AI
Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig – Israel’s Real Election Issue: Personal Security
Most often, Israel’s elections revolve around the territorial issue of the West Bank / Judea & Samaria. But not this time!
Of course, the question of Israel’s ultimate borders is still relevant, but when Israelis (like everyone else) go to vote their concern is personal safety above all else. Ironically, the present Right-wing government that’s ostensibly more security-minded than its Center-Left opponents has failed miserably on several domestic security fronts – some of which don’t get much coverage beyond Israel (I’ll get to those in a moment).
First and foremost, of course, was the October 7 debacle. Not much needs to be added, other than to note that not only was this the worst Jewish catastrophe since the Holocaust, but the lack of taking responsibility – even to set up a Commission of Inquiry to understand what happened and who was at fault – is a major blemish on the present government. Without knowing who and why, there’s no realistic way to prevent it happening again.
Second, adding insult to injury, Israel’s present government has been unwilling to carry out the law mandating army service for all Israelis (except for the Arab sector), including the ultra-Orthodox haredim. This too has internal security ramifications, given the army’s desperate need for additional manpower to protect its borders.
“Terrorism” is not only an external problem. A third issue affecting Israel’s northern and southern areas is “protection” (aka “extortion”). Thousands of businesses – from farms to government companies! – are extorted on a regular basis, thereby rendering life hazardous and economically impossible for many Israelis living in two-thirds of Israel’s territory. The extorters are Arabs and Jews, most working in sophisticated gangs. When someone doesn’t pay the “protection” money, one of two things occurs: either their store or home will get firebombed or strafed with bullets as a “warning”, or at the least the victim will live in constant fear that such a shoe will eventually drop.
Fourth: the Arab community is suffering from extreme violence at its own hands. The murder rate has doubled (!) under the present government, in large part because the Minister of Internal Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extreme right-wing firebrand, couldn’t care less what happens to Israeli Arabs. The police have not instituted any effective policy to deal with such mayhem among Israel’s Arabs – this despite Israel’s Arab leadership pleading for action. And as several Israeli security commentators have argued (many of them former high-level members of Israel’s internal security Shabak, the police force, or the IDF), it won’t be long before such violence “leaks” into Jewish towns and cities.
A fifth area of security became apparent this week: unexploded armaments lying all over Israel’s north (and presumably the south as well). Normally, the IDF makes a major effort to find and clear such munitions after a war’s end – but Israel’s Government hasn’t declared the war over, so that such a project awaits future implementation with occasional tragic consequences. If Israelis can’t even do what they love most – hiking through their landscape – then their life really becomes a matter of personal insecurity.
Finally, there’s the problem involving the “Hilltop Youth” in Judea & Samaria running amok among Palestinian farms and other outlying, inhabited areas: beating up Palestinians, throwing stones at them on the roads, and even (occasionally) using live fire against Palestinians whom they claim are “threatening” them.
Here the security problem is both moral and potential. “Moral” in the sense that these are law-breaking youth whom the authorities have done little to stop. A country such as Israel with one of the world’s best counterterror and internal security apparatuses (SHABAK), doesn’t seem able to infiltrate and stop such Jewish terrorism. Or worse, it is potentially capable but its hands are tied in this matter by the government that looks on in apathy (or even a wink).
“Potential” because IDF and SHABAK officials, past and present, have publicly warned that such ongoing terrorism (there’s no other way of defining this) will eventually lead to another Palestinian intifada uprising. This would be a major “internal security” problem for Israelis (bus bombings, knife attacks etc.), already worn out by several years of enervating fighting on the northern and southern fronts (Lebanon and Gaza), not to mention missile barrages from Iran.
In short, for most Israelis today every other election campaign issue is peanuts compared to the overriding issue of personal security – a deep-seated worry from several directions. Israel’s economy might be doing fine (the shekel is quite strong); it can have decent relations with America (although the “Hilltop Youth” rampages are fraying that relationship); the country’s military and high-tech industries can be a source of great pride and revenue. But all that means very little when the average citizen has to constantly look over their shoulder at security threats from within, from all sorts of different directions.
President Clinton won the American presidential elections in 1992 with the anti-Bush motto “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” That’s all well and good if and when voters don’t have to worry about a deeper fear – not making it alive to the next election. This time around, we need to paraphrase Clinton. Israel’s main election campaign dictum is now: “It’s Personal Security, Idiot”!
