My existential election dread as a young Aussie Jew today.

Aaron Lemberg, Hatikvah Community Engagement Officer

I know that it’s said every single time an election comes around (which isn’t that rare these days), but this years Israeli election really does feel like it’s by far the most important one of our lifetimes. And the lead up to it has already left me feeling a whole lot of existential dread.

Juggling what it has been like to be a young progressive Jew in Australia in the context of the current government in Israel and everything that has happened over the past 2.5 years has been hard enough. The thought of this election potentially deepening the gut wrenching feelings of disgust and shock and frustration and confusion that I (and many many others) hold every single day is certainly hard.

To look to the country that we have been brought up on, with stories about this place being a beacon of hope, an ”Or LeGoyim”, a place where humanity was supposed to be at the centre of its core, and to see what it is now is certainly not easy. Obviously we are far away from that utopian dream but I want to focus in on two things that the lead up to the election has brought up for me.

Diaspora Jewry:

Right now this feels like an incredibly tricky and confusing space to be in. For me what seems to be the hardest thing about diaspora Jewry is navigating all of the feeling I feel towards Israel and finding the right place to express them. Of course I’ve heard the back and forth argument about the diaspora needing to not air out Israel’s dirty laundry, which I certainly understand to some extent. It just really feels like the only discourse that is welcomed in our community right now is that which turns a blind eye to the atrocities going on in Gaza and the West Bank.

As diaspora Jews it really feels like our place is to go in to bat for Israel in the broader community and try and show that both Jewish people and Israel cannot be simplified to nasty slogans and uneducated buzzwords. This has certainly been an important focus for us as Aussie Jews over the last 2.5 years but I think it has caused the scope of discourse WITHIN our Jewish community to narrow drastically. We have become so accustomed to the “the tried and tested” hasbara strategy of only ever defending Israel that this has seeped into where the broader Jewish community has drawn demarcation lines of acceptable discourse on Israel amongst ourselves. I think this is dangerous for two reasons.

First, I believe that this “tried and tested” hasbara strategy is archaic and no longer works. I believe that as a Jewish community, it would serve us better to be forthcoming to the shortfalls of Israel as the Jewish state and be able to discuss that openly with the broader Australian community and build bridges and empathy through that as opposed to continuing to further isolate ourselves.

Secondly, I want us as Jews to be able to talk about what is going in Israel openly. I want to be able to fiercely criticise this messianic government and have a fellow Jew understand that it comes from a deep place of love and hurt. That this affects all Jews across the world deeply and that is why we are able to have proper discourse about it.

Upcoming election hope:

The other thing that I have been thinking about is hope. About this election. While I can definitely see how some would look at this election and see their worst fears coming true. Fears of an increasingly undemocratic Israel, of worsening settler violence encouraged by this government, of a war that seems to never end so Bibi can continue to avoid his corruption charges.

I am choosing to see things differently. Maybe it’s naive but from what I have seen I have a hell of a lot of hope. I have been lucky enough to be afforded the opportunity to get up close to the Hademocratim party infrastructure and have seen the amazing work going on behind the scenes to mobilise the Israeli public. What has stood out to me the most is two things.

First, is the amount of young people that are involved and are demanding change. It’s truly inspiring to see people who are the same age as me at the forefront of pushing for change in Israeli society. These are young people who truly care about Israel but are sick and tired of this government.

Second, is the optimism that surrounds Hademocratim already. They just has the third largest primary elections in their history with a massive turnout of almost 100,000 people and I have heard from many of the party leaders that they are looking internally at closer to 15 seats then the current 10 that is in the polls. This feeling of optimism is certainly contagious but also built on the back of a lot of pragmatism and data.

While it’s true that this isn’t necessarily the “Israeli left” of old in its strength and certainly not everyone’s flavour when it comes to what they want to see from this elections, it gives me hope to see that there is some sense of a shaking up on the left in Israel and we could one day see a world where the opposition is more than just “Anti-Bibi”.

Overall, these are very confusing and challenging times to be a Jewish person living in the diaspora watching from afar as the country you have so much care for seems to be going against all of the values you believe in as a progressive. This election will certainly continue to bring up more and more challenging issues but I’m choosing to approach it with hope and conviction.

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