Netanyahu’s No State Solution

While the world is now actively promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu and his government continue to focus on their own self-serving plan: a no state solution.

The one thing that unites the current government — composed of the remains of the Likud, the ultra-Orthodox parties drunk with power, and the most extremist version ever represented in the Knesset of a religious party — is a rejection of the state. The ongoing stranglehold of the government, quite apart from creating a military disaster, is bringing about the destruction of what has been the only functioning state between the Jordan River and the Meditearranean.

What remains of what was once a right-wing, conservative, but liberal party has metamorphisized into a party hostile to the rule of law and any semblence of order. The Likud, founded and led for decades by Menachem Begin, a law school graduate, is now focused on destroying Israel’s justice system, publicly attacking the supreme court and its judges, with its ministers declaring they will refuse to appear for police investigations or to stand trial. The party stance is probably highly influenced by Netanyahu’s own legal troubles: he is being tried on three separate cases of fraud and breach of trust. Meanwhile, the Likud has turned the entire Israeli bureaucracy into a job-creating mechanism for utterly unqualified party hacks. Run the way a criminal organization runs, with lower-level bosses doing the bidding of the crime king, irrespective of the law, the Likud prefers the gang rule to even the vaguest suggestion that they be subject to the law themselves.

The ultra-Orthodox party leaders have declared explicitly that torah law is above the rule of the state, and as such publicly encourage their young men not only to avoid the draft but in the words of former Chief Rabbi Itzhak Yossef, “if you receive a draft notice, you should rip it up, throw it into the toilet, and flush.” One of the most senior ultra-Orthodox leaders. Aryeh Deri, was given a three year prison term for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust; he was given a three-year jail sentence of which he served two thirds. The ultra-Orthodox parties unabashedly explain that the country is merely a vehicle for funding and supporting the religion and their religious establishment. As such, they demand funding for all their institutions, stipends for anyone claiming to study torah, welfare payments and tax exemptions for alltheir community.

The third and no less dangerous leg of the government is that of the messianic religious party, which not only declared that “Hamas is an asset” — as an alternative and rival to the Palestinian Authority, which Israel helped create and Israeli extremists seek to destroy — but imagine a Jewish Empire from Lebanon to Egypt, from the Jordan River to the Meditteranean Sea. Netanyahu himself, as is publicly known, supported Hamas for decades and funded the building of the tunnels in which Israeli hostages are now being held. It helps little that 70-80% of Israeli object to any such thing, and prefer a viable Israel. But beyond that, the extremist religious parties in the government disregard laws, borders, and the rest of the citizenry, as well as the international community. In their opinion we are in a time of redemption, God is on their side, and everyone and everything else is bothersome and should be swept away. The everything includes the state of Israel and its laws, which they see as not binding them or applicable to them.

This situation, in which the Israeli government is actually fighting the State of Israel as well as an overwhelming majority of its citizens, makes reaching peace or any form of stability that will make life liveable for the residents of the area, terribly difficult. Add to this the West Bank, divided into three regions (A, B, and C, according to the Oslo Agreements) that is also in a terrible predicament. Abu Mazen, apparently corrupt and largely despised by Palestinians, has been avoiding elections for almost 20 years, albeit keeping quiet in most of the area under his control. Most countries now recognize a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians themselves do not.  Finally, the Gaza Strip is now utter chaos, with rumors that 70% of its buildings have been destroyed, yet still ostensibly run by the terrorist organization Hamas (although there as well, no elctions have been held for close to 20 years).

Thus talk of a two-state solution, while a worthy goal in my and many Israelis’ opinion, is far off; state-building is a long and complicated process. First, Israeli needs elections and a government willing and able to re-establish the primary governmental functions. Once we once again have a functioning state, we can help the Palestinians build theirs in the West Bank and eventually Gaza as well. Separating us out, with proper borders and institutions, will serve the best interests of all.

The idea of a two-state solution is a welcome one, but Israelis must begin by re-building the one stable and democratic state that existed, which Netanyahu’s government is destroying.