Bibi of Arabia?
What is the big takeaway from the latest Israeli election? It is not whether Bibi Netanyahu will hang on or fall. He is just one corrupt, dishonest politician, and is a mere detail (or footnote) of history, whose career will be proved to have changed nothing outside the grand impersonal historical forces that typically shape nations.
The real takeaway is that Israel has long been on a path to a kind of backhanded "assimilation" into its ill-chosen neighbourhood by becoming progressively like the countries around it—which it routinely brutalises with all the petty sadism of one desert tribe against a rival that fucked one of its sheep without permission several generations ago.
Yes, Israel by staring into the abyss of the Middle East too long is well on its way to sorta, kinda becoming the abyss.
The results from the latest "election"—sorry, petty ethnic headcount—reveal this.
There are many ways to view these results, but for the essentialist like me, the key prism is "Middle Eastern vs European," as a long, long time ago Israel, was in fact an overwhelmingly European country defined by Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews from Europe.
Since then, apart from a partial influx of Jews of questionable "European" character from some dump in Eurasia, the direction has all been one way—towards becoming ever more Middle Eastern.
There are many ways to view these results, but for the essentialist like me, the key prism is "Middle Eastern vs European," as a long, long time ago Israel, was in fact an overwhelmingly European country defined by Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews from Europe.
Since then, apart from a partial influx of Jews of questionable "European" character from some dump in Eurasia, the direction has all been one way—towards becoming ever more Middle Eastern.
The country's presence in the Middle East provoked a wave of "Anti-Semitism" that has led to Arab countries prosecuting and expelling their non-European Mizrahi Jews so that they ended up in increasing numbers in Israel. Quite an ironic story!
Also, we must not forget Israel's own inability, while committing genocidal acts against its Arab neighbours in places like Gaza, to expel or diminish its own Arab population—I guess they're just too nice for their own good. In fact, the Israeli Arab population continues to flourish and has been ascendant in this latest election.
So, viewing the parties as they are, namely as expressions of "culturally European" or "culturally Middle-Eastern" populations, the big picture is as follows:
- Middle Eastern (Arab parties + clear Mizrahi-core: Joint List, Ra’am, Shas, Likud) : ~52 seats
- European (parties with stronger Ashkenazi / non-Middle Eastern cores: B’Yachad, Democrats, Yisrael Beytenu, UTJ, Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism): 47 seats
- Mixed (Yashar): 21 seats
So, there you have it! The Middle Eastern parties, which, of course, all seem to hate each other even though—or possibly because—they are so alike, are marginally the biggest block. The European bloc, however, is hardly united either.
The final thing to say that as Israel becomes more and more Middle Eastern, it will become more petty tribal and fractious, at least until some soul-deadening tyranny can be imposed on it. In other words, welcome to the Middle East!
The final thing to say that as Israel becomes more and more Middle Eastern, it will become more petty tribal and fractious, at least until some soul-deadening tyranny can be imposed on it. In other words, welcome to the Middle East!
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Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
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