AFTERTHOUGHTS ON THE ISRAELI ELECTION
Coser, Lewis
Shortly before the elections, Israeli television interviewed a few men and women in the street as to their views of the candidates. Said one of them, "I don't know why the difference between...
...The development towns and villages that Labor created for the new Oriental immigrants have now become hotbeds of discontent against all that Labor stands for...
...In fact, the elections were fought with a ferocity seldom seen in Israeli politics...
...The near-disappearance of small parties might be viewed as a remedy for the excessive fragmentation of Israeli politics...
...it must show the Arabs that it is a truly national party concerned with the fate of Arabs and Jews alike...
...AS THINGS STAND, Begin has been able to patch together a slim majority in the next Knesset with the help of the three splintered religious parties...
...He has consciously exploited the imagery of the Big Man, dispenser of favors and patronage, the paternalistic defender of his (Sephardic) people against the bureaucrats and technocrats of the Labor establishment...
...The ideological fervor so pronounced among his Labor predecessors was absent from his appeals as it was also, by and large, from the appeal of other members of the Labor establishment...
...New elections will then be held...
...This was, however, decidedly a minority view...
...This time, however, everybody seems to have felt that the choice between Begin's Likud and Peres's Labor Alignment was so crucial that the luxury of voting for smaller parties was no longer possible...
...And Labor has regained votes it had lost to the now defunct Democratic Movement for Change four years ago, but it made no significant inroads elsewhere in the Jewish population...
...It is unlikely that his government will last more than a year or two...
...To speak the language of Max Weber, the charisma of the first generation of Labor's leaders has been thoroughly routinized in the second...
...The Sephardim may not be foremost among the settlers in the occupied territories, but they are strong backers of annexation...
...But the other evidence of polarization—the overlap between ethnic and political allegiance—seems to me a disaster...
...At the last big election rally of the Labor Alignment in Tel Aviv, Peres, the main speaker, was preceded by a popular comedian, Topaz, who treated the rally to a variety of ethnic slurs on the Sephardim and, most perturbingly, the audience loved it and applauded enthusiastically...
...WHEN THE ORIENTAL IMMIGRANTS arrived in large numbers in the 1950s, they were often treated with condescension and even a measure of contempt by the dominant Ashkenazi Jews, who controlled the state, and by the bureaucracies of the Histadrut (labor union federation...
...The Arabs never had a particular liking for Marxism or Leninism in the past, they could not care less...
...But all these are relatively insignificant in comparison with the masses of Sephardic Jews who think that they have found a home in the Likud...
...They also were grateful for the opportunities that the Eastern bloc provided for the higher education of their sons and daughters in government fellowships...
...They might, in fact, decide the long-term viability of Israeli society...
...There are the die-hard ultranationalist Begin-Herut supporters of old...
...but Labor in fact has fostered, wittingly or unwittingly, a spirit of contempt for the Oriental Jews among Ashkenazim...
...The Sephardic Jews did not so much vote for Begin as against Peres...
...A high proportion of Arab intellectuals are products of Eastern-bloc universities...
...There was only one hopeful sign in this dreary picture...
...Labor succeeded in keeping the allegiance of the kibbutzim and other collective settlements...
...It must shed the establishment characteristics that are still so predominant...
...it must show the Sephardim, who will be a majority of the voters at the next election, that it is willing to share power with their representatives...
...But I am convinced that the background factors sketched here are of considerably greater significance than immediate economic or foreign policy issues...
...The image Peres presented was that of a competent, rational, technocratic administrator...
...The Likud, to be sure, encompasses other elements beside the Oriental Jews...
...There are the remnants of the middle- and upper-middle-class voters who used to vote for the General Zionists as well as the members of the liberal small-merchant and big-business community who stand for Free Enterprise above all...
...A significant portion of the Arabs, who in 412 recent years tended to vote for the Communist party, this time voted for Labor...
...Said one of them, "I don't know why the difference between them matters—after all they are both Jews...
...In previous elections a large part of the electorate, especially on the left, seems to have felt that since it was virtually certain Labor would win...
...it must project the image of innovation and commitment to a fraternal and egalitarian society...
...But voting for the CP was, in their eyes, a protest against being treated as second-class citizens...
...The bulk of the "Oriental Jews," the Sephardim from Asia and Africa, voted for the Likud, and the bulk of Jews of European origin, the Ashkenazim, voted for the Labor Alignment...
...I have not commented on these since they have been adequately covered in American reports...
...There may, surely, be some irrational elements in the massive turn toward the Likud on the part of the Oriental Jews...
...And Begin stands in the eyes of the Oriental Jews for firm treatment of the Arabs, whom they hate...
...The danger is that Israel, to use Disraeli's phrase about Victorian England, will become two nations...
...What is more, the results revealed a sharp polarization of political alleHaifa giances that may have serious consequences for the future of Israel...
...411 they might as well indulge in the luxury of voting for a candidate of their choice somewhat to the left of Labor...
...Even Moshe Dayan's list ended up with only two...
...BEGIN HAS BEEN MOST SKILLFUL in exploiting the resentments of the Oriental Jews...
...If Labor is to have a chance next time, it must change in fundamental ways...
...The older generation of Oriental Jews tended to accept their lot, especially since their economic situation did slowly improve over the years...
...To be sure, their absolute deprivation has diminished over the years, but their relative deprivation, in comparison with the condition of the Ashkenazim, has become more acute...
...Economic and foreign policy matters will undoubtedly take the forefront of the Israeli stage in the months to come...
...This polarization was clearly shown by two related phenomena: the decline in the votes of minor parties, and the overlap of ethnic belongingness and political affiliation...
...As a result, many of these parties have now disappeared from the Knesset or hold only one or two seats...
...We now face the paradox that only a rekindling of the idealistic spirit of Labor's earlier appeal will allow it a realistic chance to oppose the populist fervor of the Likud...
...413...
...This time, however, partly because of the aggresive anti-Arab policies of the Likud, they turned to Labor in significant numbers and were probably responsible for some of Labor's gains...
...Labor has struck no roots in these communities and is generally perceived as "the enemy...
...There are Sabras who see Begin as the great patriot and who have no pious feelings for the founding fathers of Labor who created the State of Israel...
...This permits some hope for their integration in the Israeli political system...
...They were often dumped into new development towns and villages and treated, so they felt, with sneers, discrimination, and studied neglect...
...A similar phenomenon could be observed on the right as well...
...If Labor does not manage so to recast itself, it will gradually become the party of aging bureaucrats and kibbutzniks unable to stem the tide of jingoism, xenophobia, populist demagogery, and nationalistic zeal...
...But the next generation, which now has come of age politically, harbors a fierce resentment against the Labor establishment...
...He has cultivated a demagogic populist style, and he has not discouraged his image as "king of Israel...
Vol. 28 • September 1981 • No. 4
