Right on the Rise in Israel

2969579901Israel’s 19th governing coalition collapsed this week after less than two years in office. It included two right-of-center parties totaling 43 seats (the Knesset has 120) and two ostensibly “centrist” (actually leftist) parties totaling 25.

In recent weeks the respective leaders of the two leftist parties, Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni, had been staging a palace revolt. They lashed out at the government and its leader, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in ways only befitting a vituperative opposition. Lapid, the finance minister, refused to implement government policy and insisted on his own misguided, destructive plans.

It left the exasperated Netanyahu with no choice but to fire these two and, in effect, dissolve the government. New elections have been set for March 17.

Meanwhile three polls (summarized at the end of this analysis by Times of Israel editor David Horovitz) have indicated that, since the previous elections in January 2013, a lot has changed in Israel.

It was those elections’ right-leaning but equivocal results that gave rise to the dubious, rickety coalition that fell this week. But now all three polls tell the same story: the right will do much better in the new elections and be able to form a coalition without the “center” (or left), possibly with the ballast of ultra-Orthodox parties that are also right-leaning politically.

What changed?

Back in January 2013 things looked relatively quiet to Israelis. Successful terror attacks were down to very low levels. The November 2012 Gaza war had lasted only eight days with very few Israeli casualties. Iran was still under tough sanctions, creating hopes—illusions—that the West was serious about stopping its march to the bomb.

What a difference—at least, in perceptions—two years make.

While Israel won the 2014 Gaza war decisively, it had most of the country scurrying to bomb shelters for seven weeks and cost Israel 64 soldiers’ and seven civilians’ lives. In its aftermath, a wave of Palestinian terror attacks that started in September has killed 12.

And while the overall regional situation hardly looked calming in January 2013, it looks quite alarming now with the rise of ISIS and raging terror and war, while the West pursues an obviously, no longer deniably feckless policy toward Iran where talks keep getting extended for their own sake even as Iran treats an international inspections agency with obvious contempt.

But those aren’t the only sorts of aggressions and threats Israel has been subject to.

Israelis are well aware that the Obama administration has stooped low enough to call the Israeli prime minister scurrilous names that are reserved solely for the leader of the Jewish state—amid subtle threats, and rumors, that the U.S. will refrain from vetoing a Palestinian-instigated UN Security Council resolution demanding Israeli withdrawal to indefensible borders.

And then there’s Europe, increasingly a cheerleading troupe for Palestinian terror as the French, Spanish, British, Irish, and Swedish parliaments have in recent months voted to “recognize” a nonexistent Palestinian state even as Israelis are subjected to Palestinian car-ramming, stabbing, and shooting attacks including an outright massacre in a synagogue.

Israelis, in other words, see a more dangerous environment and so—if the polls are right—will opt for a more hawkish leadership. Seemingly nothing could be more simple and humanly understandable. Except that in Israel’s case understanding can be hard to come by.

In the above-linked article, the Times of Israel’s David Horovitz says that a more hawkish Israel in 2015 would find itself in a frontal clash with much of the world:

BDS [boycott, divestment, and sanctions] campaigning against Israel would intensify. Unilateral recognition of a Palestine not at peace with Israel would gather yet more momentum. International empathy for Israel if, or more likely when, it next comes under attack by Hamas from Gaza or Hezbollah from southern Lebanon would be in still shorter supply.

Horovitz could be right, although, with a very sympathetic Congress taking office in January, it may not be as bad as all that. And Israelis may see such consequences as a price to be lived with for defending themselves. 

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  • David

    I disagree with horovitz. Hostility towards Israel increases with perceived Israeli weakness.

    • Hi there

      “Hostility towards Israel increases with perceived Israeli weakness.”
      Exactly
      And hostility towards Israel also increases with hostility from within Israel. In order to save themselves from the ‘radical extremists’ who they are convinced will force Europeans to hate Israel, Leftist Israelis create libels, exaggerate the positions of the Right, and conflate some true nut-jobs with the mainstream. They think they are showing that there is a moral Israel, but they do this by soiling and then hanging the dirty laundry out for all to see.
      The result is an anti-Israel press, quoting from Israeli sources. And when the hostility rises, the Leftblames this all on the Right. If it weren’t for Likud…
      I sometimes pity Leftist Israelis for their ghetto mentality, their attempts to please people who hate them, but more often I am just angry at them. Their narcissism hurts innocents, their lies tar their own nation.
      Whatever their intent, they are amoral in their means, and we have to live with it.

  • ShalomFreedman

    Two more astute pieces by David Hornik. But of course there is a lot more to be said. The move to the Right is strong now and may not be as strong three months from now. But even if it is this does not guarantee that the Likud and Prime Minister Netanyahu will continue in power. A Left- wing coalition does not seem possible but there are other right- center combinations that might be possible. I believe that no one is as qualified as our present Prime Minister but he has many whose goal is to dethrone him including those he has been close allies in the past..

    • Hi there

      The problem with any center-left or center-right coalitions (as Caroline Glick pointed out on this site) is that the word ‘center’ is not believable anymore. Center means left, and most Israelis are not interested in the increasingly conciliatory, suicidal left.
      And that is good news.

  • bklyn farmer

    Fox News 12/5/2014
    “the administration had held secret internal meetings to discuss taking action against Israel for its ongoing building in East Jerusalem. The classified meetings were reportedly held several weeks ago and included officials from both the State Department and White House ………. At the same time, the White House is vigorously pushing Congress against passing new sanctions on Iran.”

    • stevenchk

      How do you know that? Did Israel wire tape the conversations during those secret meetings. Is Mosad everywhere?

      • bklyn farmer

        A leak from a government department, Oh what a surprise (sarcasm).

  • bklyn farmer

    Fox News:
    The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem………. The possibility of sanctioning Israel for its ongoing construction sends a signal that the Obama administration is willing to go further in its denunciations of Israel then any previous White House.”

  • stevenchk

    I like your dog.

  • Tzipporah

    Good analysis. Israel needs to be strong and defend itself and not appease a crazy world lost in political correctness.

  • William James Ward

    Obama represents Washington Jihad, no he is Washington Jihad and
    Israel can not nor should ever trust this closet Muslim. Conservatives
    in Washington in January must defund his dangerous and disruptive
    plans weakening America in every aspect of it’s life and vitality.
    Israel is on it’s own surrounded by wolves, fangs bared and must
    take strong defensive actions to survive. Obama’s baneful years
    as America’s President goes past buyers remorse, he is engineering
    the death of freedom in the World with new and ever more onerous
    actions, Israel beware…………………..William

  • Daniel L. Levy

    Mmmh. I beg to differ. The continuous, relentless impoverishment of the Israeli working/ middle class and the dire housing crisis will push more voters to seek an alternative to the ultra-liberal economic policies the successive Netanyahu governments have implemented. The electoral campaign has only just started, and it is not impossible to imagine that a social justice, left-leaning block will emerge. The Israeli voter is slowly awakening to the fact that there is nothing an elected government can do or not do on foreign policy and defense and security matters that is not dictated by the circumstances, that is, by the enemy and by foreign partners. Any government will do what it can, not what the people want. On the social and economic front, however, policies matter, and it is not impossible that the security and nationalistic issues will take a back seat to real-life issues. Maybe I am dreaming, and we will have a campaign marked by the usual dialectics about security and the old nationalistic tropes, but this time I hope that trifles such as food and housing prices, freedom of movement and the disfunctionality of our public transportation systems, the threats to our environment, the impotence of law enforcement, and so on, will be somewhat addressed.

    • joe

      Yes, National Socialism is always a fine solution when the nation is under threat. Not. Good luck with that hope of yours in the long run.

  • joe

    I hope! I truly do.

  • Janet Ann

    REMINDER – OBAMA’S BETRAYAL OF ISRAEL

    JUNE, 2008

    Obama surprise: Says Jerusalem will remain undivided
    Thursday, June 05, 2008

    Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama asssured American Jews that he would not allow Iran to acquire nuclear arms, and that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel, a surprisingly tough stance.

    “Let me be clear, Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper,” Obama said. “But any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. JERUSALEM WILL REMAIN THE CAPITAL OF ISRAEL, AND IT MUST REMAIN UNDIVIDED.”
    http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/16218/language/en-US/Default.aspx

    NOVEMBER 2014

    Solicitor General: Israel Has No Claim to Jerusalem, Just as Russia Has No Claim to Crimea
    November 4, 2014

    Lawyers for the Obama administration compared Israel’s control of Jerusalem to Russian claims over the Ukrainian territory of Crimea during oral arguments this week before the Supreme Court in a case concerning the rights of U.S. citizens to list Jerusalem as part of Israel on their passports.

    U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli drew the comparison on Monday while he attempted to convince the Supreme Court that JERUSALEM IS NOT OFFICIALLY PART OF ISRAEL. .
    http://freebeacon.com/national-security/solicitor-general-israel-has-no-claim-to-jerusalem-just-as-russia-has-no-claim-to-crimea/

    DECEMBER 2014

    Obama officials mum on reports White House weighing sanctions on Israel
    Published December 05, 2014

    The Obama administration is refusing to discuss reports that emerged early Thursday claiming that the White House is considering imposing sanctions on Israel for continuing construction on Jewish homes in Jerusalem.
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/05/obama-officials-mum-on-reports-white-house-weighing-sanctions-on-israel/?intcmp=latestnews

  • Janet Ann

    If only Israeli leadership would adhere to the Divine Road Map outlining what must be done in the protection of the God-given land and the Chosen People. The Islamic enemy whose charter denies Israel’s right to exist will never be appeased until it has driven the last Jew out of the land. What part of the Absolute Scriptures does Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not comprehend?

    +++++

    Proverbs 3:5-6
    Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths.

    Psalms 119:98
    “Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide.”

    Psalms 119:160
    “All your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal.”

    Exodus 23:31-33
    I will establish your borders from the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds) to the Sea of the Philistines, (Mediterranean) and from the desert to the River . I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.

    Leviticus 25:23
    “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.”

    Numbers 33:55&56
    “If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you What I plan to do to them