There are no left-wing and right-wing Zionists, only shades of right-wing Zionism!
A statement of the Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 3 June 2021, http://the-isleague.com
A new government headed by the far-right politician Naftali Bennett has been formed. It is composed of 8 parties of the Anti- Benjamin Netanyahu block. The first question to ask is who is Naftali Bennett? Who are his partners?
Bennett is a multi-millionaire known for his extreme right positions on the Palestinian rights and on working class rights. In simple words, he is an ultra-reactionary and to the right of Netanyahu. He leads Yamina (To the right) that has called for Israel to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. He was a major in Sayeret Matkal, a special forces commando that has an history of assassinations of Palestinian and Lebanese leaders. It assassinated PLO second-in-command Khalīl Ibrāhīm al-Wazīr, known as Abū Jihād, in 1988 inside his Tunis home and kidnapped Hezbollah’s spiritual leader Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid in July of 1989.
In 2010, Bennett became the head of Yesha Council, which lobbies for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. In 2013 he called for the killing of Palestinians fighters, not for releasing them in an exchange of prisoners. He served as Netanyahu’s Defense, Economy minister and Education minister. In Netanyahu's government he was in its right-wing section. He separated from Netanyahu over a personal conflict.
Gideon Moshe Sa'ar was an intelligence NCO in the Golani Brigade in his army service. He was a member of the Likud between 2003 and 2014 and was the Education Minister and the Minister of the Interior. At the end of 2020, he left the Likud after he ran unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Likud and established a new party by the name New Hope.
Yair Lapid was a journalist who in March 2013, following his coalition agreement with Likud, was appointed to be minister of Finance and a member of the Security Cabinet.
Blue and white leader Benny Gantz was the chief of the Israeli army during the war on Gaza in 2014 and he bragged about his killing of more than 2000 Palestinians. He has served as a minister of war in Netanyahu’s government.
In 1988 Avigdor Lieberman began to work with Benjamin Netanyahu. From 1993 to 1996, after Netanyahu was elected to the position of the Likud leadership Lieberman became a Director-General of the Likud. After Netanyahu was elected Prime Minister, Lieberman served as Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office from 1996 to 1997. He resigned from this post in protest after Netanyahu promised some concessions to the PA in the Wye River Memorandum (Oslo 2) in which Israel promised to withdraw from 13% of the West bank. He established his party, the Yisrael Beiteinu, to the right of the Likud. Later on, he was in and out of the government of the Likud. He opposed the withdrawal from Gaza in 2004. In 2012, Lieberman and Benjamin Netanyahu merged their political parties before the elections of 2013.
He was appointed the Minister of war in May 2016. In 2004 he announced his plan for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians citizens of Israel and transferred them to the PA controlled area. In 2014 he repeated the same plan.
The Zionist Labor Party, the Zionist Mertz and the Islamic Southern Branch – the United Arab List led by Mansur Abbas – joined this far right block. They only prove that there is no left and right among the Zionist parties and that among the oppressed nations there are the collaborators with the oppressors.
Hadash - the Stalinist block – decided in the last minute, in a typical Stalinist fashion, not to join this right-wing coalition. However, it did recommend Gantz to the position of PM after the previous elections round and Lapid after this election round, and by this it opened the door before Mansur Abbas to join the new right-wing government.
Furthermore, the six members of the Joint List added their signatures to the call of the anti-Bibi right-wing block in which Levin of Likud is set to be replaced with Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levi, a move that would enable the new government to be sworn in as early as next Monday. In response Yesh Atid and Yamina, have both distanced themselves from the support of the Arab-majority Joint List in their move to replace Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin and expedite the swearing-in of the government.
“Yesh Atid has said the Joint List’s declaration of support wasn’t coordinated with the party, according to Channel 12 news. The report says the bloc may elect not to rely on the Joint List votes for the move. Similarly, Yamina sources are quoted by the Walla news site as saying they won’t rely on Joint List support and will elect a new Knesset speaker when the government is sworn in and not before, meaning the move won’t be expedited.” (1)
Thus if the leaders of the Joint List thought that the Bennet-Lapid government can treat them better than donkeys to ride on, and that the Zionists want to integrate them into the Zionist society, reality has given them a slap in the face. However, considering their class nature it is very difficult to believe they have learned their lesson.
It is not likely that this new government will stay in power for 4 years due to the internal fights under the circumstance which Israel exists in following its defeat in the last war against Gaza. The Zionist state is facing its worst crisis in history and for this reason it pushes for a war with Iran.
While the ISL was right for warning that the line of "everyone but Bibi" will lead to another right-wing government not better than the government of Netanyahu, we did not expect that the political defeat of Israel will lead to the replacement of Netanyahu by Bennett who won six seats in the elections.
In our estimation Israel is in the same situation that the South African apartheid regime was at the beginning of the 1980’s. The isolation of the Zionist state is only deepening, and the massive pro-Palestinians mass movement is calling for a Palestine free from the river to the sea. This is a call for a democratic revolution. We support this demand and add that to win this demand the workers in alliance with the poor fellahin must lead the revolution as part of the regional Arab revolution.
Down with the new right-wing coalition!
For a free red Palestine from the river to the sea!
Footnotes
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We refer reader to a special sub-page on the RCIT website where we have compiled all our documents on the latest Gaza War and the Third Intifada: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/collection-of-articles-on-fourth-gaza-war/