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ABSTRACT
This article examines the discourse of the Israeli Left in the years preceding the succession of general elections in 2019–21, with a focus on claims of the purported threats to democracy presented by the right-wing government. Rhetorical analysis of opinion pieces and political commentary in the press on issues relating to education, science, and culture shows recurrent use of appeals to fear – such as comparisons with totalitarian regimes and invocation of other dystopian spectres resulting from nationalist indoctrination and processes of ‘religionization’. This article defines the appeal to fear and other forms of the Left’s identity claims making during this period as moral panic discourse, around which the Left sought to revive its relevance in the public debate at a time when it was viewed as a marginal political force in ideological decline. The article’s main argument is that while the labelling of the Right as a ‘danger to democracy’ has been entrenched in leftist discourse since the 1977 ‘Upheaval’, during the period in discussion it became the principal – almost sole – theme in leftist publicist discourse, serving as a flag issue around which the Left reorganised its identity as the ‘democratic camp’.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. https://www.israelhayom.co.il/news/local/article/5136678 (in Hebrew).
2. Orkibi and Cohen, “Israeli Academic Elite.”
3. Cohen, “Likud’s Rise to Power.”
4. Scammell and Langer, “Political Advertising”; Nai and Maier, “The Wrath of Candidates”; Lau, Sigelman, and Rovner, “Effects of Negative Political Campaigns”; and O’Shaughnessy and Henneberg, “Selling of the President.”
5. Jerit, “Survival of the Fittest.”
6. Witte and Allen, “A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeals”; Keller, “Converting the Unconverted”; and Williams, “Fear Appeal Theory.”
7. Bar-Tal, “Why Does Fear Override Hope”; and Dalley and Buunk, “The Motivation to Diet.”
8. Goldstein and Freedman, “Campaign Advertising and Voter Turnout”; and Ansolabehere et al., “Does Attack Advertising Demobilize.”
9. Brader, Campaigning for Hearts and Minds; and Marcus, Neuman, and MacKuen, Affective Intelligence and Political Judgment.
10. Bennett, The Party of Fear; Wodak, The Politics of Fear; and Allen, “Fear and Loathing.”
11. Nai and Maier, “The Wrath of Candidates”; and Amossy and Koren, “La gauche utilise-t-elle l’argument par la peur.”
12. Witte, “Generating Effective Risk Messages,” and “Fear Control and Danger Control.”
13. Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, The New Rhetoric, 266.
14. Walton, Scare Tactics, 13.
15. Ibid., 144.
16. Ibid., 153–175; and Walton, Informal Logic, 117–127.
17. Young, “The Role of the Police.”
18. Critcher, “Moral Panic Analysis.”
19. Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics, 1–2.
20. Goode and Ben-Yehuda, “The Genealogy and Trajectory.”
21. Jenkins, “Failure to Launch,” 36.
22. Goode and Ben-Yehuda, “The Genealogy and Trajectory,” 34.
23. Glassner, The Culture of Fear, xii, cited in Critcher, “For a Political Economy.”
24. Critcher, “For a Political Economy.”
25. Bonn, “How an Elite-Engineered Moral Panic Led to the U.S. War on Iraq.”
26. Goode and Ben-Yehuda, “Moral Panics,” 62.
27. Cohen, “Whose Side Were We On?”
28. Thompson, “Foreword”; Critcher, “Widening the Focus.” See also: Miller, “Tracking Moral Panic”; and Hunt, “Assemblages of Moral Politics.”
29. Falkof, “On Moral Panics.”
30. N. Aloni, “Tyranny Disguised as Ethics” (Ynet, June 13, 2017).
31. K. Haber, “From Dripping to a Flood” (Maariv, January 3, 2016).
32. “The Voice of Netanyahu” editorial (Haaretz, November 7, 2016).
33. S. Kadmon, “Between the Wall and the Fence” (Yedioth Aharonoth, December 31, 2015).
34. M. Kremnitzer, “A Dangerous Handbook” (Haaretz, November 18, 2015).
35. “A National-Religious Machine” (Haaretz, editorial, January 27, 2016).
36. “The Minister of Jewish Identity” (Haaretz, editorial, January 1, 2016).
37. M. Kremnitzer, “Human Rights? A Whole Lot of Nonsense” (Globes, December 9, 2015).
38. See note 36 above.
39. Y. Dahan, “Uneducated Book” (Yeditoh Aharonoth, May 14, 2016).
40. N. Barnea, “Not Even Death will Liberate from Betrayal” (Yedioth Aharonoth, January 28, 2016).
41. N. Anderman, “Regev Learned from Netanyahu How to Crush the Cinema” (Haaretz, March 29, 2017).
42. A. Sagi, “Intellectual Betrayal” (Haaretz, June 14, 2017).
43. S. Niv, “A Lesson in Citizenship” (Globes, January 29, 2016), see also: S. Litman, “The Artists Have Nothing to Hide. The Minister Does” (Haaretz, March 29, 2017).
44. Z. Barel, “We, the Revolutionary Guard Corps” (Haaretz, February 24, 2016).
45. Y. Klein, “Please, Censor Me” (Haaretz, January 27, 2016).
46. S. Litman, “The Artists have Nothing to Hide. The Minister Does” (Haaretz, March 29, 2017).
47. D. Shultziner, “Is the Director of the Committee for Citizenship Studies Rational?” (Haaretz Online, March 13, 2016).
48. M. Kremnitzer, “The New Citizenship Book vs. The Law of Education” (Haaretz, August 8, 2016).
49. Y. Ben Meir, “The Right is Afraid of the People” (Haaretz, June 21, 2017).
50. Ibid.
51. Z. Sternhell, “Do Not be Intimidated by Threats from the Extreme Right-Wing Government” (Haaretz, December 20, 2016). See also: Y. London, “Why I Was Amused by Kashers’ Code” (Yedioth Aharonoth, June 13, 2017).
52. D. Shumsky, “So They Won’t Teach Herzl’s Writings” (Haaretz, June 20, 2017).
53. Y. Oppenheimer, “Why Won’t Bennett Draft an Ethical Code for Rabbis?” (NRG, June 11, 2017).
54. A. Gross, “Who Determines What’s ‘Political’” (Haaretz, June 13, 2017).
55. Y. Hashiloni-Dolev, “Time to Fight for Free Academy” (Haaretz, June 12, 2017).
56. “A Declaration of War on the Academy” (Haaretz, editorial, June 11, 2017).
57. U. Misgav, “The Democratic Camp is Learning How to Fight” (Haaretz, June 15, 2017).
58. N. Aloni, “Under Fire” (Haaretz, January 8, 2016).
59. U. Misgav, “Israel is in a Civil War, Not a War of Brothers” (Haaretz, January 31, 2016).
60. S.-S. Chetrit, “FYI, Thought Police” (Haaretz, June 23, 2017).
61. See note 59 above.
62. Amossy, “Ethos at the Crossroads.”
63. Orkibi, “Precedential Ad Hominem.”
64. See note 36 above.
65. Gregg, “The Ego Function.”
66. Orkibi and Cohen, “Israeli Academic Elite”. see also: Lebel, “Exile from National Identity”, and “Beyond the Pantheon.”
67. See note 3 above.
68. Ibid., 1085–86.
69. Lebel, “Casualty Panic”; and Lebel, “Blackmailing the Army.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Eithan Orkibi
Eithan Orkibi is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ariel University, Israel.