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist activity directed towards Jews throughout world, but most of this activity is not sponsored by legitimate governments.

The Islamic State may call for the destruction of Israel, and too many violent acts of anti-Semitism occur, as we tragically saw in the Ile-de-France terrorist attacks over the winter, but most powers that be condemn this anti-Semitism, and Israel has never been in a stronger position to defend itself militarily from its enemies.

But the Israeli political right wing, led by Netanyahu’s Likud party, is undermining the progress of the Jewish people. The Netanyahu government’s militarism and oppression of Palestinians has soiled global opinion of Israel.

The state of Israel was created by the United Nations in the wake of World War II to protect the Jewish people from the oppression that they had so long endured. For decades, Israel was spectacularly successful in protecting the Jewish people, and moreover, acted as a model state while doing so — turning the desert into farmland, acting as a beacon of liberal democracy in the authoritarian Middle East, fending off its enemies in spectacular military victories and developing a prosperous startup economy.

To be sure, Israel has always had flaws. It has often acted in its own interest and in the interest of the Jewish people with little regard to Palestinians. The blockade of the Gaza Strip has deprived Gazans of basic resources and human decency with questionable strategic benefit. And the Jewish settlements in the West Bank since the Six-Day War in 1967 have displaced Palestinians and made a lasting peace settlement more difficult to achieve.

But nonetheless, the powers of Europe and the United States have supported Israel as a liberal democracy and a Jewish state for the many virtues that outweighed these flaws. They have provided financial, military and diplomatic resources that have allowed Israel to flourish.

Netanyahu’s government is increasingly destroying this international support. The government’s overly destructive campaigns against Hamas in Gaza this past summer, continued settlement building and interference with American domestic politics have made many of Israel’s former supporters question the Jewish state.

The Prime Minister’s recent denunciation of a two state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict during his electoral campaign, then subsequent rejection of his comments after his Likud party won the election, have infuriated the Obama administration. The United States has long supported a two-state solution, and Israel has at least nominally supported this as well. Netanyahu’s political flip-flopping has confirmed the Obama administration’s doubts that the Prime Minister is serious about his country’s commitment.

Support for Israel has long been one of the only political issues that United States’ Democrats and Republicans could agree upon. This bipartisan support seems to be eroding, though. Many on the left have grown disillusioned by Israel’s militarism and oppression of Palestinians. While in 1988, Democrats and Republicans sympathized with Israel in similar numbers, recently Democratic support has quickly eroded while Republican support has increased. A February Gallup poll found that 83 percent of Republicans sympathize with Israel more than Palestine, while only 48 percent of Democrats do.

Europe has turned against Israel even more than the United States has. During the Gaza conflict last summer, there were mass protests around Europe decrying Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians. Israel is losing the support of its allies in the United States and Europe. The legitimacy of Israel as a liberal democracy is being called into question. The action and rhetoric of the Netanyahu government

risk turning Israel into an international pariah that the United States and Europe will not support if new existential crises emerge.

For too much of history, the Jewish people have suffered under the yoke of outside extremist ideologies inflicted upon them. Now, via the actions of Netanyahu and his supporters, an indigenous Jewish extremism threatens the Jewish people’s hard won success. Israel is the national home of Jews, and the support of Europe and the United States is vital for its success in protecting Jews from the oppression that so long plagued them.

The Jewish community, both inside and outside of Israel, has an obligation to distance itself from Netanyahu. While the Jewish people were unable to stop previous extremists threats, Jews are now in a better position than they have been possibly in their entire history to counter the extremism of Israel’s right wing government. It must not fall victim to this latest brand of extremism.

Ben Perlmutter is a College junior from Chappaqua, New York.

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