Today, opposition leader Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union party, announced a major change in policy for Israel’s Left:
“I don’t see a possibility at the moment of implementing the two-state solution. I want to yearn for it, I want to move toward it, I want negotiations, I sign on to it and I am obligated to it, but I don’t see the possibility of doing it right now.”
We would like to welcome Mr. Herzog to the reality that the rest of us have accepted for some time now. However, our realities are not quite the same just yet. That is because while Netanyahu and the Right have recognized this fact for years, unlike Herzog, when Bibi says this out loud, he is roundly condemned for being “anti-peace.”
Back in March of 2015, before the most recent elections, the Prime Minister said,
“I think that anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state today and evacuate lands is giving attack grounds to the radical Islam against the state of Israel.”
While Herzog left the door open to more idealism and hope, waxing poetic about “yearning,” “moving” and “negotiating,” the message is exactly the same: under current conditions, it is impossible to create a Palestinian state and neither will allow it to happen.
So, why is one condemned while the other supported? Because the world today is wedded to the idea that Left = good and Right = bad in the same way that Palestinians = good/victim and Israel = evil/oppressor. This narrative must be guarded at all costs.
And the first casualty is the facts.
