Even when it criticizes Israel, the liberal world is not against us - opinion

Too many of my friends are having a hard time correctly interpreting the criticism leveled by liberals in countries throughout the world against our government’s policies.

We demonstrated together against the current government’s efforts to undermine our judicial system and against the policies of a coalition formed by Benjamin Netanyahu with messianic zealots, draft evaders, and corrupt politicians.

Yet, particularly in the aftermath of the barbaric massacre carried out against us by Hamas on October 7, it is difficult for many of them to come to terms with the fact that the world is seeing very difficult pictures from Gaza, while we, completely understandably, are still dealing with our trauma, mourning our dead, and living in denial with respect to the terrible suffering of the Gazans.

Too many of my colleagues in the liberal camp in Israel still relate to every international statement that is critical of the government’s policies as anti-Israel. They are searching for the hasbara (public diplomacy) wizards who will show the world our good side, while it is actually much more important for us to invest our energy in improving the soul of our nation rather than its image.

Too many Israeli centrists are delighted to see the Israeli flags waving at demonstrations in Brazil in support of the populist Bolsonaro, or that the racist Viktor Orban of Hungary is preventing the European Union from imposing sanctions against violent settlers. They are enthusiastic about the speeches against Muslims made by the Dutch Geert Wilders and the bizarre visit by Milei, Argentina’s Elvis Presley, to the Western Wall. They even supported the cruel and cynical dictator Vladimir Putin, simply because of his image as a friend of the Israeli prime minister, an image that turned out to be nothing but a smoke screen. At the same time, they relate to all criticism regarding the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as deriving from anti-Israel sentiment, or even antisemitism.

Where the line of antisemitism is drawn

This is not a new phenomenon; for years I have been hearing many of my liberal friends relating to every decision of any UN institution against the settlements as if it is an anti-Israel decision, to all criticism of the infringement of human rights by our government as if it is antisemitic. They relate to the requirement to mark products from the settlements as such as if this is a boycott of Israel, while in fact it is not a boycott and it is not against Israel. These are decisions that strive to extricate us from the one-way ticket to a binational state drowning in blood that we are led to by our governments.

I still remember how, in my childhood on the kibbutz, Scandinavian volunteers would come who admired Israel as a model of tikkun olam (improving the world). However, they no longer see the same Israel, because Israel has changed. They see the right-wing governments that aspire to turn Israel into an ethnocracy and a theocracy. They see an occupation with no end in sight and boundless expansion of settlements intended to perpetuate it. And when they voice their criticism, our way to avoid dealing with it on the merits is to call them antisemites.

This approach also characterizes many of the establishment Jewish organizations. These are the organizations that think that the Evangelicals are our best friends, simply because they actively support the occupation and the expansion of the settlements, in spite of the fact that their vision is that we will die while helping to bring about Armageddon which will lead to the Second Coming. These Jewish organizations supported the narcissistic, misogynistic Trump and his loyal election results deniers’ followers, who spread the antisemitic replacement theory, because he gave legitimacy to Israel’s policies in the occupied territories.

This same line led these organizations to refrain from expressing support for the democratic protest movement in Israel against the attempt to overthrow the legal system, and at present they are not taking a stand against Netanyahu’s policy to continue the war without any political vision, while hardening their hearts in their willingness to sacrifice the hostages.

At this dangerous time for the future of Israel, our good friends are actually those who are critical of our government and who are trying to effect a change in its policies. They expect us to act in a manner consistent with the values we share with liberal democracies and against the policies that impair the chance to arrive at a reasonable agreement that will safeguard the state’s security and will ensure its democratic values, for our own good and for the stability of the region and of the world.

The policies of the right-wing governments continue to drag Israel down to the status reserved for pariah nations, such as Iran and Syria. Therefore, just as we expect that the world act against the infringement of human rights by such countries, we should not be surprised that it is considered legitimate at this juncture to oppose the policies of our government.

When the government acts against the interest of the State of Israel and continues with its agenda to reduce it to an occupying ethnocracy, the criticism of such policies must not be viewed as harmful to Israel, but, rather, as an act that might just save it from itself and return it to the path of a liberal democracy.

The writer is J Street Israel’s executive director. He has served as an Israeli diplomat in Washington and Boston and as a political adviser to the president of Israel.