SYMPHONY OF INCITEMENT IN ISRAEL

27 April 2010, The Alternative Information Center (AIC) http://alternativenews.org/english

In the past few months, the symphony of incitement against everything that has a whiff of leftism, liberalism, humanism and empathy toward “the other” is becoming louder and more encompassing of the entire public sphere in Israel.
Knesset members and ministers, singers – who were drug addicts in the past and newly religious people in the present, secular celebrities (with a bit of understanding of Judaism but with no compulsion to keep the commandments), media types, rabbis and municipal heads. All of them now joined together in unruly incitement. This article will not relate to the distorted claims and explanations of those who incite, but will analyse the need of the Israeli society for a multi-pronged attack against small groups which at the present do not possess the power to threaten the political and social balance of power.

From where comes the need for this harsh and blunt incitement, which creates conditions for the next murder? A murder after which will come the usual excuse of the “exception.”

There are several reasons for this need, internal reasons that are political and social in nature in addition to international political factors.

Firstly, it must be taken into account that this incitement begins with the Israeli government and Knesset. The current political leadership, despite its electorally provided power as a stable coalition, perceives incitement against everything foreign to it – the Palestinian, migrant worker, refugee, leftist, gay, humanist – as an existential necessity. The reason for this is related to the need to construct a hegemonic ideology which will provide a long-term substitute for the political crises and hesitations with which we have lived since the 1992 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The assassination of Rabin was a foundational event that resulted in a change in Israel’s internal political balance. In the political ping pong which existed for almost two decades previously, Labour and the Likud attempted to find a formula for the establishment of a new hegemony. However, the current Israeli government represents the first time that the secular, neo-fascist Right, the Messianic neo-fascist religious Right and the fundamentalist ultra-orthodox Jews are capable of establishing a ruling coalition founded on principles of deepening the occupation of the Palestinian territories, the transfer of Palestinians, elimination of liberal markers (such as human and civil rights) and social and economic neo-liberalism.

Like every regime that attempts to be powerful and maintain its position over time, Israel’s government must alter the power balance not only in the parliamentarian and governmental arena, but also in the public sphere. There is always a difference between victory in the elections and an alteration in the public arena’s power balance. In order to be strong over time, every regime must eliminate all substantial opposition. To this end, the new hegemony must mark the enemy, particularly the internal enemy, and to work in accordance with the logic of circles of incitement.

Circles of incitement are a method employed by anti-Semites in the 20th century. Firstly they point to the Jew as a hated person, a reason for disease, a rapist of young girls, possessor of a strange culture, a potential terrorist. The second circle is comprised of those who identify, empathise with the Jew. Surprisingly, the “Jew lover” is he who becomes the primary enemy. Why? As he impedes implementation of the incitement plan while providing another alternative. And every anti-Semite, like every fascist, neo-fascist and fundamentalist, cannot stand the fact that someone “from within” is capable of contradicting the rationale for incitement.

The second reason for this incitement is related to the repeated and ongoing failures of Israel’s recent wars and subsequent withdrawals. Since the first Lebanon war, the failure to remain in southern Lebanon and the subsequent Israeli withdrawal, the official Israel and its military apparatus are incapable of selling a clean war ending with proven successes. In the second war against Lebanon, Israel lost vis-?-vis its public and is unable to explain to the world the meaning of this destructive attack, which again ended in a retreat in Israel’s relations of power with Hizbullah. Later came the Israeli military attacks on Gaza, attacks through which Israel attempted to correct all the distortions of the past thirty years and prove the deterrence power of its strong military. Yet here we are again, receiving biting criticism from the entire world, unable to prove that the Hamas infrastructure was hampered, and seeing how the Goldstone Report is paving the way for a series of harsh responses in the international arena.

This failed political-military context brings official Israel to act like an injured and dangerous animal. It is attempting to chase all of those who supposedly collaborated with Goldstone, but in reality is organising an institutionalized lie in face of the results of these attacks. In other words and as with every belligerent government incapable of coping with failures that threaten the ethos of militarism, it begins to persecute those perceived as questioning the new hegemony. This is the reason for Israel’s pathetic campaign against those who do not serve in the military.

The third reason is the need to join forces against the direct and indirect international pressure. Following its military attacks on Gaza, Israel is gradually becoming like apartheid South Africa in international public opinion. The need to bring internal forces together in order to present a united front to the “non-Jews” represents an essential need for every regime with something to hide and reasons to fear. It is not the level of criticism toward official Israel which measures the level of fear of the Israeli government, but the echo of this criticism throughout the world. This is an echo that finally destroys the ultimate excuse of Israel for its very existence and justification for its actions. The “non Jews” are beginning to forget the Holocaust, or at least do not understand why the Holocaust must be an excuse for every Israeli action. This position propels the Israeli propaganda machine into hysteria: if the Holocaust does not deter, what else can we sell?
Internally, cooperation with such “non Jews” succeeds in driving the Right in its various forms and the fundamentalists crazy. For them, this is treason as it involves subverting the Israeli consensus with persons from the outside. In other words and as I have already noted, unity of thought is necessary to create an internal sense of cohesion and to display outwards the inability to present any alternative.

The fourth factor behind the current incitement in Israel is neo-liberal policies. To date there is almost no opposition from the populations most harmed by the privatization and reduction plans of the Israeli government. However, Israel’s social manipulation based on the hatred of the foreigner, who steals jobs from Israelis, is essential in order to justify its policies of social destruction. Yet there is a more hidden side to these neo-liberal policies. Despite the hollow statements of post-modern theoreticians, globalization and a reduction in the weight of states in guiding the economy require a strong state, a police state which will preserve economic arrangements and the profits of business. As we see in all European countries, the construction of a consciousness for the need of a strong state goes via hatred of the other. When there is an internal enemy, even if that enemy completely lacks the ability to fight and resist, it is easier to enlist public opinion for plans of policing and oppression. In Israel there is a tremendous number of community police programmes, “cities without violence” (which in actuality means more police and cameras in public spaces, more volunteer police officers…); discussions which transform youth into potential offenders; and of course talk about the “mafia.” In simple terms, if you want a strong police state, you need a defined enemy. Who if not the foreigner can play this part?

All of these reasons form the basis for today’s incitement. However, an additional and crucial factor must be added: the history of the state of Israel, past and present, which is a history of racism. Israeli colonialism has not substantially changed over the past decades. Only the holes in internal consensus have changed since the mid-1980s. The hegemony is now attempting to patch up these holes by eliminating the bothersome factors. Firstly it begins with the Jews who are outside of the Jewish-Israeli national consensus. The next step will be an attack, including physical transfer, of the Palestinian population within Israel. In order to employ violence, the Israeli regime must now silence the voices of protest.
We are entering a period of witch hunts, violence and murder. In my next article I will attempt to examine what we can do.

Marcello Weksler is the Director of Educational Programmes for Marginalised Youth in Tel Aviv and Board Member of the Alternative Information Center (AIC). This article was translated to English by the Alternative Information Center.