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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 May 1999 Issue No. 430
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Supplement Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters One Israel or two?
By Graham Usher
When -- at around 4am on Tuesday morning -- Israel's prime minister-elect Ehud Barak finally made it to Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, he greeted his dancing, adoring and flag-waving supporters with a promise. "I will be the prime minister of all Israelis," he vowed.
On the face of it, no recent leader of Israel has firmer ground for making such a pledge. With almost 100 per cent of the votes counted, Barak had won Israel's prime ministership by a colossal 56 per cent of the vote as against Binyamin Netanyahu's 44 per cent. Even more emphatically, the elections for the 120 member Knesset had witnessed Netanyahu's Likud Party -- with barely 19 mandates -- slump to its lowest share of the Knesset in over 20 years and its leader forced to resign in ignominy. "We are one people again!" exclaimed Rafi Benvenisti, a member of Barak's Labour Party for over 40 years.
But the Israelis are not one people, regardless of Barak's real strength amongst the electorate and potential strength in the Knesset. For overshadowing "One Israel's" celebrations was a political victory even more remarkable than Barak's. The Sephardi orthodox Shas movement -- whose political leader, Aryeh Deri, has recently been sentenced to four years' imprisonment for bribery -- increased its representation in the Knesset from ten seats to a massive 17, making it by far the third largest party in Israeli politics.
The two Israels had been in evidence during Israel's long, acrimonious election campaign, mainly through the media's increasing heroisation of Barak and demonisation of Deri. It can also be seen every day in the fractured city of West Jerusalem (occupied East Jerusalem is subject to another kind of fracture).
On the one hand, there is the Israel of "One Israel" whose members supplied the rising tide that swept Barak to shore. For most part Ashkenazi and secular, they live in leafy suburbs like Jerusalem's "German Colony" district. Here the residents walk dogs and wear shorts, the architecture is Arab (having fallen to the Israelis in the 1948 war) and the cinemas show the latest French movies. And the streets -- from kerb to oak tree -- are covered with posters of Barak and the slogan that "Israel wants a change".
For the residents of this quarter, Israel's recent problems boiled down to the personality of one man. "There are differences between us [Israelis] but they're bridgeable. The problem is that Netanyahu is not the man to bridge them," said Danny Tzur as he emerged from the bustle of the German Colony's main polling station on election day. The elections "are not about left versus right, but about Netanyahu's style of government and the circle around him", he says. "I mean, how often can a man say it's my fault but I'm not responsible?"
Ehud Barak trounced Binyamin Netanyahu in Israel's elections, driving him into the political wilderness.Barak celebrating victory; an Arab Israeli voting; Netanyahu with family (photos: AFP) On the other hand, there is the other Israel of Mahane Yahuda, a teeming market area less than three kilometres away from the German Colony but an ocean apart in terms of culture and world-view. Here the preferred coffee is Arabic rather than cappuccino and the stalls are bedecked with pictures of "Only Netanyahu" and Deri together with Shas' spiritual mentor, Rabbi Ovadia Yusuf. For the Sephardi Jews who live and work here Israel's "differences" are caused less by Netanyahu than by "the paranoia" of the Ashkenazim in places like the German Colony.
"When the left complain that Bibi [Netanyahu] has set Israelis against themselves, what they really mean is that we [the Sephardim] now have more political power and they don't like it," says Harroch Jacob, an Israeli of Moroccan descent who arrived in Israel 43 years ago. Like "everyone else in Mahane Yahuda", Jacob voted for Netanyahu and Shas on election day because Shas "is the party of religion, tradition and the poor. When has Barak ever shown the slightest interest in any of them?" he asks.
Between the German Colony and Mahana Yahuda, there is only one place where the two Israels meet and that, surprisingly, is on the peace process with the Palestinians. For both Tzur and Jacob a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza is not only "inevitable", but desirable if only to separate Palestinians and Jews "once and for all". But as for Jerusalem becoming the shared capital of two states the "leftist" Danny is as an intransigent as the "rightist" Harroch. "Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine? Forget it -- it's not even an issue," says Tzur.
Other than this, the two Israels remain as far apart after the Israeli elections as they were before them. But neither Jacob nor Tzur expect war to break out any time soon. "Once Barak sees that we have 17-18 seats in the Knesset, he will talk to Shas," predicted Jacob on election day, some good eight hours before the first results were announced. It was pointed out to him that the pre-election polls showed Shas getting only twelve seats. "I don't read the polls," answered Jacob. "I listen to only Deri and Ovadia Yusuf and they say 17 or 18."
