Much has been said over the past few years about how the Israeli Left has lost its way, not only over the Labor party's shrinking electorate but also over the shrinking of its values and ideological priorities.
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Since the collapse of the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Left has failed to put an alternative doctrine in place, and even here and there its captains make statement of a social or economic nature, it seems all that remains of the Left's long road is a fight for subsidizing gender reassignment surgery and visits to Ramallah.
The ideological shift that has taken place at that time on the Right, was almost the polar opposite. The Right, which has always been asked "what is the alternative?" which used to present it as simply opposed to the Left's proposals, has formulated a new paradigm with respect to the Palestinian issue, foreign relations, security, and the economy. And as the fabric of values on the Right grew, so did its electorate.
However, with the formation of the 36th government, it seems that there are those who are trying to gnaw at the boundaries of what is perceived and defined as "Right."
This ideological and practical reduction has suddenly pushed being right-wing back into the box of solely opposing Oslo and a Palestinian state. Accordingly, if settlements are not being evicted and there's only another symbolic visit to Ramallah – everything is fine. If there is no political catastrophe now – all is well.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett did not talk about the Palestinians at the UN General Assembly, but behind the scenes he briefed reporters that he was doing so precisely because he refused to define Israeliness based on the prism of referring to the Palestinians. In reality, that is exactly the nature of the right-wing discourse trying to take root, namely, if it's not the Palestinians – don't worry about it.
It is rather obvious why Yamina and New Hope would like to foster this type of conversation, but it is unclear why some in politics and the media are so eager to join them.
Under this ideological umbrella, it no longer matters what the broad set of values is or what government policy is as a whole: in the Negev, in law, in economics, in immigration, in foreign relations – the (ideological) world has become so small and so limited. The doorway is so narrow that only one issue enters through it and even that is in the most superficial of ways. The rest of the ideology, all the other values of the national camp are left out.
According to this perception, the new way of the Right is not to worry. Don't worry if the government includes all left-wing parties and lawmakers who consider terrorists martyrs; if the nation-state law is rendered hollow; or if the hope of legal governance are buried under laws that root out the basic principles of the democratic system. Don't worry if the media becomes less free and liberal through a series of appointments and dismissals; if the Negev and the Galilee are left to the management of the Islamic movement; if years-worth of economic achievements are in danger; or if the solid security principles developed vis-à-vis Iran are shaken.
No, under the new, "narrow" right-wing doctrine, none of these warrant any concern. The real thing to worry about is another election or political instability.
Years of righteous moral preaching have taught the liberal National Right, which has a clear ideological hierarchy. The territories, the settlements, the settlement enterprise are the certificate of integrity – the stamp of ideological validity. It was not just a question of who was more zealous on the scale of adherence to the land, rather it was a moral issue of who was more worthy. If you were north of Ofra and a smaller settlement than Yitzhar, you placed higher on the values scale. A certificate of appreciation from the Samaria Regional Council was a coveted piece of paper.
The issue of the settlement enterprise has always been important for the national camp but championing only this cause, almost as a technical matter at the expense of censoring all other right-wing values is a double-edged sword.
When the State of Israel's character as a whole is changing no settlement will be left unturned. The real right-wing parties in the national camp must tend to the important ideological mission of expanding the ideological principles and bolstering them.
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