Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting up with Yitzhak Rabin’s (Labor Party) son, Ehud Barak is kissing babies and Tzipi Livny is ripping the dance floor of Tel Aviv discotheques. Tomorrow Israel votes for its next Zionist government.

The sad truth is that it’s pretty obvious that Netanyahu will be prime minister (the sadder truth is that not one of the candidates affirms life) and that Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beytenu) will be a major part of the coalition, joined by a couple religious parties. This is possibly the most fascist, Jewish oriented and racist government, Israel has seen to date. I and my progressive (“radical” in Hebrew) peers will be voting up a true opposition, and hoping it gets over 5 sits in a parliament of 120.

Arabs for Lieberman
Interesting conversations have been rising up the past couple of weeks. The most eye-opening for me, was to speak with a few of my Arab friends and discover that they will be voting Lieberman (the man that suggested segregation of Israeli Arabs, in 2004).

“Say what?!”

Good question and the answer is gut-wrenching. As my friends explain to me, many Arabs have been living as third rate citizens since Israel’s inception. It only got worse as time went by, and reached a boiling point, with the attack on Gaza. Many Israeli Arabs have lost all hope, they want the lid off of Zionism, that way the world will have no choice but to intervene. They believe this will come with Lieberman, who has no pretense about his plans for the Arab citizens of Israel.

Fearing the Future
These past months, I discovered exactly what I’m worth to my government (a little bit more than an Arab). The apparent, up and coming government spells, not only utter devastation for the Arab citizens, but true politicide of the left. If my friends are, in fact, correct, we are on our way to a real fascism that won’t enlist the media, but own it.

In the past few years, Israel has managed to privatize itself to a social death, wage two wars (one considered devastating, one considered redeeming) and racists don’t whisper under their breath, in their living room- they shout it out loud in the streets. The price of bread went up, while the price of electronics received a tax cut. Israel is home of the Jews, the wealthy and the Right.

Where do we go from here? My bleak prediction is the weakening of the supreme court, revocation of rights to anyone who isn’t “loyal”, complete segregation and possible transfer of Arab citizens (and who knows what will happen to them after they reach Gaza). But all this won’t happen now, it will happen two years from now, when Israel goes into early elections again, when Barak and Livny will run again and loose to Lieberman.