BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, caused his party (Likud) to lose control of the government.
Offered a chance to “fool the people” by surrendering the party leadership for a year — after which he would be reinstated and return to power — he refused.
In the end, it cost him his crown.
Jonathan S. Tobin editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate wrote what this scrivener considers a well-thought out review of Netanyahu and what led to his downfall. See https://tinyurl.com/449rfrwb |
ACCORDING TO ISRAEL’S CHANNEL 12 tv station, Finance Minister Israel Katz recently suggested to Prime Minister Netanyahu that the Likud Central Committee hold a vote for the ruling party’s chairman and that whoever wins will serve as premier for a year instead of Netanyahu to allow for the formation of a right-wing government.
Katz also reportedly told Netanyahu that he and his family can continue living in the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem during that year. (https://tinyurl.com/nm6yvrn5)
Netanyahu rejected the idea.
The “Katz plan” would have allowed Netanyahu’s political foes on the right to accept a Likud-led coalition to form a government excluding left-leaning, leftists, and Israel-hating (e.g., Ra’am) parties from control of the Knesset.
Israel’s Labor Party, according to HaAretz editorial writers (https://tinyurl.com/x4jdsm8k), once was Israel’s largest party and ruled 1948 until Menachem Begin's Likud first came to power in 1977. The newspaper describes Labor as the party that"supports the policy of social pluralism and equality, and since the 1990's, a free market “with a soul' economic policy." In the political arena, despite most of its leaders having a military background, Labor has traditionally led a pragmatic, more compromising approach to solving Israel's geo-political issues with neighboring Arab countries and the Palestinians."
Interestingly, until Begin and Likud came to power, there were zero peace agreements with neighboring states; so much for solving Israel's geo-political issues with neighboring Arab countries and the Palestinians."
Katz and Sa’ar
HaAretz (https://tinyurl.com/8eyx9c) writes that Transportation Minister Katz is currently the only truly senior Likud minister besides the prime minister. With all the top cabinet jobs doled out to coalition partners, Katz has been forced to make do with the same position for eight years. As a sop to his seniority, Netanyahu added to his portfolio in 2015 membership in the security cabinet and also made him intelligence affairs minister.
It should be noted that the once independent HaAretz (c 1975) now is solidly in the leftist camp, and its opinions should be viewed accordingly. All Israeli national circulation newspapers have a political bias.
The HaAretz piece continues.
Gideon Sa’ar, 50, the suave Tel Aviv lawyer who moonlights as a DJ, is married to Channel 1’s senior anchor Geula Even and has recently ended his time-out from frontline politics.
Sa’ar’s advantage over Katz is his younger and more sophisticated image. Katz, however, has a crucial edge – he’s currently a Knesset member.
Like Katz, Sa’ar is, o was, a Likudnik.
Alone on the throne
One reason Netanyahu has opposition from his own party is his apparent fear of being replaced.
Interestingly, at one point Netanyahu proposed term limits for prime minister; and then he was given the plumb and the idea of term limits quickly went away.
HaAretz again: In the quarter century since taking over Likud, Netanyahu has dominated the movement, transforming it from a grassroots ideological outfit into his personal platform. This was true even of the six years between 1999 and 2005 when Ariel Sharon nominally led the party, with Netanyahu in the wings waiting to return. Bibi has never nurtured any deputies, and he has quickly cut any potential successors down to size.
The Times of Israel (https://tinyurl.com/45ekn8wf) opines that Netanyahu’s bloc, comprising Likud and the two ultra-Orthodox parties, meanwhile, would win just 44. Even with Yamina, such a coalition would still fall seven seats short of a majority. Leaders of other Zionist parties have not expressed a willingness to sit in a Netanyahu-led coalition.
Too many politicians have too many real or perceived grievances against Netanyahu and are unwilling to support any government in which he is prime minister even if it means a collation with leftists and other Israel haters (e.g., Ra’am).
One point must be made perfectly clear: not all Muslims align with Ra’am, not all Muslims are anti-Israel or pro-PLO/Hamas. There are Muslims in the major political parties where they serve their constituents admirably.
Few of the recent articles on Netanyahu focus on either his legal woes or his wife’s infamous behavior.
For most who want Netanyahu gone, it simply is time for a change.
He was offered an chance to “hide” for a year (ibid.) — and even keep many of the PM’s perks — a move that would prove to thinking Israelis that no politician can be trusted.
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