Part of the ongoing “Diaspora English” series, Daniel Crasnow reports on a year spent teaching in Israel during the coronavirus pandemic. You can read other Diaspora English articles here.
Following the November 4th American election, I spent the next few days in a constant state of panic. Like most Americans, I was very concerned with the results, and spent nearly every conversation I had with my fellow Americans discussing the results, good and bad. When the dust settled and Biden was declared the winner, I finally got to take a breath. But in the days following, I realized something— as a left-wing, gay, liberal Jew here in Israel, as a Zionist, and as an American, I had heard mysteriously little concerning America over the last few weeks. Though the protests against Netanyahu continued, I heard nothing concerning Trump. Even my students, some of whom are fluent English speakers who lived in America for years, did not know that America was in the midst of deciding its political future, which indicated how little their parents had told them about the American political sphere.
As American Election Day neared, I realized that the political buzz had not increased. Israelis seemed to be as oblivious to the American political situation as ever, which surprised me even more given how carefully American Zionists keep track of the Israeli political sphere. Every time there was an election in Israel, I knew about it. Every time a party failed to build a coalition or a new party stole votes away from the last, I kept track. Though I didn’t know many of the particular details, the day Netanyahu and Gantz agreed to their coalition, I heard about it by the next morning. Two weeks later, many Israelis still didn’t know that Biden won the election, much less do they have any opinions concerning what that means for Israel. For the average Israeli, America is still a country halfway around the world, and its political decisions remain largely within its borders. While Israel recovers from COVID and reopens its economy, all eyes are on Netanyahu, not Trump and not America.
Israel remains a contentious topic among the American political sphere- from left-wing Palestinian activists, to Evangelical voters, to Jews who continue to care about the politics of our self-declared second home. But this knowledge is not reflected back. While American Jews continue to care about Israel, Israelis do not care as much about America.
That realization disturbed me, a little bit. Within Jewish-American culture, Zionist Jews (including myself) continue to view Israel and its populace as our brothers and sisters. Israel’s struggle is our struggle. Israel’s successes are our successes. AIPAC spends numerous days of its yearly conference lobbying on behalf of Israel. J Street endorses candidates specifically for their views on Israel/Palestine. JNF spends its conference talking about Israeli technological developments and projecting vibrant pictures of the ever-growing JNF forests in Israel (as well as encouraging people to fund these efforts).
But Israel does not return this affection. Most Israelis have no idea about these JNF forests. They have never heard of J Street, and know very little about AIPAC. While American Jews like to claim we’ll always have a home in Israel, Israelis are not exactly encouraging us to visit them, much less stay. It’s been hard to realize that I care more for Israel than Israel cares for me.
I guess it was always unreasonable for me to expect that Israel would care about American Jews as much as we care about Israel. Israel is the Jewish state, and American Jews are the Diaspora, always idealizing the act of going home. Israel is a small country with its own wants and needs. America is supposed to be the face of liberal democracy.
The last time I talked politics with an Israeli, it was with an AC repairman named Roy. We were on top of my apartment roof as he worked to replace a piece from the AC generator, and Roy asked me who I was voting for as we waited for a part to be delivered from his van. Eventually, I admitted to voting for the Democrats, but I wasn’t happy about it. Roy admitted to voting for Netanyahu because he couldn’t bring himself to support Gantz.
Word through the grapevine is that Trump would be better for Israel, but as one of my host teachers, Juliet Ankri, said to me: “If (Trump) wins, it’s probably good for Israel. If he loses, America probably got smart again.” Roy expressed a similar opinion.
Israel and America’s political candidates both parallel and contradict each other. Biden and Gantz are both moderate, generally bland candidates fighting more ideological, strongman candidates Trump and Netanyahu. Just as Gantz barely won the Premiership (in fact, he technically didn’t), the close presidential races in numerous states awarded Biden a narrow Presidential victory despite his ultimately solid electoral success. Both Gantz and Biden are celebrating relatively hollow victories, if a victory at all since almost half of America still voted for Trump, and the Senate will probably remain under Republican control.
On the opposite end, there is still doubt if Gantz will even take office before the Gantz-Netanyahu coalition collapses, though there is less doubt about if Biden will take office. Unlike Trump, Netanyahu is smart, and his tough-guy appearance is influential in Israel, even with more moderate figures like my teacher, who asked why anyone would actually vote for Trump while admitting that Netanyahu’s strong-man appearance has kept Israel relatively stable and safe despite COVID and economic downturn.
When I talked to Roy about Biden and Trump, he mentioned to me that he voted for Netanyahu, because he decided that he liked the corrupt politician he knew more than he liked the corrupt former Defense Minister who he didn’t. While Gantz and Netanyahu are very nearly the same, Trump and Biden couldn’t be more different aesthetically. In the end though, in terms of policy, Trump and Biden parallel each other just as Netanyahu and Gantz do. While I decided the aesthetic difference was worth my vote for Biden, Roy decided there was not enough of a difference for Gantz to earn his vote.
But the last similarity here is not a similarity between the candidates, but a similarity between the systems. In both America and Israel, the left-wing political factions have been sorely disappointed by recent elections. In Israel, Netanyahu remains in power and grows stronger as Israel again recovers from COVID and stands back up on its economic feet. In America, Republicans have retained control of the Senate, and Trump is certainly not out of the national spotlight.
And between Roy, Juliet, and Myself, we all agree on at least one thing— the modern leaders of the political system are not the revolutionary characters the moment calls for. Roy couldn’t bring himself to vote for the left wing parties because he couldn’t bring himself to believe Gantz would be a significant improvement over Netanyahu. Juliet said she doesn’t remember who she voted for in the last election, but that neither politician was interesting enough for her to give them her full support. And though I supported Biden, I didn’t do so happily. Both political systems are begging for new breath to lift them up, and I hope that America will find that leader in the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her allies. But, according to Juliet, Israel has not been so lucky. Not yet, at least.
