Israel is on the cusp of a big victory: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition wants to restore national pride in a Jewish state
The Arab political party in Israel’s history was included in Netanyahu’s campaign to consolidate the right-wing vote against the ruling coalition that deposed him. He wants to return “national pride” in a Jewish state and impose harsher law enforcement against Palestinians.
It’s a blow to Israel’s anti-Netanyahu bloc of parties, led by centrist Prime Minister Yair Lapid, which unseated Netanyahu last year after he spent more than a decade in power and currently faces trial for alleged corruption.
“We are on the cusp of a very big victory,” Netanyahu — known by his nickname Bibi — told supporters after exit polls were released. They applauded, “Bibi, King of Israel.”
Israel has been drifting in the opposite direction for more than a decade. Indeed according to analyst Tamar Hermann of the Israeli Democracy Institute, a full 60% of the Israeli electorate is right-wing; 12-14% identifies as left and the remainder are in the so-called center.
The Netanyahu voter said that he hoped the Jewish people would win and Judaism would win in the end. “It doesn’t matter that much who is the prime minister. We want to have a Jewish identity in the country.
After exit polls were published, far-right leaders danced with supporters at campaign headquarters. “Death to terrorists,” activists chanted during a speech by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician hostile to Palestinians. He will be appointed a Cabinet minister by Netanyahu.
“I woke up into 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.
The current far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who came to power in November, is attempting to alter the system of checks and balances that has maintained political stability in the country. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, began debating the legislation Monday amid protests both in the chamber from opposition lawmakers and from tens of thousands outside.
Israel could become a Jewish version of Turkey or Hungary if the plans are implemented. The courts, which cowed them, could see a muzzled media, attacks on liberal organizations and efforts to remove 20% of Israelis who identify as Palestinians or Arabs.
Those who care about the country should know that a technological and military power far beyond the 10 million population is in dire straits. Israel’s existence is in peril — certainly as a democracy and, in the longer term, as a viable economy and Jewish state.
Someone has a book called “The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have Another Great President.” The author is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Miller was a Middle East negotiator in both administrations. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. 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. Prior to the election it was thought that Israel was headed for its fifth hung election in as many years.
For Netanyahu this election was truly existential. Had he failed to get a governing majority, he would have been forced to face the consequences of a guilty verdict or a plea bargain that could have driven him away from politics.
The left and center-left in Israel once dominated by the iconic Labor Party, the driving political force for the first three decades of independence, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self with just a handful of seats in the Knesset.
Indeed, without overdramatizing matters, Netanyahu’s victory now introduces a cult of personalities – Netanyahu and Gvir – that will strengthen the forces of radical nationalism; populism and an us against them mentality dividing and polarizing the country.
One might be forgiven for thinking that this kind of narrow right-wing government might not last. There may be more that bonds 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? As Israel prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2015, it will not bring the country closer to tackling the domestic and foreign policy challenges it faces. At home, Israel will be increasingly polarized, with an independent judiciary and rule of law under serious threat.
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 Joe Biden nor Netanyahu will seek out a confrontation. The White House has put out a statement. We are looking forward to working with the government of Israel on our shared interests. Both are far too busy with other matters to want such a problematic distraction.
Indeed, Netanyahu, much like Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, would be much more comfortable with the return of Donald Trump or his Republican avatar. In short, with his dance card already full with matters foreign and domestic, the return of Netanyahu, let alone tied to an extremist right wing coalition partner likely to roil the already tense situation with Palestinians – is something Biden surely didn’t want or need.
These moves are troubling, and America’s leaders should say so. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a speech to the liberal advocacy group J Street in December in which he declared that the United States would not deal with individual Israelis. It is not surprising that the State Department doesn’t have a clearly defined position despite the fact that the administration has already talked about how to deal with the most extreme members of the new cabinet.
Editor’s Note: Dan Perry was The Associated Press’ top editor in the Middle East, based in Cairo between 2012 and 2018, and before that he led the AP in Europe and Africa from London. He is a former chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem and author of two books about Israel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has more opinion on it.
Netanyahu has called the court proceedings against him a witch hunt. Notably, he insisted throughout the 2022 campaign that no hasty and extreme assault on the judicial system, nor any machinations to end his trial, would take place.)
The Israeli crisis and the security establishment – the ills of a democratic parliament, the court system and the judiciary: What is the fate of Israel?
With a unicameral parliament and an absence of a real constitution, civil rights and minority guarantees are almost certainly going to be lost. If a future government doesn’t banPalestinian or Arab citizens of Israel from voting because of dangerous abuses of power, it will only be because it didn’t do so.
The Israeli people have spoken, according to Netanyahu and his allies. The ruling coalition only won a narrow majority in the Knesset because two of the other opposition parties missed the 3.25 threshold for entering parliament.
Only about a quarter of people would like the reforms to be implemented. Hundreds of thousands joined the demonstrations. Opponents include not only top judicial figures but also almost all the ex-heads of the security establishment — the military, the Mossad intelligence agency, the Shin Bet domestic security service and the police. A group of officials wrote a letter that warned of damage for generations.
Moreover, the court system has also been the main protector from total subjugation of some 3 million West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians — who have been in effect ruled by Israel for 55 years and lack the right to vote. The military warns of a third Palestinian uprising being imminent, because of the separate plans to increase Jewish settlement activity and give most dealings with the Palestinians to the country’s top nationalists.
Prominent doomsayers include leading figures of the stunning technology sector, which accounts for a sixth of Israel’s economy, a quarter of income tax revenue and half of exports. Hundreds of major multinationals have research centers in Israel, many of which are Fortune 500 companies. These companies — from Meta and Google to Intel and Apple — are a top driver of the economy.
The credit rating of Israel is at risk of being negatively affected by the reforms according to S&P and the former head of the Bank of Israel. Money has already begun flowing out of the country amid fears a collapse of rule of law would undermine contractual law and property rights.
The truth is that over the past 75 years, the Supreme Court has just 22 times interceded with Israel’s laws. Only three cases involved security issues.
Supreme Court judges are said to self-select themselves. The Judicial Selection Committee which includes three members of the court and four members of the bar, draws up short lists for the judges who will be appointed by the president. Under the proposed system, however, the government would appoint them all, likely yielding toadies.
Opponents of the plan speak of fleeing the country en masse should it succeed. Considering West Bank Palestinians’ outrage over their disenfranchisement, some of Israel’s remaining Arab enemies ready to pounce and the security establishment in uproar, the collective threat is clear.
Bennett — a nationalist, but a responsible one — is right. Israel’s friends worldwide and anyone interested in the stability of a nuclear power would be wise to speak up.
This is an unusual moment in history when a country in an unstable region is on the verge of undoing itself.