Winning Isn’t Everything

Like many dual Israeli and American citizens who believe democracy is a fundamental imperative of a free society, I voted in elections in each of these countries during the last two weeks. I came into the voting booth with enormous contempt for the two heads of government in each of these countries and for their continuing attacks on democracy.  Not only does each of them refuse to take responsibility for their failures in governance, but their twin efforts to bypass the will of the people while stopping at nothing to hold onto power even at the expense of lives, public treasure and the basic ideals of their countries’ founders as well as fomenting divisions among their population, they continue relentlessly to use lies to thwart the rule of law.  They both have chosen to appoint loyalists to public offices rather than those with the ability to serve the people. I have waited impatiently for both of them to lose their power to the voters.

Now after the votes have been counted, I feel that I am on the cusp of getting my wish.  Yet I have, as the old cliché goes – a sense that while there is good news there’s also bad news.  The good news is that both my votes in Israel and then in America were with the winners.  In Israel, my votes were among the 67 Knesset winners who oppose the parties in the Netanyahu coalition. That is the government that presided over the October 7 disaster, that prosecuted a failed Iranian war, that left Hamas in power, and Hezbollah and the Houthis, no less, who have left our state as among the most despised in the world, and who have tried and continue to dismantle democracy. Even after the votes have been counted, they look to discredit the winners with misinformation and intrigue.

In America, I voted with the Democratic wave that swept the Trump Republicans whose control of all parts of the US government has ended: Trump still holds the Executive Branch, but lost control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and Democrats are now a majority of the State Governors.  While the Supreme Court is dominated by Republican partisan justices, there is hope for change.

But while I am delighted to be counted with the winners, I am anxious about what they will do with their victory. As an American, I am thrilled to see the beginning of the end of a Republican administration and a president whose actions have systematically undermined the American dream, with tariffs and trade wars; the bashing of old allies and neighbors, while embracing dictators; the self-enrichment and self-dealing of a President and his family circle and associates; the unleashing of an armed militia of ICE goons on American streets; the dismantling of the health care system and scientific research and more. As an Israeli I am encouraged that the people who brought us endless wars but no efforts for peace, a judicial upheaval that sought to repeal the power of an independent judiciary and a prime minister ready to enshrine draft dodging and ignore vigilantism by religious fanatics have been defeated at the polls.

But I am also anxious about what the winners will do with their victory. In Israel, I am worried that the majority bloc has not learned to stop arguing over that which distinguishes them from one another rather than to extend their hands to those who, like them, share a commitment to stop a restoration of the coalition responsible for the failures of October 7^th and its aftermath.

I am worried that those 67 who have unanimously recommended Gadi Eisencott to the President to form a government will not reach out across religious lines and accept the clear evidence that Israeli Arab voters are prepared fully to participate in sharing responsibility for how the government in Israel, in which they are full citizens, carries out its responsibilities.  Like so many of the voters of the so-called “change coalition,” they have used the ballot box in extraordinary numbers to stop the wave of increasing violence and crime, enabled by the October 7th  government that purposely has left a security vacuum that allows violent Jewish settlers to terrorize their Arab neighbors and that in the Israeli Arab communities has permitted “crime rings”  to continue to kill civilians almost every day.”

I am worried that this change coalition does not fully recognize that only by including Israeli Arabs in the new governing majority will it be able to demonstrate to the world that the new government of the Jewish State is still fully committed to democracy and that it accepts the equality of all its citizens, not just the Jewish ones. If Israel is to stop traveling the road of being a pariah state, a source of “scorn and derision to those around us,” we must have a government of, for and by all its people. The inclusion of Israeli Arabs into the new government of Israel is essential to undoing this damage, no less than making peace and restoring justice. That is the change that we need.

In America, I am worried that the Democratic victors as well as the losers include many who have accepted the fallacy that Israel and the Jews represent a sinister force in the world. I am worried because even a majority of Jewish voters in America have accepted that fallacy as the truth. I am worried because Israel has now reached the lowest level of American opinion ever. I am worried that since Netanyahu led Israel into being a partisan issue with his foolish association with Trump and his open disdain of the two of the most recent Democrat Presidents as well as other members of that party has also alienated a whole generation of young Americans and even the Jews among them.  Without embracing full democracy, the Israeli government of change risks being seen as indistinguishable from its predecessor.  The Democratic winners will, I hope, be good for America and Israel, but only for a fully democratic Israel that has a goal of peace for all people in its neighborhood.

The bad news is that until this moment, I am far from certain that the ones I voted for in both the countries in which I am a citizen will use their mandates to do good.  America has stood by Israel from its founding, and Israel has depended on America. Reaffirming that connection to each other is what I hope my votes foster.

Winning elections is better than losing them, but what one does with that power is the difference between true victory and one that’s only a passing phase.