The Rise of the Right Wing in Israel

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Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 16.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

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Summary

For most of its early history, Israel was dominated by left-leaning, secular politicians. But today, the right is in power. Its politicians represent a movement that uses a religious framework to define Israel and its borders, and that has aggressively resisted a two-state solution with Palestinians. And its government – led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — is waging a war in Gaza which, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, has killed over 30,000 people, many of them children. The government launched the war in response to the October 7th, 2023 Hamas-led attack that, according to Israeli authorities, killed over 1,200 Israelis with an additional 250 being taken hostage.This is not the first time that tension has erupted into violence. But the dominance of right-wing thinkers in Israeli politics is pivotal to how the war has unfolded. On today's episode: the story of Israel's rightward shift.

Correction: In a previous version of this episode, we said incorrectly that Benjamin Netanyahu was born in 1948. He was born in 1949.

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions.
0:08.5	With SAP Concur solutions, you'll be ready to take on whatever the market throws at you next.
0:14.0	Learn more at concur.com. On October 5th, 1995, tens of thousands of Israelis crowded the streets of Jerusalem.
0:40.0	They began in Midtown and marched towards the doors of the Knesset where Israel's parliament meets.
0:47.0	It's not Mr. Abin that we knew in the past.
0:52.0	Entitled different men. The former defense minister Arial
0:56.7	Sharon was there along with the rest of the demonstrators to protest Israeli
1:01.0	Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin who negotiated and signed the Oslo Accords,
1:06.3	a peace deal with Palestinians, a peace deal these demonstrators viewed as a national betrayal.
1:14.0	A weak man, a man that gave up, not only the basic element of Zionism,
1:22.0	and gave up to a terrorist civilization.
1:25.0	It was a very dangerous and radical moment.
1:28.0	There was, you know, palpable sense of violence.
1:31.0	This is Sarah Yal Hershorne. She's a historian and visiting professor at the
1:36.1	University of Haifa and fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute.
1:41.6	Israel is at the brink of a civil war.
1:44.4	The Oslo deal was very controversial in Israel because it would have required concessions,
1:50.3	like withdrawing Israeli security forces from the West Bank in Gaza
1:54.3	and transferring authority over occupied territories to Palestinian control
1:59.0	concessions many saw as opening the door to a Palestinian state. The country's
2:05.0	Conservative Party, Lacud, opposed it immediately and other right-wing parties
2:10.0	agreed. Their anger towards Prime Minister Rabin came out in shocking ways.
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