By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM–When we left Israel last May, the country had a Prime Minister known for his right-wing intransigent views. To support him he had several even bigger hawks in his cabinet, including as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of a party consisting largely of anti-progressive immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
Coming back to the country some seven months later, we now find a seemingly conciliatory, pragmatic and much less doctrinaire leader of the Government of Israel. But he’s the same person: Binyamin Netanyahu. Here are some indicators:
(1) Last June he declared that he accepts a two-state solution: an Israeli and Palestinian state living side by side. (2) A few weeks ago he agreed to (a kind of) ten months’ freeze of settlement expansion. (3) He has ordered the lifting of restrictions on the movements of Palestinians. (4) There are signs of economic growth in the territories.
The reasons for these visible pointers toward transformation are the same now as they were when other right-wing leaders were at the helm: Menachem Begin who made peace with Egypt; Ariel Sharon who withdrew from Gaza; Ehud Olmert who hobnobbed with the President of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazen. It’s called Realpolitik.
Israel is dependent on the United States. When its President wants the Jewish state to act in a certain way, the Prime Minister has little choice but to comply. Some of us hoped that such pressure would point in the direction of peace in the Middle East when Barak Obama was elected. By responding positively to the President, Netanyahu may either challenge the Palestinians to reciprocate or show the world that they aren’t serious.
The Palestinian response is by no means certain. But the Israeli course of action is also problematic. For in the short time that Netanyahu has been in office, the settler movement – the backbone of some of his hawkish coalition partners – may have become stronger and decidedly more strident. The recent torching of a mosque in a Palestinian village, allegedly in protest against the settlement freeze, has pointed to settlers as suspects. (However, the Israeli public’s strong reaction against such vandalism has been very reassuring and may suggest that the settlers can and will be kept in check.)
Equally troubling is the “guidance” offered by nationalist Orthodox rabbis to soldiers. A generation ago, the elite groups of the Israel Defense Forces were members of (largely left-wing) kibbutzim. With the collapse of the kibbutz movement as a result of the economic perestroika in Israeli society, its sons are no longer in the forefront. Some graduates of nationalist institutions in which extremist rabbis play a prominent part, again with roots in West Bank Jewish settlements, appear to have taken their place. Though there’s no reason whatsoever for alarmist hysteria about the danger of an army take-over, there’s reason to view the phenomenon as another obstacle to peace.
Even if Netanyahu manages to deliver the critics within his own party, it’s less clear that he’ll be able to persuade some of his coalition partners. As ideologues they may prefer to be outside the government than support a pragmatic approach. Therefore, if he appears to act inconsistently, it may not be because he’s duplicitous but because he finds himself between the rock that’s Obama and the hard place of his partners in government.
Trying to follow Israeli politics is indeed exciting. For those of us anxious about the future of our children, it’s also very personal and at times worrying.
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Rabbi Marmur, the emeritus spiritual leader of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, divides his time between Canada and Israel