Israel risks losing what liberal society it still has for the sake of expansion
The 'Origins of Totalitarianism' are already visible in its right wing demands
The State of Israel is something of a mystery to a student of international relations. The level of power it exercises over much larger neighbors and its close relationship with the United States despite the extreme hostility it engenders among a huge portion of the world’s population. These anomalies obviously have multiple, complex causes, but a major one reason is that Israel has managed to maintain something like a liberal democracy for its citizens (while maintaining a class of non-citizen subjects in Gaza and the West Bank) and to present this image effectively to the United States in a way that makes many Americans view that country as a natural ally. Not only does the exclusive democratic, liberal system likely contribute to Israel’s wealth and thus military-industrial might, but the picture of a liberal democracy ensures American aid and (more importantly) diplomatic cover. In a way largely opaque to a strict realist view of international relations, the limited liberalism of Israel (some would argue more a veneer thereof) is crucial to the country’s continued success.
But even this limited liberal society is in grave danger of falling into a totalitarian trap that many Europeans also fell into in the 20th century. Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism locates the germ of totalitarian government in the impunity granted to colonial administrators. Arendt notes that “The conscience of the nation, represented by Parliament and a free press, functioned, and was resented by colonial administrators, in all European countries with colonial possessions”; for example in England, “The imperialists had always been deeply resentful that the government of India should have "to justify its existence and its policy before public opinion in England" and thus prevented from operating in India with absolute impunity. It is difficult not to see precisely this sentiment in the behavior of the far right in Israel today. From settler attacks on aid convoys to both militants and politicians violently protesting the possibility that Israeli soldiers be held responsible for raping Palestinian detainees, it is clear that extremists dedicated to seizing more and more territory from Palestinians are growing increasingly resentful at having to justify their behavior to what remains of Israeli judicial and political restraints.
However, Arendt differentiates between the overseas imperial powers and those that operated within the European continent - particularly the ‘pan’ movements of pan-Germanism and pan-Slavism. In these situations, the dichotomy between the oppression in the colonies and the relatively greater freedom in the home country could not be contained - “The main point here is that the strategy of expansion follows geographic continuity and extends from a power center to a widening periphery which then is supposed to gravitate "naturally" toward its center. This cohesive extension could of course never have tolerated a dichotomy between home government and colonial rule.” This is the case in Israel and its occupied territories - Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Golan heights blur the boundaries of the state, while the attacks of October 7, 2023 showed eventually the occupation of Palestinian territories would, one way or another, come back to impact the Israeli core territories. If soldiers with the IDF are given impunity to commit the most heinous crimes against Palestinians in Gaza, it will be impossible to control the security state a few dozen miles away in Israeli cities.
Societies exercising totalitarian power over occupied people will often try to instead differentiate between the in group and out group to preserve rights for the former. Arendt describes that in Central Europe “instead [continental imperialism] proposed to treat European peoples as colonials under the rule of a master race of Germanic or Slavic origin”. The nation state law of Israel is a step in this direction - by defining legislatively to whom the nation belongs, it sets the stage for maintaining - for a time - the rights of Jewish Israelis even as Arabs, Armenians, and others see theirs slipping away. But Arendt’s case study suggests this doesn’t last. Israel has already struggled to maintain rule of law and a balance of power between the legislature and the courts. This has reached crisis levels, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces an ongoing corruption trial which continuing warfare has managed to delay but not end. Add to this impunity for militant nationalists, criminal settlers and other elements using Israeli occupation wars and expansion as excuses for their own lawbreaking, and Arendt’s claim about lawlessness in continental imperialist societies is driven home- “Open disregard for law and legal institutions and ideological justification of lawlessness has been much more characteristic of continental than of overseas imperialism. This is partly due to the fact that continental imperialists lacked the geographical distance to separate the illegality of their rule on foreign continents from the legality of their home countries' institutions.”
The distance from Ramallah to Tel Aviv is much less even than that from Poznan to Berlin, and the idea that the lawlessness currently growing in Israel and the impunity demanded for colonial soldiers will not come back to impact even Jewish Israelis will full citizenship is dangerous naivete. Arendt suggests that even in cases of long distance imperialism, the outcome was not clear: “Imperialism could have been a success if the nation-state had been willing to pay the price, to commit suicide and transform itself into a tyranny”, but most of Europe in the 20 century “preferred to liquidate the empire.”
It is unclear at this juncture how much choice Israel has in the matter. Choosing to declare any possible Palestinian state to be a ‘existential danger’ suggests a state unwilling to do what must be done to resolve the dichotomy between an oppression occupation and liberal democracy for full citizens in the direction of liberalism. A rapid about face is needed - Israel needs to either allow for the establishment of a Palestinian state, or grant Palestinians full citizenship within the existing territory. Freedom for Jewish Israelis cannot perpetually exist alongside unfreedom for so many Palestinians, and Arendt’s work shows the grim roadmap for where Israeli society is likely to end up if it continues in this direction.