Why I Make a Point to Avoid Analyzing or Pontificating on Internal Israeli Politics

Believe it or not there are other countries with even more annoying political cultures and systems of government than our own in America. And the Jewish state is one of them!

Photo by Rafael Nir on Unsplash

Click here to check out the first 30 Installments - Volume I - in this series on Antisemitism and Culture. Among the top 5 most important pieces from this first wave:

1. What It Means When the Leader of the Republican Party Dines With THREE Antisemites

2. What Causes Someone to Be an Antisemite?

3. How the Bible Reveals the 3 Types of Antisemites

4. 7 Reasons This Christian Hippie Became a Zealot Against Jew Hatred

5. What Zionism Means to Me Today

This is the fourteenth installment in Volume II, intended as another 30 pieces exploring the many manifestations of Jew Hatred and the issues surrounding it in America and globally. See the previous articles in this new collection below.

1. Martin Luther King, Jr: An American Hero and Courageous Zionist Voice

2. Talking to These Students Gave Me Hope in this Dark, Dark World of War and Hate

3. Why I Don't Expect the Palestinians Will *Ever* Make Peace with Israel and Thus Gain Statehood

4. The Antisemitism of Ron Paul's Far Right Anarcho-Capitalist Ideological Cult

5. When Holocaust Trivialization Manifests in the Wrestling World

6. 2 Numbers Which Reveal the Overwhelming Level of Human Devastation Wrought by the Holocaust

7. The Deep Depths of Ideological Depravity: Comparing the Holocaust to the Covid-19 Vaccine

8. Unfortunately, Christian Nationalism Is the Normal, Much More Longstanding Version of Christianity

9. Scratch a Supporter of Ron Paul, Donald Trump, & Vladimir Putin? Find a Pathetic, Frightened Antisemite

10. 7 Great Counterculture Authors Who Inspire My Writing and Zionist Activism

11. Why Twitter & Social Media Are Such a Poison Brew of Antisemitism, Hate, Death, and Lies

12. The Antisemitism of Noam Chomsky's Far Left Anarcho-Syndicalist Ideological Cult

13. All We Are Saying, Is Give Peace AND War a Chance

These writings are part of my ongoing effort to overcome my PTSD by forcing myself to try to write and publish something every day commenting on and analyzing current cultural affairs and their impacts on politics, faith, and, well, everything. “Politics is downstream from culture,” the late Andrew Breitbart popularized among conservative bloggers while he was alive. I’d go a step further: Everything is downstream from culture. The cultures you embrace determine who you are and who you become. You become what you worship.

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One of my favorite Zionists I follow on Twitter made a point the other day I agreed with which I thought warranted a brief post to address in greater depth:

Dave of the Desert @DaveSwindle

Yes our system is better. I feel so bad for my Israeli friends - your politics are even more annoying than ours! https://t.co/AN1t2igoPf

Uri Kurlianchik @VerminusM

A big problems with the Israeli system of government is zero separation between the legislative and executive branches. It's the exact same people switching hats. I like the American system better in this regard. Also, we could use a constitution...

Especially in my editorial work for The Algemeiner over the last few years and some in the years prior I’ve gotten to take a closer look at the internal politics of Israel and come to one particular conclusion: oh dear Lord what a mess! What an even more confusing and dysfunctional arrangement than ours here in America!

I honestly just despise “parliamentary democracies” and the political cultures they produce. The way there are so many different parties - of often wildly different ideologies - and they have to come together in coalitions which are in danger of splitting apart, causing a need for new elections and potentially a new head of government at any time. I mean come on, how weird is it that Israel has both Islamist parties and Haredi parties? Here in America the divide between the Democrats’ far left progressive wing and the Republicans’ far right populist-nationalist wing seems pretty profound, but it’s nothing compared to Israel’s ideological divides. Politics is downstream from culture, as this series so regularly proclaims, and I guess one could simply argue that the range of cultures in Israel is more deeply divided, even though they only have 9.4 million compared to our 331.9 million.

Honestly, I’ve come to the decision that I just don’t particularly want to take sides or pick a favorite party or invest myself at all in any of Israel’s politicians. It’s not my country, I only have a moderate grasp of the complexities of its political culture and internal cultural rivalries, so I’m just going to leave it to my Israeli friends and colleagues to pontificate on those subjects for themselves. One thing I’ve learned pretty clearly from my years in political writing and activism: if you haven’t seriously invested time in studying a subject deeply then just shut your damn mouth about it. Don’t embarrass yourself when people who know more can run circles around you.

Recall what I laid out in my post defining what Zionism means to me as an American Gentile:

What Zionism Means to Me Today

For me Zionism is a broad endeavor going well beyond the state of Israel. It is an ideology and cause no longer just about establishing and defending a Jewish state. In the work I and other Zionist activists do, at this point it’s really expanded to combating antisemitism globally, not exclusively in the Middle East. And that task in and of itself is more than enough to keep me busy without having to wade into the mess of Israel’s parties, personalities, and parliamentary BS.

I’ll focus on defending the Jewish people in broad, at the global level, and with a particular emphasis on antisemitism’s manifestations in my own country. I leave to Israelis to determine which parties, domestic policies, and politicians are best to lead them and defend their nation.

Does that sound reasonable, my Israeli friends? Or do I as an American Zionist really need to start spending time untangling this stuff too?