First, a definition: The Overton window is a theory first voiced in this form by Joe Overton, which states that ideas, can be classifies as being either inside of or outside of the bounds of conversation in a group. It further notes that this window is not fixed, but rather it moves, and through the application of resources over a long term, can be made to move significantly.

Ideas can generally be classified as unthinkable, radical, acceptable, sensible, or popular, with the latter generally moving toward policy.

Israeli elections are today, and it is likely that the racist Yisrael Beitenu party will be the 3rd largest party in the Knesset, displacing Labor to 4th place.^*

What I think people don’t realize is how much of a shift this is in Israel’s Overton window.

If one were to suggest at a party an expulsion of Israel’s Arab population in 1966, or an expulsion of the Palestinians in the territories in 1968 at a party, the response would have been stunned silence, with people looking at the speaker like they had just admitted to eating children, and that person would be ostracized at the party, and not invited back.

In fact, it could be argued that this was the societal norm well into the 1st Intifada, and possibly up to some time after the Oslo accords were implemented, and the PLO returned to Israel.

Now, we have a party which endorses ethnic cleansing without the movement of people, by redrawing the Israeli border to excise most of its Israeli Arab citizenry, on a path to have the third highest number of seats in Parliament.

This idea has already moved from unthinkable to acceptable for discussion for much of the Israeli population, and the desired political outcome for over 10% of the population, and likely exceeds the vote totals of YB will get, because of the dynamics of the Israeli proportional representation system and the fact that their party leader, Avigdor Lieberman^† is stridently secular.

Needless to say, this marks a significant change in Israeli society, and to my mind, this is a profoundly negative change, and I do not see its trajectory changing in the foreseeable future.

^*Much of their anemic performance in recent elections has to do with the fact that “big L” Labor has largely abandoned the concerns of “small L” labor in favor of a new Thatcherite economic consensus, but that is another post.
^†It seems to be a constant that politicians named Lieberman are complete asswhipes.