THE EGO OF ONE MAN, Benjamin Netanyahu, may put leftists and haters of Israel into the government.
Not since Israel’s first prime minister has any politician had such a grand vision of himself.1
Netanyahu’s party, Likud, has been in power since Menachem Begin wrested control from Ben Gurion’s Labor party in 1977.
The Likud of 2021 is not Begin‘s Likud of 1977.
In a critique of Netanyahu’s tenure, Jonathan S. Tobin, editor in chief of Jewish News Syndicate, defines some of the reasons the prime minister’s right-wing supporters abandoned him. (https://tinyurl.com/449rfrwb)
According to Tobin, rather than raging at Bennett and his Yamina colleague, Ayelet Shaked, they should be blaming the object of their veneration for this. The creation of the so-called unity government was made possible by one man and one man only. And his name is Benjamin Netanyahu.
such a coalition was rendered possible by Netanyahu’s personal untrustworthiness.
It is possible to argue that Netanyahu’s skills as a leader outweigh the shortcomings in his character. But his problems go deeper than the fact that most of the Israeli media and the intellectual, legal and bureaucratic establishments are biased against him. The flimsy corruption charges that he is seeking to refute in court can be seen as a product of that bias.
To be fair to Netanyahu, similar to the media in the United States, Israeli national circulation media generally are at least left leaning if not solidly leftist and are aligned with leftist political parties. Only one national circulation media, Israel HaYom, is conservative.
Tobin noted that Netanyahu spent the last decade driving most of his possible successors out of the Likud. He also has convinced just about everyone who did a coalition deal with him that they had been swindled. Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz, who signed a power-sharing agreement last year that Netanyahu reneged on as everyone had predicted, is just one example. As such, Netanyahu’s credibility is shot.
Unity government for change?
The hoodge-podge of competing political philosophies — far left to far right — all have one thing in common, a “Never-Netanyahu” commitment.
According to a Washington Post article (https://tinyurl.com/fse3e7hb), Divisions between a dovish left and a hawkish right have long defined Israel’s highly fragmented party system. Yet during the past couple of years, Israeli politics has increasingly become not only a competition between left and right — but also between the pro-Netanyahu and Never-Netanyahu blocs. One side sees Netanyahu as the protector of Israel, while the other considers him an immediate threat to Israeli democracy. Netanyahu’s indictment on bribery and fraud charges and his combative stance toward the Israeli legal system have only further polarized how Israelis feel about their prime minister.
The New York Times (https://tinyurl.com/yehm4ve9) blames Netanyahu for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process collapse, and tensions between Jews and Arabs inside Israel peaked in May when unrest swept across mixed Jewish-Arab cities during the latest Gaza war.
At the same time, the publication credits Netanyahu claiming he nevertheless defied expectations and convention by negotiating diplomatic agreements with four Arab countries, subverting assumptions that Israel could make peace with Middle Eastern states only once a final deal with the Palestinians had been made.
Most people, especially Americans, would credit former President Donald Trump with forging the “normalization” (not “peace”) agreements between Israel and several Muslim-dominated nations. The NYT chose not to credit Trump for anything.
Not first “unity” government
If the Lapid-formed unity government ever takes office, it will not be Israel’s first attempt at an almost-all-party government.
It also will not be the first time the prime minister post will be held on a rotation basis.
Israel has had, according to the Washington Post (https://tinyurl.com/55vwy5nt) several “national unity” governments, including:
1967-1969
On the day before the outbreak of the June 1967 war, prime minister Levi Eshkol -- under mounting public pressure to do so -- brought opposition parties Herut (the predecessor of the present Likud Party), Gahal, and Rafi into the ruling coalition, the first time any of these parties had been included in a government. This national unity government, the first of its kind in Israel's history, was formed even though Eshkol's ruling coalition had included 75 seats out of the 120 in Knesset (well above the necessary threshold). In the 111-member national unity government, the former opposition parties were given just one seat in the cabinet -- the Ministry of Defense, awarded to Moshe Dayan.
1969-1970
Following Eshkol's death in February 1969, Golda Meir was tapped to succeed him as head of the Labor Party and to lead Israel's fourteenth government. Wary of upcoming elections, coalition members Alignment (Labor), Gahal, Herut, National Religious Party (NRP), Independent Liberals, and Rafi together with the minority lists decided to honor the existing coalition agreement and maintain the embrace of national unity. This time, however, former opposition parties Gahal, Herut, and Rafi were given ministerial posts and portfolios as fully integrated members until Israel went to the polls in October 1969. Following the elections, a new national unity government was formed with essentially the same composition.
1984-1988
The July 1984 national elections -- reflecting the fissures in Israeli society that followed the Lebanon war -- were ideologically indecisive: Alignment (Labor) won 44 seats while Likud took 41. Unable to assemble a coalition larger than 54 seats each, the Knesset's two largest parties reached an unprecedented agreement whereby Labor Party leader Shimon Peres and Likud Party leader Yitzhak Shamir would divide the administration and switch portfolios, each serving out two years as prime minister and foreign minister respectively (under this arrangement, Peres served initially as prime minister and Shamir as foreign minister).
1988-1990
he November 1988 elections resulted once again in a political deadlock. Labor won 39 seats -- down 5 from the previous seventh Knesset and down 24 from the sixth Knesset -- but the 40-seat-strong Likud held just one fewer seat than in the previous Knesset. Labor and Likud blocs both made abortive attempts to construct coalitions with the religious parties (Shas, NRP, Degel Hatorah, and Tehiya) who collectively held 18 seats, almost enough to give either bloc the required majority. In the end, Labor and Likud instead chose to adopt another power-sharing arrangement, but unlike the 1984 elections, the poll results enabled Shamir to become prime minister with Peres as foreign minister.
In May 1989, the Shamir government presented plans to proceed with negotiations concerning Palestinian autonomy, and the fabric of the coalition began to unravel. Labor Party leader Peres -- upset that Shamir would not comply with U.S. secretary of state James Baker's more ambitious peace initiative -- toppled the government with the support of religious parties disgruntled by domestic and finance issues.
Only one “unity government” lasted more than two years.
Ego brought down Netanyahu
Unless Netanyahu can scuttle the new government before it is accepted — and by all accounts he is making every effort to prevent a new government from forming — he and his ego will be history, at least for the moment.
Finance Minister Israel Katz proposed to Netanyahu that he hold fresh primaries for the party leadership, with the winner replacing the incumbent as prime minister for a single year — after which Netanyahu would presumably return. (https://tinyurl.com/kjnkt6z4)
According to Katz, Netanyahu would have been allowed to remain in the PM’s residence while waiting to be reinstalled as PM.
Lingering question
Before first assuming the prime ministership, Netanyahu proposed term limits for the position.
As soon as he assumed the position, the proposal “disappeared.”
Talk of the Knesset instituting term limits for the position has resumed.
Will it happen if Netanyahu succeeds in overcoming the “unity” government of Lapid and Bennett?
Will it happen of the unity government prevails?
Is the issue a “smoke screen” for something entirely different?
Politics in Israel.
Sources
1. Ben Gurion had the chutzpah to order his flunky, Yitzhak Rabin, to open fire on JEWS bringing weapons and personnel for Israel’s defense on the ship Altalena (https://tinyurl.com/vuruujk3).
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