Letter from the Middle East: New narrative needed as 5th election looms
Recently the Israeli Prime Minster announced his coalition government could not keep its majority and, in few months, on 1 November, we will have another election in Israel, the fifth election in three years.
Dr Salim J. Munayer Senior Consultant, Musalaha.org
There are many factors that have contributed to the inability of Israel to have a stable government, and many point to the nature of the election system or the presence of small political parties that are empowered beyond their political representation. Yet, in recent years, the national religious narrative has been increasingly gaining traction among the political power junction of the Israeli state. This narrative sees the state as an instrument to redeem the land from others – as it was promised to the Jews by God – and calls for Jews to create the conditions for the coming of the Messiah. It also sustains that the authority in the land needs to be Halacha, the rabbinical Jewish law.
