I have been campaigning against the far right for over 40 years and am as disappointed as anyone at the prospect of Itamar ben-Givir and Belazel Smotrich being part of the new Israeli government.
At the same time, we know that the foundations of our support for the Jewish state go beyond party politics.
Of course those who want to delegitimise or weaken Israel or undermine its support internationally will use last week’s election as another stick to beat the country and its supporters with, but we must not fall into the trap of allowing them to do so.
First, I have always argued that supporting Israel and its right to defend itself does not necessarily mean supporting particular Israeli politicians, agreeing with every decision the government takes or endorsing specific action taken by the IDF, any more than I agree with every UK government or support all the policies they implement.
Second, when politicians in the UK call for a closer relationship with the EU, no one says, “But what about the election of a far-right President in Italy, the Front National getting into the final run off for French presidential elections or the election of Victor Orban in Hungary.”
And, third, let’s not kid ourselves. It is not as if the anti-Israel obsessives would support Israel if there was a centre-left coalition offering negotiations on a peace process and campaigning for a two-state solution. We all know they would be campaigning against Israel just the same.
They have always set us these tests. They demand we denounce the occupation, the settlements or the IDF. During the pandemic, it was the availability of vaccines.
But why are we asking for their permission? It’s not as if they’ll say, “Ok, thanks for saying you disagree with that politician or this policy, now we’ll listen to you on why Israel is a democracy, has the right to defend itself and is not an apartheid state.”
And these are people who claim to support the Palestinians but never say a word about the Palestinian Authority’s corrupt brutality or the Hamas dictatorship which subjugates women and executes dissidents. Let alone the thousands of Palestinians murdered by Assad in Syria.
It is also worth bearing a few other facts in mind when it comes to last week’s election.
Despite last week’s result, polling last year shows a majority of people in Israel still support a two-state solution.
The election shows once again that Israel is a vibrant and vigorous democracy but is in a tough neighbourhood with terrorism on the rise in the West Bank and Gaza, Iran developing nuclear weapons, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria in carnage.
Given all that, it is not surprising some voters will back the Israeli right’s arguments about security.
And who can be surprised that many Israelis don’t have the confidence to vote for politicians promising a peace process when there are clearly no partners for peace on the Palestinian side?
That other master political tactician Lyndon Johnson always used to say that the first rule of politics is knowing how to count and whatever people say about Bibi Netanyahu, he can certainly add up.
That is why, unlike the left and centre left or the Arab parties, he managed to put together an electoral coalition that maximised his support in the new Knesset even though the total number of votes was a virtual tie.
Populist forces are on the rise all around the world. Here in the UK, Farage and UKIP won European elections. The BNP even got elected to Brussels. Italy has just elected a far-right president. The far-right Swedish Democrats are the largest member of Sweden's right-wing governing coalition. Marine Le Pen came second in the French presidential elections with 41 per cent of the vote. In Israel, Itamar ben-Givir and Belazel Smotrich got 11 per cent.
Issues like climate change, the ageing society, migration, globalisation and the technological revolution are causing huge shifts in power, wealth and populations.
Why should we expect Israel to be immune from the rise of populism when it has to grapple with all that as well as the Palestinian conflict, terrorism and the threat from Iran?
Given the huge challenges and complicated questions, populist politicians in the UK, around Europe, in America and, of course, in Israel too can appeal to people with simple slogans and easy answers. The challenge for mainstream politicians across the globe is the need to work harder to tell people the truth and persuade them to support the complex compromises and difficult trade-offs needed to navigate a complex world.
