Palestine absent from Israeli election debate
■ original concept of Statism, which was part of the policy of Israel’s founder, David BenGurion, calls to keep the institutions away from the political and ideological conflicts.
However, since the second government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2009, the meaning of Statism shifted as institutions increasingly have become part of the conflict.
At the top of these institutions comes the once-revered Supreme Court, which has now become more right wing, Ganem, said.
“The debate [in this election] is on the form of the state, and not on ideology or the conflict between the right and left. The debate is about the relationship between the institutions, on corruption, and the relations between the judiciary and the executive branches. There is no debate on what will happen to the Palestinians,” she said.
Roadblock to peace
National Centre of Middle East Studies in Cairo, and political science professor at Cairo University.
Fahmi stressed, in an interview with Gulf News, that the Palestinian question is not on anyone’s agenda in the current election campaign.
“We should pay attention to a very important point: all political parties’ programmes are becoming one,” Fahmi said. “The voter doesn’t know about the programmes. Voting will be for individuals and not programmes.”
Many former army generals are running in this year’s poll.
They include former chief of staff General Benny Gantz.
However, the time for the top brass to dominate the political scene is up, according to Rami Nasrallah, director general of occupied East Jerusalem’s International Peace and Cooperation Centre think tank.
“This could be important for the public opinion (in Israel), but a new opposing concept was created in the past couple of decades. The security issue is important, but the right wing claims that it has succeeded in preserving security and the superiority of Israeli military power,” Nasrallah told Gulf News.
Meanwhile, the traditional far left, which is advocating a peaceful solution for the Palestinians, is being subjected to tight censorship by the authorities, he said.