Israel Matzav

The end of the notion of an Israeli neocon

This should put an end to the notion that Likudniks are neocons or vice versa.

The Egyptian unrest provides a great opportunity to refute once and for all the ridiculous but still strangely common belief that Israelis or, even more commonly, "Likudniks" are the oriental equivalent of American neocons. Just Google Likudnik and neocon together, and you'll see it all: the "neocon-Likudnik nexus," and "Joe Lieberman the Likudnik," and "Likudnik neocons at the Pentagon," and "neocon Likudniks who don't care about American casualties." On and on it goes, from people who either don't understand neoconservatism, don't understand Israel, or, in most cases, don't understand either.

In recent days there's even been some talk of a neocon "split" with Israel, or vice versa. "The neoconservatives, who have made democracy promotion in the Middle East an overarching goal, are scratching their heads at what they see as Israeli shortsightedness," wrote Jeffrey Goldberg. If that's true, I'm not sure why they're so confused—the Israeli position is completely predictable.

Those head-scratching neocons should know—as I'm sure most of them do—that there's no such thing as an Israeli neocon. The Israeli establishment never believed in promoting democracy in the Arab world, and it still doesn't. It never much cared about Arab democracy, period. In Israel—if you feel an urgent need to make such comparisons—the establishment tends to reflect American pragmatic (some would say cynical) "realism." America's "freedom agenda" was anathema to Israelis, even when President George W. Bush—whom they respected and liked much more than they like President Obama—was in power. It was anathema to them not because Arab democracy isn't a tempting notion, and not because they want Arabs to live forever under Mubaraks and Assads and Husseins. They just think it's a pipedream, a wonderful idea that the people of Tel Aviv might pay a high price for.

Yes, most people here believe that the Islamists will ultimately gain control in an election in just about any Arab country. And don't buy the notion that they're not interested in taking control. They played the same game in Iran 30 years ago.

Labels: Islamist, Likudniks, Neocons

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:27 PM