Why has Israel avoided the conflict with the Palestinians on the election agenda?

Mohamed Mohsen Wedd - Occupied Jerusalem

Israeli parties deliberately avoided conflict with the Palestinians on their agenda and programs, while the Israeli public today continues to vote in the elections of its representatives in the 22nd Knesset session.

The silence on the incendiary issues related to the two-state solution - or even peace and negotiations with the Palestinian Authority - is the compass of the party leaders.

Israeli analysts considered that the big losers in the 2019 elections were the files of peace with the Palestinians and the Arab world, the decline of confidence in the legislative and governmental institutions, coexistence between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority and freedom. Of religion.

The right-wing camp, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and based on ultra-right parties and ultra-Orthodox parties, seeks to annex the occupied West Bank or settlement blocs to Israeli sovereignty.

The outgoing Knesset has passed at least sixty bills paving the way for annexation. Eight laws have been passed, and the legal annexation and the determination of Israel's authority and activity in the West Bank have been approved.

A new database compiled by Yesh Din revealed that the more emphasis is placed on the consolidation of annexation and the imposition of Israeli sovereignty, the greater the impression that Israel is becoming apartheid and a racist state under its rule and sovereignty are two types of people: Israeli citizens enjoying full privileges and rights, Of political and other fundamental rights.

The possibilities of maneuvering
The next prime minister will find himself bound by a social and geopolitical reality that could cripple his ability to bring about change. The prime minister's maneuverability will be reduced to the constraints of various alliances with the ultra-Orthodox stream and the renewed stream of religious Zionism.

Political analyst Akiva Eldar says it is easier to plant the seeds of hatred than to uproot them, with a huge burden of fear and hatred accumulated after Netanyahu's four-state rule.

He added to Al-Jazeera Net that it would be difficult and impossible for any future government coalition to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians and even the Arab world on a realistic basis, in accordance with international resolutions, the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders, agreed border settlements and the evacuation of settlements and the recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital Of Palestine.

The two-state solution
The parties of the center and the Zionist left have no chance of forming and recruiting a "Jewish majority" in the Knesset to advance the two-state solution. This assumption remains the most problematic.

According to Eldar, no Jewish leader would sign a permanent agreement that would include a withdrawal from most of the West Bank based on a "non-Jewish majority" in the parliament or so-called block of blockage, as was the case with Yitzhak Rabin's government, which signed the Oslo agreement with the Palestinian Authority in the mid-1990s the past.

According to observers, the absolute majority of Israeli Jews do not want to pay for peace. A small minority, estimated at less than 15%, is willing to pay the price and give up the land. They support Labor, Meretz, the only two parties to the two-state solution.

On the other hand, the Kahal Lavan party headed by Benny Gantz, led by right-wing leaders such as former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, Yoaz Handel and Zvi Hauser, sees the term "Palestinian state" as a rude term.

If there are no surprising surprises, Eldar says, "two states for two peoples or a bi-national state will continue to fade, and Israeli democracy and institutions will continue to be weakened, humiliated and lose public confidence."

Internal conflicts
On the meaning and significance of strengthening the strength of the ultra-Orthodox parties in the political scene, Rabbi Eliyahu Kaufman, who is affiliated with the ultra-Orthodox movement, sees that the parties and currents of Haredim are active and seek to achieve their goals and the interests of their supporters only, so that they remain closed to themselves and have internal conflicts that prevented their alliance under one umbrella for Haredim who do not believe in solution And await the arrival of the "Messiah" to rule the country.

"Kaufman says to the island Net" Netanyahu has strengthened the culture of dependence on them and rely on them, until they become the traditional partners of Netanyahu, who uses them to stay in power, in return for responding to all their demands, even if they are related to Sometimes a blackmail character.

The rabbi ruled that the ultra-Orthodox currents should remain the final say in the formation of governments. He attributed this to the existence of internal conflicts that lead to splits in some currents, pointing out that the political scene is no longer tolerable to blackmail the Haredim who do not believe in Zionism.

He said that they emphasize the rule of the country in accordance with the teachings of Jewish law, and collide with the broad political currents, especially religious Zionism, which is re-integrated with Zionism and the Torah, a conflict that will rage between Israelis themselves on secularism and Judaism.