
Like most people think Israel is just one minded about what it’s doing and how to go about accomplishing those things and I’ve found it couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a few things the nation seems unified on, but the political landscape of Israel is arguably more complex than America.
Okay so group 1: Netanyahu clones are the most mainstream group in Israeli politics and include his main rivals. They vary from right wing to centrist and will differ on certain policies like haredi serving in the military, but I’d say their unifying trait is a support of the broad Israeli status quo and apathy to or slight support of West Bank settlers. They are opportunistically pro-ethnic cleansing, but not stalwart believers.
Group 2: the actual Satans. These are the guys you see in the news all the time for saying something insane. They are rabidly pro-genocide, generally orthodox-affiliated, and usually extend this violent rhetoric to the Arab citizens of Israel. While the Netanyahus support genocide in practice but are not stalwart believers, these guys relish it. They do not pretend to only target terrorists.
They tend to support Haredi involvement in the military, but are not as rabidly pro-draft as some of the other groups. Their rabid militarism makes them want the Haredi draft but their religious fundamentalism means they want to maintain room for Haredi Torah study and don’t want to piss off the Haredim too bad.
Group 3 are really interesting. They go against what most people picture Israeli politicians as being like, especially right wing ones. These are the secular Russian Jews. The politics I’m gonna state is that of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, but keep in mind there’s plenty of Russian Jews affiliated with Yesh Atid and Likud too (Netanyahu clones).
I’m not an Israeli citizen but I would guess it’s one of those “Do not quote laws to we who hold swords.” things. OP am I far off target with that? Like the haredi population continues to multiply but honestly… what are they gonna do? I’ve seen them flee from women with sticks. Granted they were fit women with metal sticks… but still, they ran like cowards. Really makes you wonder if they believe God is with them since they can’t stand their ground against people who weigh a fraction.
Group 3s take a hard line on defense, but do not prioritize ethnic conflict and are against religious fundamentalism. They’re a bunch of secular Russians, that reflects their worldview. They are super supportive of the Haredi draft, and I think that makes them distinct is their pragmatism towards the peace process and lessened animosity towards Arabs.
They tend to be relatively supportive of doing a land swap with Palestine to exchange jewish and Muslim areas. But the big thing from them is they want Arabs to serve in the IDF, because they think military service for all creates cohesive national loyalty. While not Russian to my knowledge, a Jewish guy with this view named Yoav Segalovitz is actually going to be running for election in the Arab Ra’am party. His political career has focused heavily on reducing violence in Arab towns.
Yeah they’re…they’re some weirdos tbh. The haredi politicians (group 6) try to pass stuff about segregating men and women’s spaces, very anti gay, want to desecularize the state. These guys really don’t care that much about West Bank settlements and Haredim tend not to be devout Zionists. They just pursue their religious interests.
And with the ridiculous amount of kids these guys have, expect them to grow in prominence. The Sephardic and Mizrahi Haredim tend to be a bit more militaristic and expansionist than the Ashkenazi Haredim who really don’t care much about land. But for all groups their political priority is religious
Group 4 is gonna be your Labor Zionists, who used to be the dominant political group in Israel but are now reduced to a fairly minor party called The Democrats. These guys are liberals and socialists, mostly Ashkenazi. They are supportive of the peace process and eventually recognizing Palestine (unlike the Netanyahu camp) and are against the West Bank settlers.
And then group 5 is the Israeli Arabs. They fall either into the more socially conservative Ra’am camp, or the more secular and socialist Hadash-Ta’al (the legacy of Israel’s old communist party). The communists used to have more Jewish participation in the old days, but now their political base is mostly Arabs. But the couple Jews who do run for them like Ofer Cassif are the most pro-Palestinian out of any in Israeli politics.
I want to note that the Israeli Druze politics tend to differ significantly from the Christians and Muslims. Druze politics is much more mainstream in Israel, more nationalist, more militaristic, and a good number of them actually run for Likud. While the Christians and Muslims align with Palestinian interests, lots of Druze are aligned with the Israeli state.
There are Druze involved in the Arab parties but they aren’t as loyal to them if that makes sense. The Arab parties are almost always excluded from coalition governments while Druze are included in decision making. Heck, for a brief time a Druze, Majalli Wahabi, was acting president of Israel.
Huh I’m reading up on it now. Leasing uninhabited Greek islands and fitting them with the infrastructure to house Israelis in case of an emergency. It’s interesting but I don’t see it as being likely to be pursued, I think the public backlash in Greece would be too great, and it’d be a lot of work for not that much relocation potential.
It sounds like the primary intent is as a relocation center for Israelis in times of war, but it would require a ton of money to even make those islands suitable and they would still only be able to house a small fraction of the Israeli population. And then there’s the issue of defending islands that small with such a dense population of people. I think the Israeli government would rather spend the money fortifying shelters in Israel.
If they are uninhabited yeah some Greeks are going to be like “wtf?” But honestly… the Greeks strike me as a way more laid back people when it comes to things of this nature. I imagine it will get sorted out eventually. Greece is just in a perfect spot proximity wise and isn’t inhabiting those islands so… I view it as a wise chess move.
I think Greeks would take issue regarding the cultural and ecological importance of those uninhabited islands. Plus for Israel, power projection towards Europe isn’t that useful, the threats aren’t coming from there, unless this would be about Turkey and that would raise even more issues for Greece. And I think it’s still a very fringe idea. It was basically brought up by a single guy, not even major government officials. Israeli territorial projection is focused on Lebanon and Syria.
Well that’s kind of the point. Why spend lives and create strife in contested areas? Europe isn’t hostile. If they ever manage to get an oil pipeline out to the med through Syria, those islands are going to become places of way more strategic importance. It’s not about the number of people settled on each island, it’s about what assets they manage in proximity to the location they occupy.