Totalitarian Democrats: A political mutation — behind which lies a bluff

Can the Democrats party be considered a continuation of the Zionist labor movement? Perhaps only "thanks to" the social background of some of its members, as descendants, and in terms of the historical evolution of institutions and interest groups.

In its alienation from the democratic and social sovereignty of the Jewish people, the Democrats are the opposite of the Zionist labor movement. In every essential sense, we are facing a political mutation very far from the world of the people of the Second and Third Aliyah, who established a glorious and achievement-rich historical movement; the one that led the Jewish people from the depths of the lowest decline in their history to victory and sovereignty, to the ingathering of exiles, to building and settlement. The Democrats are not at all like that movement, and its members are not its "legal heirs."

The lack of similarity is self-evident in matters of society and economy, security, and foreign policy. From a class perspective, the Democrats party — as well as Labor and Meretz, which merged to create it — is one of the distinct representatives of the affluent and ruling strata, of the very high middle class, and of the capital owners in Israel. It has zero support among the poor in Israel, the manual laborers, or low-income workers. Therefore, it does not bother to find out how they perceive their ideological, identity-based, and material interests. Their representation does not interest it.

It is common to say about various labor movements in the world that since the 90s they have abandoned the material interests of the workers and the poor in their countries. This was attributed to the influence of processes such as the shrinking of the working class in developed societies due to the retreat of industrialization, and such as the increase in immigration, and following it, alienation between local labor movements and immigrants. Similar processes of degeneration have also happened here.

But less attention is paid to another important characteristic of that degeneration: growing contempt for workers and the poor, and especially contempt for the values important to them, which entails alienation from the duty of a labor movement worthy of the name to empower them and represent their values and interests.

As a result of this, all over the world, the "populist right" — that is, the popular-democratic right — is stepping up to represent the values and interests of the workers and the poor. In a process increasing since the 90s, it is the right that has raised the banner of adherence to nationalism — that is, to Zionism, in our case — and the banner of tradition, that is, the tradition of Judaism in Israel.

And yet this is not an exclusive "natural estate" of the right. The labor movement in its glory was no less Zionist, but it was the distinct, pioneering bearer of Zionism and its historical enterprises. It was faithful to the morality of the prophets and the messianic aspirations of Judaism for the repair of society and the world. Only a minority was radically secular.

Ridiculous disconnection from the heritage

Also in security and foreign relations, and especially in the struggle with the Arabs over the land, the Democrats are a pale shadow of the Zionist minority in the classical labor movement, successors to those who stood as if to its "left," like the communists and others. What is common between Yair Golan or Nimrod Sheffer and Ben-Gurion and Tabenkin, Eshkol and Golda, Allon and even Rabin? Very little. It is even difficult for Golan to claim the inheritance of Yaari from Hashomer Hatzair. He is the heir to the auto-antisemitic post-Zionism of Uri Avnery.

The disconnection from the heritage of the labor movement reaches the point of ridicule in the name chosen for the new party. Despite its democratic shortcomings and the "childhood diseases" of the democracy under its leadership, Mapai-Labor is one of the only forces that founded a vibrant and stable democratic regime after the Second World War. But what do the Democrats party have to do with Zionist democracy and the Israeli one that grew from it?

Although the Mapai of the 50s was a hierarchical party, it founded a democracy, and under its rule, the opposition press flourished. In contrast, the Democrats have sworn to close the right-wing media, to completely eliminate the power of the Knesset and subject it to the rule of judges, as opposed to the rule of law. Their proper name is "the Dictators." The party is nothing but a severe disturbance to the renewal of the heritage of the Zionist labor movement.

Prof. Avi Bareli is a historian at Ben-Gurion University.