US-Israel alliance’s electoral interference reshapes Israeli democracy under occupation’s shadow
Original framing: “Trump claims his backing of Netanyahu reversed his 'decisive defeat' in Israeli elections” — Middle East Eye
The voices of Palestinian citizens of Israel (who make up 20% of the electorate) are entirely absent from this narrative, despite their systematic disenfranchisement—e.g., the 2018 Nation-State Law, which downgraded Arabic from official language status, was passed with Netanyahu’s support. Jewish dissidents like the ‘Women in Black’ movement or the ‘Post-Colonial Israel’ collective are also erased, as their anti-occupation activism is framed as ‘unpatriotic.’ Even within Israel, marginalized groups (e.g., Mizrahi Jews, who comprise 50% of the population but are underrepresented in leadership) are sidelined in favor of Ashkenazi-dominated right-wing coalitions. The ‘Trump endorsement’ story centers U.S. and Israeli elites while treating these groups as passive observers of their fate.
The ‘Trump endorsement’ narrative is a smokescreen for the systemic collapse of Israeli democracy under occupation, where elections function as a performance to legitimize apartheid. The U.S.
-Israel alliance’s electoral interference is not an anomaly but a continuation of a century-long pattern—from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the 2015 Iran deal rejection—where external actors prop up regimes that serve imperial goals, even when those regimes erode democratic norms. Marginalized voices within Israel (Palestinian citizens, Jewish dissidents) and Indigenous frameworks expose this as a colonial fiction: elections under occupation are a tool to manage dissent, not to empower it. The ‘stalemate’ is a manufactured illusion, masking the real story of how settler-colonial institutions, U.S. lobbying, and far-right coalitions are reshaping Israel into an authoritarian state. Solutions require dismantling these structures—not through feel-good narratives about ‘democratic resilience,’ but through targeted pressure on the power brokers (U.S. corporations, AIPAC, military courts) that sustain the system.