The dismal results of the elections confirmed bankruptcy of the traditional Jewish left. Do not regret overmuch: Meretz and Labour competed with the nationalist parties in anti-Arafat rhetoric and remained adamant in rejecting the full equality for non-Jews. They were undermined by demographic shift: Their electorate, wealthy and well-educated Ashkenazi Jews, voted with their legs and left Israel. Thirty five percent of the total electorate did not participate in the elections for they live abroad, in Los Angeles and Amsterdam, in Paris and New York. There are more supporters of Meretz in the US than in Israel. While bank managers and computer experts leave for America, poor and less educated remain in Palestine, and they often vote for fascists or for religious parties.
But it is not all gloom. The best news concerning elections hardly made the second page in Israeli newspapers, but it should lit red light on the Zionists’ board. A few days before the elections, the Slavic Union, a new political organization of Russians in Israel, made a historic alliance with the Palestinians. They supported Hadash, the Communist-led mainly Palestinian bloc, and now they intend to forge ties with another radical force, Azmi Bishara’s Balad. In their letter to voters, leaders of the Slavic Union Igor Zhemailov and Alexey Korobov did not beat around the bush. “We, the Russians, were brought here as cheap labor force and cannon meat in order to displace and fight the native Palestinians. But we have no truck with this dispute. Let us join forces with the Palestinians against racism and poverty, for equality and democracy”.
There are over a million Russians in Israel, mainly immigrants of the last decade. Many of them, probably majority, are not considered ‘Jews’, even if they have Jewish-sounding last names. By Israeli law, it is enough to have one Jewish grandfather in order to qualify for citizenship, but such a person is not considered ‘a Jew’ in law, and therefore suffers of many legal and illegal disabilities in the racist Jewish state. Non-Jewish spouses of immigrants form another discriminated category of citizens. They are drafted into the army, but refused even decent burial. These people have a strong personal reason to support the idea of ‘a state for all its citizens’, as opposed to the present concept of ‘the state of and for the Jews wherever they are’.
It is not the racialist division: Many Russians that are considered to be ‘Jews’ also support the idea of a democratic state and oppose the Jewish supremacy. They have a good reason: The Jewish supremacy in Israel means supremacy of a certain socioeconomic group, of wealthy Ashkenazi establishment. Young generation of Russian ‘Jews’ was thoroughly ‘dejewified ‘ in the Soviet Union and accepted universal humanist values instead of particularistic ones. Many of them are Christians forced to hide their belief in Christ. Swept by the massive propaganda campaign they immigrated to Israel where they discovered the real face of the Jewish state. In the latest elections some of them had voted for Shinui, the anti-clerical party, and gave it 15 seats in the Parliament. However, Shinui is rabidly nationalistic and unable to attend to their problems. Its neoliberal position makes Shinui unsuitable for the socially weaker Russians.
Actually true interests of Russians and Palestinians coincide. For the both communities, the best solution is creation of non-racist, democratic state, and the only way to achieve it is to give full citizen rights to the three million presently disenfranchised native Palestinians.
In the democratized Palestine/Israel of nine million citizens the concept of a Jewish sate will follow its twin, the Aryan state, to oblivion. There were cases of Russians taking part in Palestinian armed resistance, but their political union is spelling doom to the Zionist state. In the next elections, probably in a year time, this union will be able to change the political map of Israel, if properly supported and nourished.
Much depends on the political maturity and wisdom of Palestinian leadership and the remnants of the Israeli left. All the pro-equality forces should unite in our version of the South African ANC, and bury apartheid.
The Jewish state is already a sham. Deeply divided between the Orthodox and anti-religious, between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, it remains a dangerous phantom in the mind of its ignorant American backers. The favorite of Conrad Black’s newspaper The Jerusalem Post, Nathan Sharansky and his nationalist party just made it to the Parliament with only two seats, and as many voters as the Free Cannabis list. The options for Israel’s future shrunk to a stark choice between Jewish fascism and the state for all, from Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Arab News Features 1 February 2003
