Editor’s note: I’m delighted to share this article from Peter Beinart, one of America’s leading Jewish political commentators and author of The Beinart Notebook, on Tuesday’s Israeli elections. - Mehdi
On Tuesday, as Israelis cast their ballots, former Biden administration antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt spied an opportunity for hasbara. At 2:39 pm ET, she retweeted a video of Bedouins heading to the polls on camels, and added the caption: “Bedouins voting? Apartheid? And maybe the kingmakers?” Twelve minutes later, she reposted an image of veiled Muslim women supposedly crowded into a polling station alongside the words: “And again, I ask: apartheid?” (Palestinian politicians alleged that the photo was an AI fake.)
For Lipstadt, the images of Palestinian citizens voting proved that Israel’s political system is not racist. But only two hours earlier, Benjamin Netanyahu had posted an ad using those same images. And the ad was, well, racist. Alongside the video of voters on camelback, Netanyahu’s ad warned: “They will flock in great numbers to the polls.” Superimposed over the photo of veiled woman, it snarled: “unprecedented voting rate. For the Arab parties.”
Lipstadt tweeted nothing about Netanyahu’s ad. Perhaps she just missed it. But judging by her account on Twitter, she also missed the reports earlier this month that Netanyahu and his Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, were dispatching right-wing “election observers” to Palestinian polling stations to intimidate voters. And in late September, she said nothing about the Central Election Committee’s decision – later partially reversed by Israel’s Supreme Court – to ban Palestinian parties from running in Israel’s elections. Lipstadt loves to praise Israel for granting its Palestinian citizens the right to vote. She’s far less interested in challenging Israel’s leaders when they try to take that right away.
She’s not alone. Throughout election day, the same individuals and organizations who routinely justify Israel’s control over roughly 5.5 million stateless and disenfranchised Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem lauded Israel for allowing roughly 2 million Palestinian citizens to vote in Israel proper. New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer tweeted that Israel had reaffirmed its status as “the only democracy in the region,” because “Israel’s Arab citizens, men and women, are turning out in historic numbers to vote.” AIPAC noted that “Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Druze Israelis cast their ballots to elect the next Knesset,” which “underscores Israel’s diversity and steadfast commitment to the democratic process.” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee gushed that “Arabs vote same as Israelis. Contentious process, but it’s a democracy!”
How did these boosters react to efforts to intimidate Palestinian voters and ban Palestinian parties? Judging by their Twitter accounts over the last month, they reacted the same way Lipstadt did: by staying silent.
This tunnel vision isn’t accidental. It’s the only way to avoid facing the contradiction between democracy and Jewish supremacy. Lipstadt, Gottheimer, Huckabee, and AIPAC celebrate Palestinian voting because it burnishes Israel’s democratic credentials. But in a Jewish state, Palestinian voting is necessarily limited and conditional. Because Jews must rule, Israel cannot extend the franchise to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza since that would threaten Israel’s Jewish electoral majority. And because Jews must rule, the parties elected by Israel’s Palestinian citizens can’t be equal partners in an Israeli government. Challenging these restrictions would require challenging Jewish statehood itself. Which is why they must be resolutely ignored.
If Israeli leaders in the coming months form a government that includes Palestinian parties as junior members, Lipstadt, Gottheimer, Huckabee, and AIPAC will likely seize on their inclusion to once again praise Israeli democracy. But that’s unlikely. Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman, two key figures in the anti-Netanyahu coalition, have already pledged not to join a government with Palestinian parties, and the leader of that coalition, Gadi Eisenkot, has outlined conditions that make such a partnership extremely difficult. They know that Netanyahu – who now claims that Palestinian election fraud stole the elections – would viciously demonize any government that is not composed solely of Jews. Tragically, it’s likely that Netanyahu’s opponents will decide that allowing Palestinian parties even a subordinate role in government violates the sacred principle of Jewish sovereignty. If that happens, Lipstadt, Gottheimer, Huckabee, and AIPAC will quietly assent. Because for them, Israeli democracy is a talking point. Jewish supremacy is what really counts.
Israel’s defenders love using Israel’s Palestinian citizens as window dressing. Just so long as they don’t walk through the front door.
Peter Beinart is a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times, editor at large at Jewish Currents, a professor at the Newmark School of Journalism at the City University of New York, and the author of The Beinart Notebook, a weekly newsletter. His most recent book is Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Zeteo.
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Thakker's Netanyahu article coupled with Night Flower gives political observers important background information to understand the Israeli influence in American politics. How over the years particularly with 911 the Washington establishment has been coerced to accept genocide, all in the name of "defeating terrorism".
It appears to be time to cut ties with Israel and stop funding Netanyahu's fascist political machine. If we understand how we got here we can make a rational decision to extricate ourselves as a country from forever conflict. If Netanyahu wants to wage a war against terrorism let him do it on his dime, not America's.
Saying Palestinians are able to vote in Israel is like saying Black voters were able to vote in the Jim Crow South. Sure, it happens but only because those in power know their votes affect absolutely nothing. Palestinian picked up new seats in the Knesset and both blocs have said they won't work with them. I wonder why...
They'll hold up Palestinian votes as proof that Israel is a shining beacon of democracy, and therefore not an apartheid state, but conveniently ignore Netanyahu's genocidal ass screaming about how Jews need to stop these Arabs from voting.
Israel is a rogue nation, an apartheid state, and a genocide loving cesspool. Fuck Israel. Free Palestine!!!