Israel's Radical Left Committed Suicide, and Now the Right Will Kill Us All

It used to be fun to spar with the left. When the left was strong and serious, it was right to ask questions that would challenge some of the dogmas it sanctified. When the left controlled the government, the media, the legal system, academia and the army, it was important to make it face the truths it fled from and the facts it denied. But now, when the left is so pitiful, the heart retreats from such a step. When the left is so troubled and persecuted, there’s no point pouring salt on its wounds.

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Leftists are my brothers and sisters. I share their values and ache over their downfall. Therefore, even when they spew nonsense at me, I usually restrain myself, bite my tongue and move on. But sometimes, there’s no choice and it’s necessary to once again explain what has gone wrong — when and how the left committed suicide.

The radical left committed suicide when it disconnected from reality. Its refusal to admit the failure of the Oslo Accords, the Camp David Summit and the Annapolis process caused the left to be viewed in Israel as untrustworthy. Its refusal to recognize that the (justified) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip led to rockets on Ashkelon, Ashdod and Tel Aviv caused the left to be viewed in Israel as delusional. Its refusal to deal with the fact that the Middle East is brutal and the Palestinian political entity dysfunctional caused the left to be viewed in Israel as daydreamers.

This disconnect from reality has resulted in most Israelis not even listening anymore to the accurate things the left says about the occupation, the settlements and the threat to Israel’s democracy.

The radical left committed suicide when it disconnected from Israeli pride. Most Israelis are proud of their country. Granted, it’s hard here, and expensive, and crowded, and there’s a conflict — but nevertheless, a nation has arisen here. And Israelis love it. Therefore, when the left tells them they’re ugly and repulsive and smelly, they aren’t enthused by the message. And when it says that everything is bad here, they don’t buy the goods. They get angry at the sour-faced people who won’t allow either themselves or others to celebrate Israel and its achievements.

The radical left committed suicide when it abnegated itself before the Palestinians. True, there’s no symmetry between the occupier and the occupied, and Israel bears primary responsibility for the occupation. But what about the Palestinian leadership? In 1937, and again in 1947, it would have been possible to create a Palestinian state and prevent the Nakba, but the Palestinians said no. In 2000, and again in 2008, it would also have been possible to create a Palestinian state and end the occupation, but the Palestinians said no. Time and again, they chose to perpetuate the occupation.

Did the radical left attack them with the same fury with which it attacks Israeli governments? Did it go to Ramallah, pound the table and tell Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the same things it writes about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? No. Its inability to look our neighbors in the eye has resulted in both Israelis and Palestinians ceasing to take the radical left seriously or to feel any respect for it.

And its disconnect from reality and Israeliness, and its self-abnegation before the Palestinians, are now causing the radical left to assault the very idea of a Jewish democratic state.

Both U.S. President Barack Obama and his likely successor, Hillary Clinton, understand that it is impossible to sanctify the nation-state of the Palestinian people while scorning the nation-state of the Jewish people. But that isn’t true of radical leftists. For them, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began with the occupation and revolves solely around that. In their eyes, the demand that the Palestinians recognize that a Jewish people exists here is sadism. As far as they’re concerned, only non-Jews have declared national rights in this land.

With an approach so unilateral, ahistoric and disconnected from reality, it will never be possible to effect political change in Israel. Nor will it be possible to end the occupation or try to make peace. The radical left, having committed suicide, is now helping the right to kill us all.