Israel set to continue its lurch to Right

Israel is not a state of all its citizens, Benjamin ‘‘Bibi’’ Netanyahu declared on Sunday. His words should be shocking, but in truth they made explicit the message of last year’s nation state law, rendering Palestinians in Israel secondclass citizens. They would be shameful if he were capable of shame. Netanyahu’s campaign for reelection next month in the face of a bribery and fraud indictment shows he is not. He has prospered by fostering division.

This latest act of cynical bigotry is simply par for the course. The same is true of Netanyahu’s awful turn to far-Right parties for support. He orchestrated the merger of the racist anti-Arab Jewish Power and the pro-settler Jewish Home parties to help them pass the electoral threshold and him put together a coalition. Now he is inviting them into government.

Netanyahu’s supporters believe he has provided security and prosperity despite the region’s turmoil, and are prepared to overlook or reward his bigotry. Israeli institutions could yet do what voters should have done long ago. Regardless of the outcome on election day, Netanyahu still faces legal proceedings. None of this will reverse the country’s rightwards lurch and the damage it wreaks upon Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel, and Israel itself. That will only happen when the electorate develops the appetite for the change so desperately needed.