Having lived in Tel Aviv for a year and absolutely loved the experience and the friends I made, I always thought, or at least hoped, that I’d move back someday.  Now I’m not so sure.  Like many close observers of Israel, I have become increasingly troubled and deeply saddened by the slow but steady transformation of the country into an increasingly right-wing, ethno-nationalist, apartheid state.  While this certainly doesn’t represent all of Israeli society, the current government and its supporters are trying to refashion the country into one I don’t recognize and in which I wouldn’t want to live.

I don’t use any of the aforementioned descriptors lightly, especially the explosive A word.  Amnesty International, an admittedly left-wing organization, but one that I deeply respect (and was a member of in college) labeled Israel an apartheid state in a report that garnered a good bit of attention last year.  At the time, I was still uncomfortable using this charged designation.  But with Benjamin Netanyahu’s return as prime minister and the appointment of ultra-right-wing religious zealots to his cabinet, the shoe unfortunately fits.  With their insidious image of an Old Testament Israel, Netanyahu and his Legion of Doom are trying to replace the ideal of a modern, secular, tolerant Israel with a narrow, reactionary vision for the country in which orthodox values triumph and openness and liberalism are only shadows of a once-progressive past.

As many of you will no doubt know, Netanyahu has long been a political chameleon of convenience, but his recent attempts to stay in power at all cost—and therefore avoid the jail sentence he richly deserves—has led him to embrace these religious extremists.  Bibi has always been less ideological than practical in his fifteen years in office, changing his positions and policies whenever it suited him to better appeal to Israeli voters.  He once, not so long ago, supported a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine before reneging on that platform and pledge.  But his obsession with remaining in power has led him down this dangerous and reckless road.  Knowing that the Israeli center is tired of his lies, scheming, and backstabbing, he has drifted ever rightward in his efforts to cobble together a coalition that will keep him in leadership and guarantee his immunity from the various corruption charges he faces.  He therefore has aligned himself with religious zealots and extremist settlers like Itamar Ben-Gvir, appointed to be the National Security Minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, now the Finance Minister.  These figures want to ensure that they and their children never have to serve in the military (a melting pot and formative experience for many in Israeli society) and that orthodox children never have to take basic subjects like history, math, and science in favor of a purely religious education.  Indoctrination best suits those with limited imagination or intellect.  Even President Biden, ever the centrist and compromiser, criticized Netanyahu for these beyond-the-pale appointments and the extremist agenda they represent.

The mere presence of these nefarious actors in the Israeli cabinet would be bad enough, as they have authored discriminatory and aggressively anti-Palestinian policies, but in order to keep his coalition happy, Netanyahu has had to attack the last bastion of Israeli democracy: the Supreme Court.  Israel has no written constitution and therefore no codified blueprint for how the government will check and monitor itself.  In the decades since Israeli independence in 1948, the Supreme Court has established the power of judicial review, much like in the United States, to check the Knesset—the Israeli parliament—through the power of precedent.  In a series of massive and sweeping challenges to democracy and Israeli political tradition, Netanyahu has proposed a series of bills that will effectively neuter the judiciary and eliminate this check and balance.  He needs to do this because the Supreme Court is the only institution that stands in the way of the extremist pro-settler policies that he needs to pass to keep his coalition happy, remain in power, and stay out of jail.

That Netanyahu has sold his soul to the zealots is no surprise.  What is maddening about this episode is that, despite the massive protests that democracy advocates have launched, this widespread opposition and public outcry is barely phasing him or his determination to push through these reforms.  Even the military, the most respected institution in the country, has joined the dissent.  Thousands of Israeli military reservists (in particular combat pilots) have said that they will not report for duty because, if Israel is no longer a democracy (as a result of the judicial reforms), the orders issued by the government will no longer be lawful.  This is deeply disturbing from a security standpoint but when the military (a highly conservative and pro-state actor in most every developed country) is the last bastion of liberal democracy, a country is in serious jeopardy.

I imagine that some of you feel that I’ve come to the condemnation of Israel late, and that my love for the country has blinded me to its past wrongs.  Past Israeli administrations, whether under Likud or coalition governments like the previous one under Yair Lapid, have not been beneficial for the Palestinians either.  It has been a gradual shift rightward that I have become increasingly uncomfortable with and alarmed by, but it’s difficult to draw a line in the sand to say THIS, THIS is a bridge too far.  But we’re now there.

I have always tried to qualify my profound feelings for the place—and especially its people—with the deep reservations and misgivings I felt about its treatment of the Palestinian people.  This treatment has been and remains shameful, but the situation has gotten worse of late with the attacks on places like Jenin and the blind eye that the Israeli government continues to turn toward violent settler attacks.  I have been to Ramallah, and I have been to Palestinian homes that have been threatened by Israeli settlers.  Defenders of Israel will point to the attacks on Israelis that led to the Jenin raids and violent Palestinian factors certainly shoulder their share of the blame.  But the violence has always been disproportionate, and the strength is clearly on one side.

It’s a simple proposition: a government that is unable, or in this case unwilling, to protect its people—all of its people—cannot deliver or even discuss justice.  And make no mistake, Palestinians remain under Israeli authority with the feckless Palestinian Authority so thoroughly corrupt, incompetent, and discredited, and Mahmoud Abbas clinging to what little power remains to his inept government.  Israel does indeed need a better, responsible partner, but it also owns the problem (one of its own making as it has undermined Palestinian viability and sovereignty for decades) and has all the power in this situation.  The way that the Israeli government works to resolve the Palestine issue will shape the character of the nation and whether it sinks further into illiberal democracy and ceases to be the country we all felt and hoped it could be.  Whether it becomes a modern-day, full-fledged apartheid-era South Africa, actively oppressing a large portion of its population for the benefit of what, demographically, may eventually become a minority Jewish population.  The eyes of history will not look kindly on such a transformation.  I still hold out hope for the two-state solution, even if it is likely already dead and a one-state solution is the dominant and likely reality.

So what can be done to try to forestall, discourage, or even halt these alarming developments?  How do we fight Netanyahu’s attacks on democracy while still supporting the protestors and the significant part of Israeli society that is truly horrified at this turn of events?  How do we get the Israeli government to fulfill its responsibilities to its Palestinian residents to develop and nurture these societies, just as it has overseen the tremendous growth and prosperity of its Jewish population in the 75 years since its independence?

I’m still not prepared to go full BDS (boycott, divestiture, and sanction) because I believe that active engagement and open dialogue are better than isolation and shunning.  But there have been some strong suggestions and proposals, even by long-time supporters of Israel that have both merit and bite.  Nick Kristof suggests stopping all US aid to Israel or at very least conditioning it on either judicial independence, fairer treatment of Palestinians, or both, as a couple former-US ambassadors to Israel have suggested.  We should not be giving funding for weapons to a country that can clearly afford its own and whose government may be using those same weapons on its own population.

Additionally, if Israel ceases to be an electoral democracy, the United States should stop treating it as such and protecting it at the United Nations and in the Security Council.  Barack Obama’s government abstained on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements, and right-leaning US-based Jewish organizations lost their goddamn minds.  But this is exactly the course of action the US should take.  While the UN has long had an anti-Israel bias—passing more resolutions in the General Assembly condemning it than other countries that have actively committed genocide—the US can still fend off unwarranted or extreme attacks on Israel while not coddling it or defending its worst impulses.  We cannot and should not idly sit by while an extremist regime performs seppuku on its own democracy and actively persecutes people under its rule.  We condemn this behavior in Hungary and Turkey as Orban and Erdogan dismantle their respective democracies; and we call out and publicly shame places like Venezuela and Syria that turn their militaries on their own people.  We should treat Israel the same and not stay silent on its abuses.

Finally, the Israeli-Saudi diplomatic recognition that the Biden Administration is aggressively brokering should be immediately abandoned.  Not only would this deal be a boost to two anti-democratic, ill-intentioned actors in Bibi Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman, but it sends the wrong message about incentives to both of these leaders.  Biden wants to reward Bibi with this crowning diplomatic achievement for his good-faith efforts with Israeli democracy and illegal settlements?  Moreover, the administration wants to reward MBS for his killing and jailing of journalists and human rights advocates, persecution of a vicious proxy war in Yemen, and the middle finger he gave the administration when it asked for a boost in the oil supply last year?  I am all for greater recognition of Israel’s right-to-existence by fellow Middle Eastern countries, but this is not the way, nor the time to do it.  And American concessions to the Saudis on arms sales and protection guarantees set a terrible precedent for appeasing the worst, most despotic leaders around the world.

Israel was always my dream “next” destination.  I always thought I’d end up there.  But increasingly, I don’t recognize the place I loved.  Do I go back, try to get citizenship and vote, protest, and fight for the country I once loved?  Join the protests and lend my voice to protect the society I still hope it could be?  Or do I give up, as the government has given up on a two-state solution, and leave it to fester in extremism and prejudice?  Much like Israel’s fate as a true democracy, my decision still hangs in the balance.