Israeli opinion| The extreme right weakens Israel

Ravit Hackett

The results of opinion polls published by the Palestinian Center for Research, indicating broad Palestinian support for the October 7 attack, coupled with denial of the “massacres” carried out by the “saboteurs” and their accomplices, can only lead to anger and despair. At the same time, we cannot and are forbidden to deny the strengthening of the power of the Israeli Kahanism once again. There are, more and more, people who are talking about solutions, such as "transfer", and sometimes even the annihilation of people, as legitimate and realistic options that are also desirable and can be talked about.

The great helplessness, the national humiliation, the great damage to personal security, and also dealing with complex and painful issues such as the issue of the kidnapped - all of these are difficult compounds to deal with psychologically, and can even be too heavy. The disastrous solution to this intolerable situation, embraced by many Israelis, is the adolescent withdrawal from faith in Kahanistic ideas, which is always interpreted as “understanding the culture of the region.”

The war came at a time when Israel was ruled by an extremist and unreasonable government, elected by many votes after years of severe extremism. Despite this, the government's shameful performance last year, the storm of the constitutional coup, and, essentially, the poor performance of the Kahanist representatives in power, all led to a certain weakness in the Kahanist trend, in preparation for returning it to the margins once again. However, the violent massacre carried out by Hamas, and the war that came after it, took Kahanism once again out of the zone of failure, and removed from it its clear failure.

Kahanism raises a very clear question mark in a field of many questions. It gives a false sense of strength in a state of weakness that is exceptional in terms of its strength, and disguises itself as renewed and clear good news in a situation where clarity prevails. In addition, it disguises itself in a practical way: the (impossible) euphoria of hiding the conflict, despite the difficult costs, is transformed into a plan to hide all of the Palestinians. This is without completely addressing the deep moral problems, and the damage that cannot be prevented as a result of the encounter between reality and divination, which is always accompanied by a very great failure. It is completely unrealistic.

Benjamin Netanyahu diagnoses well this strengthening spirit in Israeli society, and understands the need to ride on the Kahani tiger for his own survival - and this time he does it during the war, after the disaster. The campaign to reject the participation of the Palestinian Authority in any solution for the future of the Gaza Strip, after the dismantling of “Hamas” - and more than that, the public and almost initiated confrontation with Israel’s only friend in the world today, the United States, are the first signs of the gifts that Netanyahu will give to the extreme right during the war, the same extreme right that Netanyahu is completely attached to today. President Joe Biden understands this, and this issue is his main criticism when he talks about Israel in general, and about Netanyahu in particular.

The strengthening of the far-right's power will not guarantee anything but painful polarization - in light of fundamental differences in the field of morality and the great damage that will be caused to "democratic" values - a major threat to Israel, no less than the threat of "Hamas" or Hezbollah.

Strengthening the power of the extreme right will ensure the presence of a large and determined mass force that opposes any political solution proposed to Israel from abroad, and it could be the only alternative to the continued flow of blood. The strengthening of the far-right's power will attract more extremist forces to the regional table.

There is no connection between steadfastness in the face of barbaric killing, and teenage and savage fantasies. By the way, the relationship is inverse. The extreme right is weakening Israel, and its strengthening is only evidence of its weakness.