When on earth did the anti-LGBT agenda, if you can call it that, become part of the agenda of the Israeli right? Wherever you look, on both sides of the national camp your eyes are met with open hostility to something from the world of gender identities. Suddenly it became the itchiest pimple on the pad.
On the ultra-Orthodox right, it is the Noam party, which now carries as an ideological flag the struggle for family values, which is a euphemism, euphemism, for the struggle against new families, that is, a distinct aversion to father and father and mother and mother. They are, of course, not alone and not first in this. We also remember homophobic statements by some Jewish Home candidates on the eve of the 2015 elections. Like, "A gay climate is collective suicide." Even then, they attached the note "For urgent care" to it. Which is a shame, because these voices hid some incredibly pluralistic and tolerant voices within the same party; Within the same conceptual circle.
Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, Photo: Reuters
Chairman of the Noam Avi Maoz Party, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
But the event is not limited to the religious-faith space. In recent years, certain wings of the secular, ostensibly liberal right have an incomprehensible obsession with gender discourse in general, and with transgender people in particular.
This is often wrapped up in social marketing rhetoric: we are warned of the serious consequences of the trans industry on the mental and physical health of children and youth. We are warning of a murky and dangerous wave coming to us from America. There, perhaps part of the medical establishment is slowly gathering the courage to violate the rules of political correctness and say unequivocally: This is a social trend that causes irreparable damage, and cultural legitimacy exacerbates the situation. We should listen to them, right?
This is not America
Well, no. This might have been a compelling argument in Israel as well, if it were not itself part of an American trend that is translated into Hebrew a bit forcefully, as part of the rather forced import line of conservative American-made ideas directly into the Land of Israel. Homophobia in general — and transphobia in particular — is a prominent flag in the wave of moral panic that is sweeping over American conservatism.
In some parts of it it has become a real obsession. Economy, security, immigration: putting everything aside. Disney videos and school registration forms are the biggest problem of the world's strongest power. And no matter how much they try to dress this discourse in sandals and a stupid hat, you recognize the American accent straight on the spot.
From the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem, photo: Reuters
Between these two extremes – the ultra-conservative wing and the American-conservative wing – lies the usual simple, right-wing space. Traditional. The one who was never particularly eager to enlist in the war against LGBT people, and on the other hand was not overly excited when one of his own became the first gay speaker of the Knesset. Those for whom it is simply not "isho" - not very much for and not completely against. And not as part of the tactic of closing your eyes or burying your head in the sand, but because you really don't make a big deal out of it.
And there is no great mystery to crack and no conceptual conflict to settle. This space is more social and progressive than is attributed to it. This is the political space that in many cases succeeded precisely where Israel's social democratic left failed – or never really wanted to succeed. It is the political space that created the conditions for upward social mobility of the eastern periphery; The same economic and class mobility that so stresses and threatens the institutional centers of power – especially in law, culture and academia.
Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
This is the space that has always pushed for unity governments and for dialogue with political opponents and for formulating ideological compromises. It is a fact that his zealots always accuse him of being "not a true right-winger." This is the space that, while repeatedly accused of racism and incitement, has also encouraged the unexpected growth of the Arab middle class over the past decade and a half. It is also the space that can teach its opponents how to handle demonstrations, and how to treat protests. Compare the suppression of protests against the Disengagement or the October 2000 riots with the police handling of the Guardian of the Walls riots or the protest against the legal reform. The gaps are unimaginable.
And just as this pluralistic, liberal, tolerant right does not deserve to be labeled "racist" and "messianic," so it does not deserve to be labeled a "homophobe" because of a vocal fringe. Certainly not at a time when large parts of it are generating such far-reaching symbolic, cultural changes in societal attitudes toward gender identities – and more in the most complex and challenging cultural arenas imaginable.
In the role of the talkback
Of course, it's not just a matter of fairness and visibility. This excessive, obsessive anti-LGBT discourse also has a bad cultural impact on the Israeli right, which is increasingly marking itself as essentially reactive, rather than groundbreaking. As someone who is busy formulating the message sheet against the partly imagined "progressive trolling" instead of cultivating an ideological identity of its own. As a counter-movement whose agenda is largely dictated as a reaction to ideas circulating on the sidewalk opposite, rather than as a viable movement setting its own agenda. It is, in practice, both substantively and stylistically, a talkback right.
Demonstration of the national camp in Tel Aviv, photo: Gideon Markowitz
And that's before we even begin to discuss the more elementary question, the one related to the rough entry into the private space of others. For blatant interference in the conscientious, personal, and identity choices of individuals and families. To fan the fanning of the threatening, volatile atmosphere that alienates large parts of society.
It's a shame that the Israeli right, whose greatest uniqueness relative to right-wing movements around the world is that it is an agent of social change, tolerant and pluralistic, finds itself – pardon the cliché – on the very dishonest side of history.
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