BY BRUNO MAÇÃES
WORLD
Israel is no longer a liberal democracy. As Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government took office on Dec. 29, its illiberalism was evident. No longer a matter for debate or polite embarrassment, the contempt for liberal ideas brings disparate factions together: against the media and intellectuals and increasingly against the old Western-inspired Israeli political system and constitution.
New Minister Bezalel Smotrich, for example, calls gay pride parades “worse than bestiality” and in 2017 published a political manifesto detailing how best to force Palestinians to “truly internalize the loss of national hope,” “killing those who need to be killed.” He was appointed Finance Minister in Netanyahu’s government. Yariv Levin, the new Justice Minister, proposed on Jan. 4 a set of sweeping changes to the powers of the High Court, limiting its ability to strike down legislation, while placing the power to appoint judges in the hands of the executive.
None of these developments are unexpected. But there is still a battle to be fought. Will Israel become a nationalist or even theocratic state, excluding everyone who does not accept the oneness of people, land, and religion? Or can the tradition of Jewish values flourish in the context of a civilization state open to other cultures and civilizations?
There is a powerful case for a civilization state, but the idea of civilization needs to be distinguished from national or ethnic identity. The latter is irrational and takes pride in accepting race or revelation as a basis for political power. It is defined by opposition to some other group: Jews against Palestinians, whom Smotrich defines as anti-Jews. It ends in bloodshed.
CIVILIZATION IS AN exercise in political reason, the effort to organize collective life around principles that express our fundamental relation to truth, to the world and to each other. The idea of organizing a state around a distinctive civilization is increasingly gaining ground around the world. It corresponds to the crisis of liberalism as a universal program of political and social life.
Liberal ideas, for all their intellectual appeal, derived their ultimate force from the economic and military power of the countries—France, Britain and the U.S.—where they originated from the 18th century. That power is weakened today.
Is this the end of history? Even the dogmas keep changing. Liberal ideas on race and gender, for example, have changed so much during my lifetime that they have become unrecognizable. A renewed competition with rival systems of thought might not be
