"The Alliance of Extremists": The Attempt to Impeach MK (Member of Knesset) Ayman Odeh is Not About Him at All. On the Contrary, It Will Only Help Him.

In a multi-party-political-system, such as Israel's, parties compete with their neighboring parties, not with parties from the other side of the political map.

The essence of a political party is to be re-elected and increase its power. To do this, it needs to chip away at the voter base of its neighboring parties. In the reality that has been constructed, consciously and intentionally, in Israel—this fundamental characteristic of a political system, of any political system, leads to an ever-deeper radicalization.

The sense, rooted in reality, is that the graph line of radicalization is out of control, in a constant spiral towards infinity.

Right-wing parties compete among themselves: who hates the Arabs more. Arab elected officials compete among themselves with irresponsible and increasingly extreme statements. I call this "The Alliance of Extremists," who seemingly assist one another by providing ostensible reasons to radicalize their positions further and further. Each party and every public official contribute to the radicalization on their respective sides.

Like everything else in life, radicalization doesn't begin or end in a specific place. On another level, this process of radicalization can also be seen among the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties on the issue of the IDF draft. The Mizrahi Shas party competes with Ashkenazi Hasidic and Lithuanian factions over who can be more blatant and who can make more outrageous statements, based on the assumption that their competition is internal, not against non-Haredi parties. Has Shas given up on its traditional, non-Haredi voters? This is a complex question that further highlights the path of radicalization Shas has chosen to follow—competing with the Ashkenazi Haredim towards an extreme infinity, rather than engaging with Likud in a more moderate and inclusive discourse (on the draft issue). Once again—radicalization, radicalization, radicalization.

MK Ayman Odeh is merely a tool in the hands of those interested in creating rifts within Israeli society. To my sorrow, and the sorrow of many, many others in Israeli society, MK Odeh makes a huge contribution to this, aiding the far-right while thinking he is helping himself.

Netanyahu's Likud competes with the far-right parties and not with the centrist parties, which is a great tragedy. One must hope the situation will change. Until then, Lieberman, Gantz, Lapid, and Yair Golan are obligated to pull the discourse towards the center and not to the extremes. They fail at this from time to time. Some of them have failed now as well, falling into the trap of radicalization concerning the impeachment of MK Odeh.

And also—the fact that we are talking only about male party leaders is both a cause and a symptom of a tremendous change that Israeli society must undergo. But more on that in another article.

Photo: MK Aryeh Deri and MK Ayman Odeh