Howard Epstein – ISRAEL IN SHADOW OF THE ALTALENA
Last week, I finished this column questioning whether the Knesset’s proposed get-out-of-jail-free card for the Israeli PM, if convicted of felonies by a criminal court, seemed right. The question was not an academic one for, as I mentioned, the USP of Israel plc was that it was the only properly functioning democracy east of Greece. The independence of the courts (technically referred to as “separation of powers”) was a massive contributory factor to the hi-tech boom, facilitated by massive inward investment. Now money is flowing in the reverse direction, and it is not difficult to see why. If a government can interfere with a criminal conviction, why should it be assumed it would not want to set aside (say) a civil court ruling in favour of a company which won a multi-million dollar dispute with the tax authority? How can business managers have confidence in a legal environment that is at the mercy of an all-powerful government?
The earthquake that the new Knesset has caused under Israeli society threatens more than fiscal stability. Two years ago, I wrote and produced a play, “The Altalena Revisited”, which recalled the civil war that erupted in Israel in June 1948, just six weeks after the birth of the Jewish state. Tragically, 19 Jewish boys were killed by other Jewish boys in two fire-fights over two days on two Israeli beaches, at Michmoret, just north of Netanya, and in Tel Aviv opposite the promenade end of Frischman Street. What could possibly have led to such catastrophic events? The answer is simple: Israeli party politics.
On one side of this distressing conflict was David “B-G” Ben Gurion, the Israeli prime minister and his left wing coalition of Mapai and (the Stalinist) Mapam parties. Beset by the near collapse of the army in Jerusalem, the invading Egyptian army encamped only 38 kilometres to the south of Tel Aviv at Ashdod, massive losses to the British-led Jordanian army at Latrun and mayhem in the Galil, B‑G was not amused by Menachem Begin, of right-wing Herut, bringing badly-needed weapons and ammunition from Europe in breach of a UN-sponsored cease-fire on board the Irgun’s Altalena.
Worse, B-G thought, Begin wanted to ensure that his former Irgun fighters, by then part of the IDF, would receive a sufficient portion of his imports of matériel. Begin held out just long enough for blood to be shed – twice – and then, upon the Altalena being fired upon and set on fire by the IDF, in the very centre of the Tel Aviv sea front, he proclaimed “No civil war. No civil war” – and it was over.
Surely Israel could never allow itself to be drawn again into a civil war, and surely not over political party disagreements. You would have thought not, yet today Israel is on the edge of an abyss more dangerous than Babi Yar, and not a murderous Gestapo or SS officer in sight.
Presently Israel is merely becoming increasingly ungovernable. There is barely a sector of mainstream society that is not fiercely objecting to the government’s proposals. Whether it is El Al pilots refusing to fly the PM abroad, elite fighter squadron pilots refusing to turn up for training, or army reservists refusing to put in their time to the extent that the military’s operation ability is in jeopardy, the reality is that once refuseniks were Russian Jews against communist rule and today they are Israelis against the destruction of the rule of law.
But when the calm, reasonable and responsible David Horowitz, editor of the Times of Israel, writes of the country entering “a death spiral”, you can be sure that Israel’s predicament is a desperate one. Israel may be closer to a civil war than anyone too young to remember the Altalena realises.
What hope of escape from the death spiral?
Perhaps – just perhaps – there are sufficient MKs in Bibi’s right-wing coalition who see the proposals that tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrate against as not worth the candle; who are concerned to bring the widespread protests to an end before someone gets injured or killed; or who remembers the Altalena – and defect. That would trigger a sixth general election in four years; Likud would jettison Netanyahu as incapable of forming a viable government; a more centrist coalition would be formed between a Bibi-less Likud, Benny Gantz’s “Blue and White” party and Yair Lapid’s “Yesh Atid” (appropriately: There is a Future); and, according to opinion polling, such a centre-left coalition would command a greater majority in the Knesset than that which today threatens Israel’s prosperity and internal peace.
Let us pray….
Howard Epstein, www.howard-epstein.com, is a solicitor and author based in Manchester and Israel.
Link to Howard Epstein on israelseen.com
