Two weeks out, election gridlock: The difference between the Israeli Right and Left in two tweets

In response, Likud MK Nissim Vaturi wrote: “This is why we need to get everyone out to vote Likud on Election day! It’s either Likud or a disaster.”

While a tweet calling peace and equality a “disaster for Israel” may sound bizarre, it makes perfect sense within the Israeli discourse, where the experience of Oslo has led to the vast majority of Jewish Israelis to view peace and equality as a threat to their security not worth the risk.

Indeed, Israel’s right-wing Jewish voter base has grown from 46% before the April 2019 election to 62%, according to an analysis of self-reported political affiliation by the Israel Democracy Institute.

In Israel, right wing generally means opposing any peace agreement with the Palestinians, primarily based on a belief that the land of Israel was promised to Jews by God and that the Palestinian leadership is not a partner for peace. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has done much to affirm this perception over recent years.

A survey conducted by Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University, one of Israel’s leading pollsters, with 1100 Jewish respondents and 200 non-Jewish respondents — roughly in line with Israeli society, found a polarising of views around Arab Israelis over the past two years.

His research found that in 2021, right-wing Jewish Israelis were more likely to believe that “many” Arab Israelis are extremists – 27% now, compared to 20% in 2018. But left-wing Jewish Israelis were significantly more likely to believe that “very few” Arab Israelis are extremists - 19% now, as opposed to 8% four years ago.

So where does this leave the vision of Raz and the Israeli Left as we approach another election amid growing tensions across East Jerusalem and the West Bank?

Tel Aviv political activist Meital Plotnik wrote in response to the Likud MK’s tweet: “Mossi Roz said on the radio things that are literally quoted from Israel’s declaration of Independence! What are you saying exactly? That you are not a Zionist? That you are against the Declaration of Independence? That you are against the principles upon which this state was founded?”

Another Israeli, @Idan404, tweeted: “You don’t want peace, you want to return to the days of Bibi, where we had rockets fired on the south almost every day, burnt fields, bomb shelters open in the centre of the country; an intifada that wasn’t called an intifada, regular payments to Hamas and riots in mixed cities without intervention from police.”

The sad answer to these questions is that if you asked most Jewish Israelis whether they prefer paying the cost of war that comes from maintaining Israel’s military control over millions of Palestinians, versus the cost of peace if Israel withdrew from the West bank and attempted to ensure complete equality for all its citizens, the majority would choose war.

As Benjamin Netanyahu said to left-wing MKs in 2015: "You think there is a magic wand here, but I disagree. I'm asked if we will forever live by the sword — [my answer is] yes."

While Jewish Israelis believe this more than the vision proposed by the Left that real security can only come through peace, the Right will keep winning elections.

RELATED STORIES

2 weeks out, election polls see renewed gridlock, with neither bloc winning majority (Times of Israel)

Opposition chief Netanyahu and his right-religious allies fall short of majority in pair of TV surveys, though Lapid also lacks clear path to government without Hadash-Ta’al

Netanyahu Refuses to Share Stage With Far-right Ally Ben-Gvir at Religious Event (Haaretz)

The former prime minister reportedly only agreed to get out of his car when Ben-Gvir left the stage. Although Netanyahu avoided being seen together with the Kahanist lawmaker, the two reportedly maintain close coordination behind the scenes ahead of Israel's election

Smotrich launches bid to neuter judiciary, potentially halt ally Netanyahu’s trial (Times of Israel)

Religious Zionism leader’s legal reforms would abolish offense of ‘fraud and breach of trust,’ let MKs ignore court rulings on laws, give gov’t control over selection of judges

Photo: Meretz MK Mossi Raz in the Knesset, in June 2021 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)