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aranthus

(3,386 posts)
Sat May 25, 2019, 01:55 PM May 2019

No, Israel isn't a country of privileged and powerful white Europeans

"Only about 30% of Israeli Jews are Ashkenazi, or the descendants of European Jews. I am baffled as to why mainstream media and politicians around the world ignore or misrepresent these facts and the Mizrahi story. Perhaps it’s because our history shatters a stereotype about the identity of my country and my people."


https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mazzig-mizrahi-jews-israel-20190520-story.html

6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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No, Israel isn't a country of privileged and powerful white Europeans (Original Post) aranthus May 2019 OP
The perception is that 30% run things. Certainly seems that way from... brush May 2019 #1
Likud is a Mizrahi party Mosby May 2019 #3
Good one Mosby Israeli May 2019 #4
The Roots of Right-Wing Dominance in Israel Mosby May 2019 #5
The Right have dominated Israeli politics .... Israeli May 2019 #6
This message was self-deleted by its author Mosby May 2019 #2

Mosby

(17,383 posts)
5. The Roots of Right-Wing Dominance in Israel
Mon May 27, 2019, 03:47 PM
May 2019

-snip-

And there are some deeper trends at work as well, beyond politics and economics. The historical liberal and social-democratic nature of the Jewish state was rooted in the worldview of its founders in the early twentieth century. Zionist leaders like Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, and Golda Meir wedded the secular idea of national self-determination for the Jewish people to a vision of social justice. Under external and internal pressure, these values were not always successfully implemented, especially during the post-1948 mass immigration, but they continued to define the ideology of a society that viewed itself as both Jewish and democratic.

That worldview is no longer shared by all Israelis. The growth of Israel from a small and poor embattled land with 650,000 Jewish inhabitants at its founding to a thriving nation of almost eight million people today resulted from demographic changes that gradually but decisively altered the country’s social structure and politics. It is now clear how dramatic the impact of those changes has been.

One million immigrants from the former Soviet Union who have arrived since the late 1980s are enriching Israeli science, technology, music, and culture. But their political attitudes also reflect decades of life under Soviet rule: though mostly secular, many of them believe in a strong state with a hierarchical leadership structure, having little patience for outsiders or enemies (in this case, Arabs). As one of them quipped to me, “I do not want to live under Putin, but I want my leader to be like Putin.”

The wishy-washy social-democratic ethos of Israel’s Labor movement looked to them like a variant of bolshevism, and the kibbutz reminded them of a Soviet kolkhoz. Consequently, many of them felt much more comfortable with Netanyahu’s robust nationalism than with left-wing supporters of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

Likewise, earlier immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East – the Mizrahi and Sephardi communities that now comprise almost half of Israel’s Jewish population – found the secular, egalitarian ethos of Labor to be deeply at odds with their religiosity and patriarchal values. For many, kibbutzim mean the breakup of the family and enforced secularization. And many brought with them memories of oppression in their Arab-majority countries of origin. Menachem Begin, the first Likud prime minister, capitalized on these immigrants’ resentment of the hegemony of the left-wing establishment.

Their descendants, together with immigrants from the former USSR, still form the backbone of support for Likud. And, given Likud’s natural alliance with orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jewish parties, the right-wing has gained a built-in advantage which will not disappear when Netanyahu leaves the scene. Israel is not on its way to becoming a Hungarian-like “illiberal democracy”; its democratic structures and norms remain resilient (though this will be tested by Likud’s looming attempt to grant Netanyahu immunity from the corruption charges he faces). But the institutional edifices that once made its liberal and social democratic sectors dominant have been significantly weakened.


https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/netanyahu-right-wing-dominance-in-israel-by-shlomo-avineri-2019-04


Israeli

(4,289 posts)
6. The Right have dominated Israeli politics ....
Mon May 27, 2019, 05:17 PM
May 2019

………...ever since they assassinated Rabin .


I know who the right are Mosby .


Do you know who we are ?

Ref: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/archive/1382094685

A leftist society is based on equality between men and women, Jews and Arabs, Ashkenazim and Mizrahim, members of all religions and members of none, with no discrimination based on sexual preference. A leftist society ensures all children the possibility to live under equitable conditions; every child has the right to a modern, egalitarian education open to the world. A leftist society treats refugees and labor migrants compassionately, integrates them into the job market and allows them to live as human beings.

A leftist society is based on the complete separation of religion and state. It has civil marriage and divorce, with every person possessing the right to join or leave any religion. All men and women live according to their own faith. Every person who shares in the fulfillment of this ideal in spirit and action, every single day, belongs to the Israeli left.




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