“Anybody who has lived under real apartheid would know that Israel is the most
un-apartheid country on earth,” said Anthony Levine, who lived in Gush Etzion
when he first moved with his family to Israel.
Originally from
Johannesburg, Levine, his wife Jenny and their four kids moved to the US before
deciding to make aliya. They arrived at the West Bank settlement in 2002, during
the second intifada, because they wanted to show more support for Israel during
that period. They felt that Israel was being unfairly treated by the rest of the
world.
“The entire Western world completely misunderstands that Jews have
just as much of a claim to the West Bank as the Palestinians do,” said
Levine.
An electrical engineer in the hi-tech industry, he had to leave
Gush Etzion and move to Ra’anana to find work in his field. Levine said,
however, that Gush Etzion offered a more welcoming and authentically Israeli
environment, whereas Ra’anana was a more competitive enclave with a larger Anglo
population.
Levine and his wife strongly support a Jewish presence in
Judea and Samaria, but he says that the Israeli politicians are not making any
concrete decisions to secure Israel’s borders ahead of the
elections.
“The strategy of almost every Israeli party of being vague
about what they want and keeping their bargaining chips hidden is backfiring on
Israel. We risk losing the entire West Bank,” Levine said.
“Until Israel
comes up with a definite map, the entire world will continue to view Israel as
an illegal occupier.”
When asked about Likud chairman Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu’s approach to the West Bank, Levine said his policy was
absurd.
“He is building in the West Bank not because the Jews have a
legitimate claim to the West Bank, which I think that they do. He uses building
as a punishment for some Arab provocation, which is an absurd
policy.”
Levine said that his three main concerns are the economy, a
strong citizenship requirement, and a solution to the West Bank.
“I plan
to vote for Likud because [regarding] these three things, they are the least
worst in that they provide a strong sensible economic policy. They are less good
on the citizenship requirement however, with the combining with Yisrael Beytenu
which has a strong requirement on citizenship responsibilities, I think I get
both by voting for Likud.”
Despite the lack of a clear policy on the West
Bank, Levine said the Likud Beytenu is the list that best suits him.
“I
think the most important thing to me is economics, simply because with a strong
economy the Zionist dream can flourish. In this case clearly the people that
have the strongest and most sensible economic policies are the Likud.”