Judging from our political discourse over the past several years, the Right and the Left are on a collision course. The worst may still come, and the collision will be violent and almost inevitable (in fact, it is already taking place).
This is not just off-handed observation, it is based on the key developments in Israel over the past quarter century.
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Let's start with the emerging diagnosis: while the convention wisdom is that both sides are saturated with hatred, there is no symmetry between them. While it is true that a right-winger assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and some right-wing fringe groups tend to use vulgar and unrestrained rhetoric, the situation over on the Left is much worse.
The Left has been gradually shifting from politics of dialogue to politics of a monologue. This strategic shift carries significant potential for violence. The Left, particularly after its poor showing in the three successive elections of 2019-2020, has refused to engage the Israeli public; rather than choose dialogue, it has broken hard to the Left in order to tap its base and strongholds and shape the public square in its image.The Left's successful push to have Prime Minister Ariel Sharon carry out the unilateral pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005 against the advice of all the sober voices on the Right warning him of the security implications is just one example. The Left's championing of legal rights for Palestinian terrorists while ignoring the plight of the victims is another, as well as its efforts to color the annual memorial rally for Rabin in political tones that divide rather than unite. It appears that the Left has not just lost control, it has deliberately sabotaged the brakes.The Left's unwavering demand that protests be allowed to continue against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even as Israel goes under its second nation-wide lockdown is a form of provocation against the state (not the regime, the state!) and underscores this lack of control. The protests in front of the Prime Minister's Residence show the Left's violent state of mind, which includes a call to publicly violate the law.
These protests are not unlike the 1968 student protests in France and across the US in the late 1960s, which were designed to undermine the fundamentals of society. This is a key point to remember because the protests in Jerusalem have seen the participation of Zionist center-left personas who brandish their democratic credentials. But their attendance only underscores their lack of political and social consciousness. They have failed to understand the backdrop that could pull them into a political-cultural tailspin.
Unless leaders come forth and restrain the violent elements on both sides before they erupt from the volcano, this collision course will result in a particularly violent crash.
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