The Rise and Fall of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: The Beginnings of a New Era in the Social-Democracy Movement
Netanyahu’s party performed well in recent Israeli elections, bringing the country’s longest-serving prime minister close to gaining the office for a third time. It’s a turnaround: Just last year a broad Israeli coalition ousted him from power. The trial continues despite him being on trial for corruption.
And while the center-left and right bloc of the caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid made a respectable showing – perhaps even garnering more votes – the fracturing of the left and the Arab vote gave the advantage to the more cohesive and disciplined Netanyahu bloc.
“We are on the cusp of a very big victory,” Netanyahu — known by his nickname Bibi — told supporters after exit polls were released. “Bibi, King of Israel,” they shouted.
The success of the Religious Zionism bloc of three extreme parties that embody a racist, Jewish supremacist, anti-Arab and homophobic view was stunning, even after polling predicted it would do well.
Israel’s shift rightward has been long in the making. Israel was killed by Mr. Rabin because he was imagined to represent it. The irreverent secularism and vaguely social-democratic ethos of the Israel that many Americans and especially American Jews fondly remember is no longer present. It was always more myth than reality, but the facts that enabled the myth are gone: A conservative interpretation of Judaism increasingly dominates the public sphere. The last remnants of the left-wing parties are dead. The idea that Jews and Arabs should have equal rights is supported by only a minority of Jewish Israelis.
Far-right leaders danced with their supporters at their headquarters after exit polls were published. Activists chanted “Death to terrorists” during a speech by a far-right politician. He’s been promised a position as a Cabinet minister.
I woke up in a nightmare. It’s such a hard morning to us all,” said Asmaa Alkadi, 32, a Palestinian Arab citizen of Israel and activist with a group promoting Arab-Jewish equality. After her get-out-the-vote effort in Arab communities, she says she is considering quitting the group, disillusioned by the election results.
And if the Netanyahu government succeeds in restricting the powers of the Israel Supreme Court, imposing control over judicial appointments, deepening the grip of Jewish law over public life and reversing the court’s decision to strike down legislation aimed at legalizing West Bank settlements, Israeli democracy will be fundamentally undermined, reinforcing the forces of illiberalism, ethnocentrism and disrespect for the rule of law.
“Any move perceived as infringing on Israel’s democratic and pluralistic nature will have a damaging effect on Israel’s relationship with world Jewry, not to mention the free world,” Greenberg told NPR. “The strength of Israel’s democracy — and also its relationship with world Jewry — hinges on how the government portfolios are assigned and how the coalition acts.”
“It’s sort of despair,” says Marik Shtern, a political analyst and unhappy voter. “The country is going into a very clear direction of nationalism and religious extremism … but we will be OK. The problem will be with the Palestinian citizens of Israel, the Palestinians in the West Bank. All of them are in a near danger for the near future.”
The end of greatness is the subject of an article written by a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Miller was a Middle East negotiator in Democratic and Republican administrations. The opinions are not those of his employer. Read more opinion on CNN.
If former Saturday Night Live great and actor Bill Murray wasn’t hired as a technical adviser to Israel’s Central Elections Committee, he surely might have been. Based on pre-election polling it seemed that Israel was headed for yet another Groundhog Day-style hung election for the fifth time in just short of four years.
For Netanyahu this election was truly existential. Had he failed to win a governing majority, he could have been forced to plead guilty and give up his political career, which is what a guilty verdict would have done.
The left and center- left in Israel are no longer the driving political force of the first 30 years of independence because the Labor Party has been gone for a long time.
Netanyahu’s partner-rival, Gvir, is 46 years old and has just begun his rise in Israeli politics. It shouldn’t be surprising if Netanyahu tries to reach out to the more centrist party of the two main opposition leaders in order to make sure that he won’t have to compromise on his extreme demands.
One might think that this kind of narrow government might not last. There may be more thatbinds this coalition than divides it. The two Orthodox parties have been out of power and are eager to secure support for their religious schools and institutions.
How will this government actually behave? It’s safe to say as Israel’s 75th anniversary approaches next year, it won’t bring the country any closer to tackling the domestic and foreign policy challenges it faces and will almost certainly make them worse. The rule of law and independence of the judiciary will be under serious threat at home.
But there will be more settlements and support for settlers; more effort to consolidate control over Jerusalem; relations with Israel’s Arab citizens will likely deteriorate with fewer resources for their community and if there’s a serious confrontation with Palestinians in the West Bank or in Jerusalem the odds of it morphing into a conflict between Israeli Jews and Arabs will likely grow.
Neither President Biden nor Netanyahu will go after each other. The White House has already put out the following statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Israeli government on our shared interests and values.” Both are far too busy with other matters to want such a problematic distraction.
But even without being tethered to the extremist Gvir, Netanyahu’s relations with Biden would have been difficult as their views on settlements, treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and building in Jerusalem would have clashed.
The real reasons for this shift defy the conventional explanations. The violence of the second intifada in the early 2000s discouraged many Israelis from believing in peace with the Palestinians. But the subsequent decade and a half, during most of which Mr. Netanyahu was prime minister, largely insulated most Israelis from the consequences of their government maintaining an indefinite occupation of the West Bank and siege of the Gaza Strip. The issue of a two state solution nearly disappeared from Israeli discourse.
Demographics are not destiny, but in Israel they could enable a permanent majority for the religious-right coalition that has solidified through the decade-plus of Mr. Netanyahu’s dominance. Mourning the election results, Israel’s secular liberals lament that they increasingly find themselves a minority in their own country: More than half of Jewish Israelis currently identify as traditional, religious or Haredi (ultra-Orthodox), and demographers expect these politically conservative populations to increase as a share of Israel’s population. According to a recent survey, nearly half of Jewish Israelis 18 to 49 years old believe Arabs should be expelled or transferred from Israel, compared to just over a quarter who disagree.
Israel’s allies abroad are worried about Benjamin Netanyahu appointing politicians who are far-right to key positions in his new government.
Facing criticism in Israel and abroad, Netanyahu previously had not spoken in detail about Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s most polarizing far-right politician, now in line to be Netanyahu’s minister of national security overseeing the police.
“I think the U.S. is likely to boycott him,” said David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, who worked on Israeli-Palestinian peace talks under former President Barack Obama. “I have reason to think that they are strongly considering this.”
The Importance of Power in Israel: Ben-Gvir’s Legacy Revealed in a Morning Edition Interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
In an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, Netanyahu offered his most extensive defense to date of his decision to embrace Ben-Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of supporting an anti-Arab group that Israel and the U.S. classify as a terrorist organization.
Makovsky thinks that having someone who is going to play with matches is a real danger. “I think [Netanyahu is] going to be swimming upstream if he feels that he’s going to be able to normalize the position of Itamar Ben-Gvir.”
Netanyahu reassured the public that his government’s policy would be responsible without pointless adventures. Ben-Gvir said in an op-ed Monday, “I have matured, moderated.”
Danny Danon, a Netanyahu ally hoping to be the next speaker of parliament, argues Israel will maintain good ties with the Biden administration because Netanyahu, not Ben-Gvir, will be in charge of that relationship.
“I don’t believe it’s an issue, I think the issue is overblown,” Danon said. We can be responsible about many of the issues concerning foreign and domestic matters, and we proved that in the past.
Netanyahu’s adviser from the year to the year warned about allowing Extremism in the upcoming Cabinet.
The prime minister-designate said that this was the same as the government he replaced. Netanyahu said that coalitions are interesting bedfellows, and insisted that he will call the shots on policy. They are going with me. I’m not joining them.
Netanyahu is a dominant Israeli figure of the past half-century, serving first as an elite commando, then as an opposition politician and eventually as prime minister for a total of 15 years — longer than any other leader in his country’s history. His nickname is “Babi”, because he completed a memoir while out of power. He spoke with NPR about managing coalition talks, which he insists he doesn’t enjoy.
He said that politics is cruel. Israeli politics is very cruel. I have been subjected to vilification by my family because I keep winning elections.
His eligibility was determined by the Supreme Court. Secondly, he’s modified a lot of his views since then. I have said that with power comes responsibility. Not always, sometimes it works the other way around. … I will make sure that I am in a position of responsibility in governance, it’s one thing to speak in political campaigns, but another to actually be in a position of responsibility. Now, you have a question about the well.
I think one of the things we have seen is the erosion of internal security in Israel. It’s a big issue. I have to say his party ran on that. He says, “I want to be tested. I think I can bring security to Arabs, the Arab citizens and Jews, citizens alike.” … That was his campaign promise. We have a coalition. I said you will be given the chance. You’ll be given the tools. You are required to do the job. I think time will show.
Are you suggesting that a man who said that Arabs should be expelled should be trusted by Arab Israelis, Israelis, and Palestinian citizens of Israel?
I don’t think anyone should trust someone that they have made a promise. By the way, he does not say that right now. But I think what will be the test is not whether you believe him or not, but whether you see an actual result. It’s true of me as well. The jury couldn’t make a decision on all of this.
Biden’s “But Bibi, that’s not complete sovereignty”: A simple formula that preserves the only peace that will hold
Well, yes, my formula is very simple. … We can defend the only peace that will hold. And the one that we can defend is one in which the Palestinians have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten our life, which means that security, in whatever political arrangements we’ll have realistically will have to remain in Israel’s hands.
No, I don’t doubt that for a minute. I make it clear what I say. Joe Biden was a friend for 40 years when he was a vice president. And he said to me, “But Bibi, that’s not complete sovereignty.” I said that was the only one that would last.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/15/1142813395/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-government
What do we all want in our country? Joe Biden and the American people are trying hard to get their voices heard, and if it’s okay to rejoin
We’ve both had disagreements with Joe Biden, but he has been a great friend. He always says, “Bibi, I love you.” I don’t agree with you. That’s not true. We agree on a lot of things. I suspect that because of the unfolding events in Iran, the dramatic events in the left and right side of the political spectrum, and the change of attitude in many places around the world, I have a suspicion. People in Washington understand that the best course of action is not to go back to the flawed nuclear agreement, but to adopt a much more determined attitude.