By Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D
JERUSALEM — Israeli politics is living on the edge. Its widely diverse government ranges from left to right, with an Arab party. It squeaks from one crisis to the next. Mostly they’re about individual Knesset Members who seek to exploit the possibility or reality of their voting against a government measure for the sake of some aspect of their political ego. Arabs claim that the government is not doing enough for their community. Maybe they are pressing for a personal appointment, as head of a local authority. Jews threaten to vote against a government that gives in to Arab pressures. But maybe they are pressing for something more personal.
Rules and expectations are that individual MKs will behave themselves, and vote automatically along with their party leaders. That draws on party histories of being ideological bastions. Once it was leftists in Meretz and Labor voting against rightists in Likud, but those differences have blurred greatly with a host of parties, mostly focused on leaders with less ideology than ego.
Party names indicate their lack of ideology: New Hope, There is a Future, Israel Our Home, Blue White. Leaders may signal a centrist or rightist bent, but they’ve all agreed to coalesce in one government. Moreover, the government has accomplished some measures, and it’s close to others. It passed a budget after several years of its predecessor dithering on the issue from one partial measure to the next. The inclusion of a Arab party, whose individuals have staked out anti-Zionist postures, is another accomplishment.
All told, it limps with a bare, or less than Knesset majority, largely united on a combination of anti-Bibi and a willingness to push forward, somehow, getting from one measure to the next, with loud sources of rebellion from its ranks, but intent on maintaining a government for the country.
How much of an ideological signal comes from the party with the name of Yamina, translated to Right, when its leader Naftali Bennett, is doing what he can to keep the whole collection together? And all with something like 6 or maybe 5 Knesset Members supporting him. Israel Our Home may claim to have a fair label, insofar as it is largely a collection of Russian immigrants, perhaps united on the basis of language, heritage, desire for easing measures designed by religious Jews that get in the way of marriages for individuals born to mothers who were not Jews, or whose Jewishness cannot be established in a way to convince Orthodox Rabbis.
The government is also on the edge of things with respect to foreign policy. On measures of settlement in the West Bank, and on the matter of dealing with Iran and its allies.
Settlement is said to be controlled, with occasional actions against those said to be illegal, and overall, an inching across the West Bank at the speed of an injured turtle.
And against Iran, and its nuclear aspirations? Attacks against its Syrian and Lebanese partners in Syria, against key individuals in Iran, and perhaps cyber-attacks against its nuclear facilities. Most recently, an attack that has closed the main Damascus airport. So far, no military attacks, with heavy weapons, against anything in Iran proper.
Will Israel accept a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran?? Will Israel accept a stand-off, such as existed among Russia, China, and the US? Or between India and Pakistan? Or with whatever exists in North Korea? The price of a direct confrontation would be extreme. Better to accept continued threats, perhaps with conflicts on the outer edges?
We’ll see. Or we’ll leave that to those who remain after we’re gone. Tensions can continue. Better than open conflict. Relying on officials with the wisdom to accept less than total victory. Whatever that is?
Meanwhile, the Netanyahu suit against former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for libel has been heating up. Olmert is being sued for 837,000 shekels ($246,590) after he called the Netanyahus mentally ill and refused to apologize. Bibi denied Olmert’s charges of mental instability. We’ve heard about son Yair calling Ehud Barak a “demented psychopath.” and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett requiring psychiatric hospitalization, as a megalomaniac.” Nir Hefetz, a former Netanyahu aide detailed Yair’s influence over his father, including the young man’s unemployment and his refusal to eat when under pressure. Former national security adviser Uzi Arad, told the court that Sara Netanyahu’s behavior “took its toll on the state . . . “ She approaches you in a threatening manner like she’s about to lunge at you,” Arad also detailed Sara’s disturbance at several crucial discussions of state policy.
It’ll be a while before the judge rules on this case. Bibi does better than any other politician in current polls. Maybe we’re all crazy.
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Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com
“Better to accept continued threats, perhaps with conflicts on the outer edges?”
I don’t understand what this sentence means.