The Future Is Already Here: A Call for a New Civil Politics in Israel

By: Avraham Burg

The Middle East is changing before our eyes. Out of a violent and bloody reality, an opposite trend is gradually taking shape: nations and states are seeking to move from an era of hostility to an era of civic and economic cooperation. Normalization agreements, regional initiatives on energy and water, scientific collaborations, and cross-border investments — all testify to the birth of a new understanding. The old logic of wars, closed borders, and constant suspicion is finally giving way to a new mindset that sees human life itself as the foundation for a more stable regional order.

Rhetoric is giving way to practice. There will always be Houthis, Hamas militants, and settlers — but they are the despairing minority swimming against the current.

At this very moment, as the entire region moves forward, Israeli politics in general — and Arab politics in particular — are being left behind. I have little expectation from Zionist politics, which is nothing but fifty shades of non-democratic right-wing ideology: from Yair Golan with his invasive security mindset and his declaration that “talking about a Palestinian state is destructive to Israel,” to Benny Gantz, who sees himself as some tall version of Rabin.

In contrast, my dialogue with Arab politics in Israel has been different. There have been disagreements, but many more common denominators — around peace, civic equality, and economic justice. For half my life I voted for the Labor Party, and for the other half for Arab parties — not out of full identification with what they represent, but out of the belief that, as a Jew aware of my people’s history, I am obligated to support the persecuted and marginalized minority. And also because I deeply believe that Jewish-Arab partnership is the only way to rebuild Israeli democracy — for all its citizens, for both national communities within it.

For years I hoped that my Arab colleagues — public representatives — together with the brave among Jewish society, would bring a new spirit of civic responsibility and moral leadership. Yet instead of moving forward, many remain trapped in the discourse of the past, which is rapidly losing its strength and relevance. Saudi Arabia is changing, the Emirates have changed, Egypt is changing — and who hasn’t moved an inch? Right — the fractured components of the Joint List, which is everything but joint.

They are stuck in old patterns of isolation and internal score-settling — preoccupied with themselves, arguing over lists, positions, posts, and inheritances, and struggling to offer a new vision or language of hope. Instead of joining the regional movement of change, they wade in the murky waters of the past. Instead of becoming an influential force in the Israeli and regional arenas, they lament their situation and fail to shape their future.

In daily life, reality is already different. Systemic incitement and racism from above stand in contrast to an emerging civic partnership from below. In hospitals, Arab doctors treat Jewish soldiers; Jewish nurses save Arab babies. In universities, researchers and students from all communities work together; on cultural stages and in kitchens, daily life partnerships are woven. Thus, an Israeli citizenship is being formed — equal, open, and inclusive. Not thanks to politics, but despite it. Life itself precedes politics — both Jewish and Arab alike.

In this situation, there is no longer room to escape the challenge. The time has come to say it openly: a new politics is needed. Not one focused on identity politics and grievances, but on empowered citizenship. Not a public sphere of polarization, but of equality. Not politics of fear, but of hope and responsibility.

This is not a proposal for negotiation over interests or a technical merger of existing parties, but an invitation to establish a broad and courageous civic movement — one that offers a new operating system for Israeli society as a whole, based on full civic equality between Jews and Arabs. A movement representing those who already live, work, and create together — and believe another way is possible. Because there can be no true civic equality without liberation from the occupation.

It will be a movement committed to peace, fighting to end the malignant occupation and replace it with a political system based on a simple, clear principle: every person between the river and the sea deserves the same rights and the same freedoms — no more and no less.

Such a movement must also connect to the new regional dynamics. It must engage with the peace and reconciliation initiatives emerging around us and link Jewish and Arab societies in Israel to broader regional processes of civic and economic cooperation. It must become the human and political bridge between Israel and its neighbors, offering a sober voice that sees the Middle East not only through the eyes of conflict and deprivation but also through the lens of possibility.

Therefore, it must be said clearly and courageously: the time has come to run for the Knesset under these ideas — to run all the way, for true democracy, full equality, and mutual responsibility. This will be a challenge to the stagnating conservatism of the Arab parties and the faded intellectual fatigue of the Israeli left. Both cling to an old language and fear renewal.

Israeli society desperately needs a new language — a language of partnership, not rivalry; of hope, not despair; of shared life, not walls of fear. If the Arab leadership continues to focus on itself, and the Jewish leadership continues to fear equality, then civil society must rise up and replace them — the doctor and the teacher, the student and the creator, the person who works with his neighbor without walls and without fear. These are the representatives of Israel’s future. They will write the new language of Israel: a language of equal citizenship, shared life, and mutual trust.

The future is already here. It is waiting only for those who dare to call it by its name — and to face, even against their own friends, the refusers of the future.