A Neo-Nazi Party: What Are the Repercussions of Kahanism's Unprecedented Rise to Power in 'Israel'?

The preliminary results of the Israeli general elections showed an unprecedented sweep of votes by the far right, where the right-wing camp led by Benjamin Netanyahu won about 65 seats out of 120 seats; so he is preparing to form the most extremist government in "Israel" since its establishment in 1948.

But Netanyahu was not the only winner of these elections, as he received a huge boost from the leader of the Religious Zionism Alliance, Itamar Ben-Gvir, after increasing his share of Knesset seats by more than double what he obtained in the last elections, which were held in March 2021. Thus, the nightmare of the extreme right has become dominating Israeli political life.

Certainly, Netanyahu's return, accompanied by the current of the Zionist movement and Kahanism, is not good news for the Palestinians because it means more extremism, settlements, and waging wars, and certainly the death of any hope in the Palestinian Authority for the return of negotiations or even the alleged two-state solution.

This is because this messianic current, which may get more than one ministerial portfolio, has public plans to expel the Palestinians from the occupied interior and from the West Bank, and it constantly calls for the destruction of al-Aqsa, the killing of Arabs and the burning of churches.

 

The Most Extreme Government

With great confidence, on the morning of November 2, 2022, precisely hours after the polls closed and the counting began, Netanyahu announced his victory in the elections during a speech he delivered at the election campaign headquarters of his Likud party; saying: "We won a huge vote by obtaining the confidence of the Israeli people…We are on the verge of achieving a very big victory.

Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, has pledged to form a stable national government, his sixth in the history of "Israel."

Meanwhile, Itamar Ben-Gvir and his religious Zionist list, referred to as a terrorist movement even by some in "Israel," are poised to be the third largest party, after Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Lapid's centrist There is a Future, in the Knesset, after its strong rise in Israeli political life, especially with his party gaining an unprecedented number of seats.

Likud won 32 seats, There is a Future 24, Religious Zionism 14, Shas 11, and United Torah Judaism 8, Yisrael Beitenu, the Arab Front for Change, and the United List each have 5 seats, the Labour Party 4 seats, and the National Camp list 2 seats.

These results indicate that 10% of the Israelis voted for a party that declares its hostility to the Arabs, their mosques, and their presence, and this also raises fears among some Israelis that Israeli democracy with narrow borders is on the cusp of a difficult stage, as Haaretz newspaper reported in a report on November 2, 2022.

Netanyahu has secured enough seats to form a coalition government, which means that the credit will go to the religious Zionist parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, and these extremist parties will have a long list of demands.

Netanyahu is also counting on the support of Ben-Gvir and his ally Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the Religious Zionism movement, to form the new government; Netanyahu personally promised Ben-Gvir to get a ministerial portfolio in his government, which means that this movement, which adopts the slogan Death to the Arabs and calls for the demolition of mosques, will have a major role in the decisions of the next government.

It is noteworthy that Ben-Gvir previously announced that he aspires to the internal security portfolio responsible for the police, while Bezalel announced that he aspires to the defense portfolio, which caused widespread concern in "Israel" because of their hard-line positions.

Ben-Gvir had managed to mobilize those who had voted in the previous elections for the two right-wing anti-Netanyahu parties, the Yamina party led by Naftali Bennett, in addition to attracting voters who had not participated in the elections before.

 

Dangerous Indication

The prospect of a government that includes Ben-Gvir, a former member of the Kach movement founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, which is on terror watch lists in "Israel" and the United States and previously convicted of racial incitement, worries the allies of "Israel," including Washington.

Even hard-liners in "Israel" shun the far-right rabbi, Meir Kahane, especially after he won his party's only seat in the Israeli Knesset in 1984, when he was a pariah in the Knesset.

Whenever Kahane got up to speak, the rest of the Knesset would withdraw from the session, and the movement was so incensed that it was banned from politics a few years later for inciting racism.

Today, however, his student, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is turning into a major political force after the Knesset elections came to an end, as he became the kingmaker of "Israel" and a major contributor to the next government.

With the unprecedented rise of the Kahanist movement to power, the movement will become more and deeper within the political system of the Israeli Occupation than before. It will pass through the Netanyahu government its extremist plans and projects in the occupied territories. If Netanyahu tries to refuse this, his government will collapse, which means that this trend will continue to blackmail Netanyahu permanently.

Ben-Gvir's party supports the Israeli annexation of the entire occupied West Bank, which is home to about 2.8 million Palestinians and is famous for its provocations against the Palestinians, especially in Jerusalem, where Itamar Ben-Gvir's repeated incursions into al-Aqsa Mosque.

He also incites the deportation of what he calls Palestinian citizens (the Arabs of the 48), who represent about 20% of the country's population, and describes them as disloyal to "Israel" and as a time bomb that poses a threat to the Judaism of "Israel."

In this context, Gideon Levy, one of the most famous Israeli journalists critical of the Occupation, said: "The religious Zionism Alliance, which is now defined in Europe without hesitation as a neo-Nazi party that has infiltrated the Knesset, there is no way to define it except by that description."

In turn, the Palestinian expert on Israeli affairs, Saleh al-Naami, stressed that "the results of the current elections are more dangerous than the results of the German elections, which led to the rise of Nazism in 1933 because they brought the top racist extremists of the Salvationist Zionism."

He noted that the Israeli elections have become a match between the forces of the right, pointing out that they added legitimacy to the integration of the religious trend into the political system and its participation in the next government.

In a dangerous indication, Yossi Verter, a party affairs analyst in Haaretz newspaper, warned of the consequences of the domination of the extreme right and the ultra-Orthodox and religious parties on the reins of power in "Israel," especially the penetration of the judiciary,

"Netanyahu, who aims to undermine the judiciary in order to abolish his trial on corruption charges, will make many concessions and will be a hostage to the demands of the extreme right and Haredi parties," he pointed out.

 

Negative Rise

Analysts believe that Netanyahu's return to power again, and the unprecedented victory of the Kahanism movement and its obtaining ministerial portfolios in the next government will have enormous effects on the solution to the Palestinian issue and on regional relations, including relations with the United States.

After the preliminary results appeared, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh commented on the victory of the extreme right, saying that it was a natural result of the growth of extremism against the Palestinians, according to what Anadolu Agency reported.

Shtayyeh added, "The rise of these parties is a natural result of the growing manifestations of extremism and racism in Israeli society, which the Palestinian people have been suffering from for years."

Haaretz newspaper commented in its editorial on November 2, 2022, that "Israel is now on the brink of a right-wing, religious and authoritarian revolution, whose goal is to destroy the democratic infrastructure on which the state was built. This may be a black day in Israel's history."

This rise, led by Netanyahu, will certainly reflect negatively on relations with the countries of the region, like Jordan. The differences between Jordan and the previous Netanyahu governments reached their worst stage since the signing of the Wadi Araba agreement in 1994.

However, on the other hand, the news of Netanyahu's rise in the elections and his return to power may have a positive impact on the wave of normalization in the region and in countries such as the UAE and Bahrain, which signed Abraham's agreements with Netanyahu's government about two years ago. In addition to Saudi Arabia, as Netanyahu indicated the possibility of concluding a normalization agreement with "Israel" on more than one occasion, despite Riyadh's denials of this.

At the same time, the US administration headed by Joe Biden will not be very happy with the victory of Netanyahu and a group of extremist Kahanists.

The danger of these forces gaining power in "Israel" is unprecedented. No Israeli leader has ever explicitly promoted Kahanist's party as Netanyahu did, let alone including it in the ruling coalition and giving them ministries.

About this, Richard Silverstein, an American Jewish researcher and journalist, says in a previous article on the MEE website: "In 1988, the Kach party founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, the mentor of Itamar Ben-Gvir who won the elections alongside Netanyahu, was completely outside the state's mainstream, to the point that the government banned it."

He added, "Both Israel and the United States have declared Kach a terrorist organization. How will Washington now deal with a minister in the Netanyahu government who considers Meir Kahane to be his role chief?"

There are other reasons for Washington's annoyance, as relations between Netanyahu and Biden last year went cold due to Netanyahu's strong ties with Trump.

Biden had refrained from contacting the Israeli prime minister after his victory in the presidency, which at that time sparked anger within the Israeli corridors, and the situation remained that way until Netanyahu lost the March 2021 elections to the Bennett, Lapid, and Gantz alliance.

The Biden administration also condemned the settlement expansion that the Netanyahu government worked on and rejected the decision to annex the Golan to "Israel," as well as the decision to annex the West Bank that was proposed during President Trump's term, and the Biden administration showed that it is committed to the two-state solution.

"If the American administration does refuse to work with Ben-Gvir, it will be an unprecedented development in relations between Israel and the United States that will have a very negative effect on relations between the countries," said Barak Ravid, a political analyst for the Hebrew Walla News website.