JERUSALEM — We’ve come to the end of the period for registering parties and listing their candidates. It was a hectic final day.
Two clusters formed, one to the right and one in the center.
Prime Minister Netannyahu postponed a visit with Vladimir Putin so he could pressure what remained of Jewish Home to accept a Kahanist party, that previously had been relegated to the unacceptable extremes.
Years ago, the Kahanist party (a direct descendant of Rabbi Meir Kahane) was declared terrorist on account of overt racism, and barred from the Knesset.
The Supervisor of Elections has expressed wonder at Netanyahu’s effort to rehabilitate it, and has suggested the possibility of a judicial determination.
AIPAC has condemned the union with Kahanists, and expressed its unwillingness to ever meet with those people.
Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid announced their union, to be joined with Gabi Ashkenazi. Gantz and Lapid agreed to a rotation in the office of Prime Minister, with Gantz going first, and Ashkenazi joining in place number four, just below Moshe Ya’alon.
Ashkenazi’s affiliation means that three former Commanders-in-Chief of the IDF are on board.
Bibi’s move to the right also fits with a commotion between Israel and Poland over the role of Poles in the Holocaust. A few weeks ago, at a meeting in Warsaw, Bibi began a row with a statement about Polish participation in the liquidation of Jews. That seemed to settle down with clarifications, but Yisrael Katz, in his position of temporary appointee as Foreign Minister, made things worse by quoting Yitzhak Shamir’s statement of decades past that Polish babies acquire anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk.
Why bring up an issue that is 70 years old, except to play to Israel’s nationalism on the eve of an election?
Poles are also in the run-up to an election, and the present government is right of center and wary of allegations against its nation.
Realities are complex.
No doubt that Poles participated with the Nazis in the liquidation of Jews. And after the war there were further deadly attacks against what remained of the country’s Jewish population.
Yet many Poles have earned recognition from Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles for their work in saving Jews from the Germans.
Since the 1960s the Polish government has worked to restore Jewish sites, and the recent record of Poland is arguably good with respect to overt anti-Semitism in comparison with other European countries.
So either Yisrael Katz has Polish grandparents who suffered, or he’s playing to Bibi’s move to the right in order to save himself and his party in the coming election. Katz has so far ignored the Polish demand for an apology. All this despite pressure from the American Ambassador to Poland and leaders of Polish Jews.
Initial indications of polls aren’t all that helpful.
We’re waiting for what is said to be coming– the announcement of indictments from the Legal Adviser to the Government.
Commentators are not waiting. They’re in high action, speculating on what recent events will do to the polls, and ultimately the prospects of each cluster to name the Prime Minister.
Bibi may have gone too far in bringing the Kahanists into Jewish Home. Members of Jewish Home are already protesting and saying that they’ll leave the party. The New Right of Bennett and Shaked may have trouble absorbing itself into something they thought they have left. Likudniks will also have trouble.
All that may increase when–as widely expected–there’ll be indictments against Bibi for bribery and violation of public trust.
According to Ehud Barak, the Legal Adviser to the Government is doing what he can to moderate charges, against recommendations of his staff. Avichai Mandelblit was appointed to the Office by the Prime Minister, and previously served as Secretary of Netanyahu’s government.
For some time now, Bibi has sought to apply the label of “Leftist” to Gantz and Lapid. Whether it works with Bibi’s base is not clear.
On the one hand, Gantz has identified himself with Bibi’s posture on Iran. Moreover, he has taken into his party Moshe Ya’alon and Ya’alon’s people. That’s Netanyahu’s former Defense Minister, along with two close aides of Netanyahu.
And with Bibi pushing Jewish Home to accept the Kahanist party, it is legitimate to label Netanyahu an extreme rightist.
His initial speech against the Gantz-Lapid party was a caricature of ideology and disinformation. It looked like he was adopting the style of Donald Trump. He repeated the terms leftist and inclined towards the Arabs several times, and manufactured or exaggerated what he said about Gantz and Lapid’s actions in years past.
More than 40 parties have registered with the Elections Board, down from more than 100 a few weeks ago. As the polls suggest, nine or ten will make it through the election and into the Knesset. The remainder are a collection of individual efforts, with labels that emphasize their founder’s name, or Beginnings, Anger, Universality, Justice to all, Linkage, an End, Love, Zionism, Rights of Communities, Me and You, Reform, Senior Citizens, Solution for Gaza, Education, and Hope for Change.
Lots of commentary and speculation. And there’ll be more after announcement of indictments.
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com
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Cantor Shelley Merel forwarded this comment from a friend:
We, here in Israel, or at least some of us, are very concerned with the policies and actions that our PM is trying to advance. Even AIPAC condemns the PM for welcoming and his move to ally with the extremist party (Otzma Yehudit) an offshoot of racist political movement (Followers of Kahane)).They advocate limiting the rights of non-Jews, they support “transfer” by force of non-Jews, in other words, they support the forced expulsion of Arabs, as well as domestic terrorism and incitement to racism (against the Arabs) and THESE PEOPLE MAY END UP AS MINISTERS IN A GOVERNMENT coalition. In this election, the PM is likely to go as far right as he can for only one reason:TO HOLD ON TO HIS SEAT!!The PM must be concerned with the state (health) of Israel and not the state of Netanyahu. Not to mention the legal problems that the PM must face.W E have a small chance, I think a very small chance, for a political change.The union of Mr Lapid and the 3 former IDF chiefs of staff, forming the Blue and White Party, may pose a real threat to the Likud party, namely, the PM.On April 10 we will know. — Ariel Oster
Cantor Shelley Merel forwarded this comment from a friend:
We, here in Israel, or at least some of us, are very concerned with the policies and actions that our PM is trying to advance. Even AIPAC condemns the PM for welcoming and his move to ally with the extremist party (Otzma Yehudit) an offshoot of racist political movement (Followers of Kahane)).They advocate limiting the rights of non-Jews, they support “transfer” by force of non-Jews, in other words, they support the forced expulsion of Arabs, as well as domestic terrorism and incitement to racism (against the Arabs) and THESE PEOPLE MAY END UP AS MINISTERS IN A GOVERNMENT coalition. In this election, the PM is likely to go as far right as he can for only one reason:TO HOLD ON TO HIS SEAT!!The PM must be concerned with the state (health) of Israel and not the state of Netanyahu. Not to mention the legal problems that the PM must face.W E have a small chance, I think a very small chance, for a political change.The union of Mr Lapid and the 3 former IDF chiefs of staff, forming the Blue and White Party, may pose a real threat to the Likud party, namely, the PM.On April 10 we will know. — Ariel Oster