Challenge: Keep Israel Leftist

Gwax23

Banned
I was thinking about a few things.

You can still have peace and a leftist Israel by simply having the PLO and/or Arafat accepting many of the borders presented to them by the leftist governments and American brokered peace agreements.

At the same time a leftist Israel shouldnt be a guarantee peace. As in another thread Israel has been quite leftist since its founding but peace with its neighbors did not really depend on the domestic politics of Israel maybe up until the past 10 years.
 
What if Israel aligned with the Soviet bloc instead of the U.S. in the '50s? Both the superpowers supported their claim to statehood in the U.N., and the early Zionists had a very strong socialist tradition.

Say Stalin dies earlier, in 1949, and his successor is less anti-Semitic. The Korean War is butterflied away -without this drive and with a more conciliatory Soviet Union, an isolationist current sweeps the U.S.. When an Arab-Israeli War breaks out in 1957, the US declares neutrality and doesn't support either side, due to corporate pressure not to antagonize the Arab oil states and jeapordize contracts. The Soviets decide that supporting a "progressive" Israel over "feudal" Arab states is the historically correct course. By 1967, Israel is an integral member of the Warsaw Pact, and the Six-Day War never happens.
 
I think a good POD could be the Knesset-elections of 1981 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_legislative_election,_1981

Let assume Labour wins, then it would propably butterfly away the Invasion in Libanon. Labout concentrate the next four years to win back the oriental vote through patronage and the Welfare-State. Likud collapse in several feuding factions. In South-Libanon Arafat and the PLO concentrate more and more on creating their own little state. After a Laour victory in 1985 we see in the next years a peace aggrement between Israel and his neighbore, arranged by President Reagan. The West-Jordan-land joins a personal union with Jordan. Gaza becomes a autonom zone under eygptian Protectorat. All side aggre to disaggre about East-Jerusalem. The PLO-state formaly refuse the peace and still declares his final goal to destroys Israel, but informal Israel and the PLO-state (also known as "Arafats little privat ranch") become partners against the pro-iranian Shiits in Libanon. Young radical Palastinans are encouraged by Israel, Jordan and Egypt to go to South-Libanon, were they join the PLO-army and secret police, getting payed by Saudi-oil-money and CIA-funds, and can fight all the Shiits they want all day. (the Iran-Contra-deal is butterflied away). Western aid flows in Western-Jordan and Gaza and creates a boom like IOTL. After 1990 Israel also receive massive help from the USA and Germany to integrate the former soviet Jews, and Labour use the money to buy the russian Vote. 2011 Israel is still dominated by the Labour-party, has an economical system "more swedish then Sweden" and got with the help of the russian voters more and more secular, which let the love-affaire between Israel and the US-Religouse Right cool down. South-Libanon is ruled by the Arafat-Family.
 
I think a good POD could be the Knesset-elections of 1981 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_legislative_election,_1981

Let assume Labour wins, then it would propably butterfly away the Invasion in Libanon. Labout concentrate the next four years to win back the oriental vote through patronage and the Welfare-State. Likud collapse in several feuding factions. In South-Libanon Arafat and the PLO concentrate more and more on creating their own little state. After a Laour victory in 1985 we see in the next years a peace aggrement between Israel and his neighbore, arranged by President Reagan. The West-Jordan-land joins a personal union with Jordan. Gaza becomes a autonom zone under eygptian Protectorat. All side aggre to disaggre about East-Jerusalem. The PLO-state formaly refuse the peace and still declares his final goal to destroys Israel, but informal Israel and the PLO-state (also known as "Arafats little privat ranch") become partners against the pro-iranian Shiits in Libanon. Young radical Palastinans are encouraged by Israel, Jordan and Egypt to go to South-Libanon, were they join the PLO-army and secret police, getting payed by Saudi-oil-money and CIA-funds, and can fight all the Shiits they want all day. (the Iran-Contra-deal is butterflied away). Western aid flows in Western-Jordan and Gaza and creates a boom like IOTL. After 1990 Israel also receive massive help from the USA and Germany to integrate the former soviet Jews, and Labour use the money to buy the russian Vote. 2011 Israel is still dominated by the Labour-party, has an economical system "more swedish then Sweden" and got with the help of the russian voters more and more secular, which let the love-affaire between Israel and the US-Religouse Right cool down. South-Libanon is ruled by the Arafat-Family.

Not going to happen for a few reasons. Labour would need the small religious and nationalist parties to form a governing coalition, and pre-First Intifada, no one to the right of Labour's leftist wing is going to condone giving the West Bank back to an Arab country that had fought three wars with them.

Also, where are you getting that Likud would collapse into factionalism? If anything, Labour's left and right wings would split, while the general Revisionist Zionist group would unite under a single electoral list with Likud.

Finally, you seem to have an, ummmm, interesting view of the PLO in southern Lebanon. Arafat, if he is so against the nice little peace deal that President Space Bat has set up, wouldn't just be satisfied with a statelet inside Lebanon. While Arafat was a corrupt bastard, he truly was devoted to the Palestinian cause in his own way, and saw himself as its leader. He'll use every bit of strength he has to stir up the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan itself, which could lead to a collapse of the Hashemite monarchy and the formation of a Palestinian state on both sides of the river.
 

Ekima

Banned
POD in 1973. Golda Meir decided to attack first. Arab armies are totally destroyed again. Israel annexes Sinai peninsula and the Suez canal and makes lots of money from it. Labour Party takes all the glory and is being elected forever and ever.
 
POD in 1973. Golda Meir decided to attack first. Arab armies are totally destroyed again. Israel annexes Sinai peninsula and the Suez canal and makes lots of money from it. Labour Party takes all the glory and is being elected forever and ever.

Annexing the Suez Canal? Not going to happen. More likely, they overrun the canal, handing it back to Egypt in exchange for a permanent peace treaty and recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Sinai.
 
Considering who Israel was founded by, what happened? Why did they go much more radical right of late? Hence, your challenge.

1. Israel stays as leftist as when it was founded. No radical right politics, and moderate right only occasionally.

That's it. Possible, or ASB?

Simple. Have the Gaza pullout that occurred under Sharon not turn into a clusterfuck by the Palestinians. If Abbas keeps it under control, the peace process accelerates as the Israeli population sees a stable peace possible with the Palestinians if a pullout from the occupied West Bank territories occurs.

It's "radical" right parties, specifically those that view the Palestinians as a very dangerous threat against Israeli security, are proven wrong as Gaza becomes relatively pacified.
 
1994: As negotiations with the Palestinians continue, Rabin's Progress and Hope bloc goes from strength to strength, first absorbing the left-wing Meretz party (although two of its MKs join Hadash instead). He then brings four additional MKs from Likud into the government, who follow Ariel Sharon, currently an independent serving as Defence Minister, into a new centrist party called Kadima that will run a joint party list with Progress and Hope. This leaves the current Knesset looking like this:

GOVERNMENT
Ha'Egged (The Union, of Hitkadmut Ve'Tikvah/Meretz/Kadima): 39 seats
Labour: 21 seats
United Torah Judaism: 4 seats
Shas: 5 seats

OPPOSITION
Likud: 27 seats
Tzomet: 8 seats
National Religious Party: 7 seats
Hadash: 5 seats
Moledet: 3 seats
Arab Democratic Party: 2 seats


TBC (will finish 1994)
 
Top