The chairman of the right becomes the lead singer of elite propaganda • He also tells Israelis that they are "divided", but Israeli society does not crumble - this myth simply serves those who remain on the wrong side of setting the agenda • Bennett knows full well that for the left the "split" Will end when the right is neutralized by its power • Opinion
1.
I was reminded this week of one of the slogans of the Israeli elites during the disengagement period: "We will go through this together."
Some irony.
In the moment of the divisive, divisive, perhaps the most divisive experience that Israeli society has experienced in recent decades, when it barely regulates its breathing after Oslo and the second intifada, the elites have broken a manipulative slogan of false unity.
Bennett: I will act according to what is good for the State of Israel // Photo: Shmuel Buharis
"We'll get through this together."
The only ones who felt "together" at that miserable historical moment were the supporters of the disengagement and the left, who finally recorded for themselves a moral victory over the ideological right.
"It was never related to the Palestinians, to demographics, to the aspiration for a peace settlement," revealed none other than Yair Lapid, the true motivation of the elite: "It was decided to teach (the settlers) a lesson in modesty, and perhaps also in democracy."
Lie in lie was woven in those days.
No one "went through it together," and the mind-shaping elites had no intention of giving anyone a "together" feeling.
vice versa.
The disengagement created a socio-political crisis, which led many on the right and in the settler society to reflect on military disobedience and flirt with retirement from the mainstream of society.
Pushing the ideological right aside and neutralizing its influence - that is exactly what the elite was hoping for then.
Amazingly, this is a mirror image of what is happening now.
2. In a
kind of "1984" malice, even now the establishment's agents are refining a false narrative, a kind of "acceptable idea" that cannot be challenged.
This refers, of course, to the myth of "divided Israel."
The political tensions that are unnatural against the background of the election rounds, combined with the difficulty of enforcing state discipline in the Corona crisis, are fertile ground for a propaganda campaign that presents Israeli society as "sick," "crumbled," "on the verge of civil war," "more divided than ever."
This is indeed the image of Israel that is visible to us from the television screens and through moral journalism, but it is much less Israel that you will meet under the house.
Always ask yourself who benefits from dominating an atmosphere of social crisis;
Always ask yourself when the elite wants us to think we are "together", and when "divided".
Because we have been "divided" in the last decade precisely when in the social reality of the labor market, of the influx of higher education, of cultural representations - Israeli society strengthens its social cohesion network.
More and more groups are improving their positioning, undergoing "Israeliization" processes that no longer require them to renounce their culture of origin, and competing for channels of access to centers of influence, action and creativity.
Those who find themselves threatened by this social process are the same former dominant groups, which since the 1977 revolution have been operating in a kind of moral panic in the face of the opening of Israeli society.
This is the great "split" and "split";
This is the source of the "split."
They were warm and comfortable then, many decades ago, enjoying an unrivaled advantage on every level of social, economic and political life.
So, when the ultra-Orthodox, the Mizrahis, the Arabs, when the political periphery of the right was out of the game and one could close one's ears to its voices - one could also transmit to the world the false feeling that "Israeli society is united."
"We are divided" is a myth invented by those who brought themselves to the uncomfortable side of setting the national agenda.
3.
Well, what is true of the manipulative slogan "we will get through this together" is true of the false narrative of "we are divided".
So we did not go through it together, and even today Israeli society does not crumble.
Both are removed from the propaganda toolbox to neutralize the right.
But in front of "We'll get through this together" the right put up an alternative narrative, while today?
heartache.
I will not say a word about the "New Hope" party, whose members identify sociologically with what happened to the miserable elites of '77 much more than with those whom Lapid hints at as "insane": right-wingers, settlers, ultra-Orthodox, Likud voters.
But on Bennett I marvel - who was on the right side of the recovery process from the disengagement trauma, who rose to the right of the post-disengagement as one of the pushing voices for removing the retirement option, paving the way for all decision-making circles and shaping new elites, including the national-religious right.
The man who knew how to present a counter-narrative to the left-wing elites, became the home singer of elite propaganda at the end of a decade and a half.
He tells Israelis that they are "sick" and that they need to be "cured";
Takes care to market the absurd message that "healing" is the burning national need, one that deserves to be rejected for ideological reasons, to the point of erasing his political self.
The presenter of the elite propaganda also volunteers to play for them the role of the savior knight.
Dear left, miserable elites, he is reassuring, do not worry, I will save you from the right.
If there is a symbolic meaning to Bennett's leadership moment, it converges to the defiance test.
Will he understand, then, that for the left, the "split" will end and the "together" will return only when the right is neutralized again by its power?
In the coming week we will know whether Bennett dares, then, to put up an alternative story, or whether he will be an asshole of elites;
Which means the donkey of the left.
