Our Natural Demographic Is Shrinking – We Must Discard Democracy

By Zehava Gal-On, Chairwoman, Meretz Party

As with any question of policy, we must always examine its anticipated long-term effects. Democratic principles have governed Israel since it was founded, but the rapid growth of the religious sector and the mixed success at best of the secular Left have raised the prospect of losing our party’s core constituency to low birth rates and disillusionment with our ideology. We know we are right, but face a thorny dilemma: do we continue to tout democracy even when that democracy denies us the reins of power? I say no.

When the State of Israel was established nearly seven decades ago, the secular majority and character of the government was assured. Granted, nods were made toward our heritage and ancestral culture, but no one of influence gave serious thought to Ashkenazi liberal elites becoming such a minority. Whether the Oslo process alienated the majority of Israelis from the land-for-peace formula because it displayed weakness and invited more terrorism, or did not go far enough but would have achieved peace had we surrendered even more strategic assets in exchange for temporary lulls in violence, the electoral result has proved disappointing: we held twelve seats during the heyday of Oslo, and now we hold only five, the smallest party in the Knesset. Couple that with the socially conscious, ecologically-minded, anti-religious (primarily anti-Jewish; you go ahead and build a mosque wherever) sensibilities of our voters, and you get a demographic that does not replenish itself.

For this reason I have hewed our party closer and closer to the ideology and platforms of the Joint List, in hopes of siphoning some votes from them. But as a long-term strategy that, too, will not suffice, as we cannot provide the authentic Arab identity that Joint List voters crave in their representatives, despite our token Arab members. Democracy will be our undoing, and we must therefore undo it.

This does not mean we must relinquish our mantle of Defenders of Democracy: it merely means we must adapt our rhetoric to the situation such that eroding democracy to our advantage is portrayed as reinforcing democracy. Kind of like countries with “Democratic” in their names: North Korea, East Germany, and the like. Even better, “People’s Republic.” Or “Islamic Republic.” Those are all good.

This is hardly a new approach. A 2014 article noted this developing trend, and I contend we must embrace it once and for all.

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