Voice of the Jewish News: Never in Israel’s history has hatred wielded such power

Benjamin Netanyahu’s triumph was really a victory for his allies.

For the sixth time, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister has led his party to the top of the polls and appears set to return to the job.

But Likud barely increased its vote share in this election. The true winner was the far-right and its leaders, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Across Israel, nearly half-a-million people voted for the Religious Zionist bloc and sent over a dozen of its members into the Knesset.

Never in the Jewish state’s history has hatred wielded such power.

To be clear: this newspaper’s concern is not that Netanyahu himself is on the cusp of a dramatic return. Yes, many British Jews oppose him – for his West Bank annexation plan, say, or the fraud and corruption allegations he faces – but many others support him in this country as a strong, conservative voice.

Few members of our community agree with Ben-Gvir or Smotrich – and the fact is the political marriage between these two men was concocted by Netanyahu.

He did it to maximise his electoral chances but he may have unleashed a beast he cannot control. Religious Zionism has attracted a diverse voter base: it includes young Charedim who have had enough of their rabbis instructing them on who to vote for and West Bank settlers driven to despair over the security situation. It also includes extremists who have shown they are quite prepared to take the law into their own hands.

Over the coming months we will likely see Israel do things that, if it were any other country, we would condemn without hesitation.

Religious Zionism wants a law that gives Netanyahu a Get Out of Jail Free card. They would annul those charges of fraud and breach of trust by ending his trial.

If Minister Ben-Gvir were to visit this country, anyone who agrees to meet him runs the risk of legitimising hatred. What will the Board of Deputies do, or the Jewish Leadership Council?

Ben-Gvir could soon be Public Security Minister. He would make soldiers and police officers immune from prosecution and allow them to use more live fire in confrontations with Palestinians and Arab Israelis.

There are now difficult questions for us in Britain to answer. If Minister Ben-Gvir were to visit this country, anyone who agrees to meet him runs the risk of legitimising hatred. What will the Board of Deputies do, or the Jewish Leadership Council? What about Ben-Gvir’s hypothetical ministerial counterpart – the Home Secretary, perhaps?

As the election results rolled in, the bodies that represent UK Jewry kept an uneasy silence. Perhaps they were hoping the few remaining votes to be counted will swing the result away from the Netanyahu camp and towards another political stalemate.

That is a futile dream. Hatred is already in the Knesset and may well prop up the next Israeli government. It is not befitting this country that many of us love and many of us pray for.

The time has come for us to consider our own response to the tragic conflict of loyalties with which we have all been wrestling for perhaps too long.

That is why this newspaper loudly denounced the far-right’s surge a fortnight ago. That is why we now call on our community’s leaders to show similar resolve.

If that must mean a fundamental change to our relationship with Israel’s government, so be it.