I’m not Netanyahu’s biggest fan, but even in a political system where no one seems to ever leave politics permanently, he pulled off yet a third comeback.
The first time around, he seemed to be politically dead in the water after the Rabin assassination was falsely blamed on Israeli conservatives. The second time, after being quickly ousted by Clinton’s operatives and seemingly being consigned to the political wilderness by a new system, he made a comeback and had an enduring tenure.
Now after repeated elections and massive dysfunction, Bibi’s back with what looks to be a stronger coalition and a badly battered Left.
The good isn’t hard to see. Especially after the caretaker government of Yair Lapid cut a deal to hand over a chunk of Israel’s energy industry to Hezbollah. Anything was better than the insane coalition of fake centrists, leftists, Islamists and anti-religious fanatics who governed before.
Netanyahu is better than that. Unfortunately, he also has a long history of talking tough and doing nothing. As a peacetime prime minister, he’s been a good one. Israel’s economy mostly prospered, until the recent state of disaster. Reporters talked to Arab Muslims who voted for Netanyahu’s Likud party because they remembered prices being better and the economy looking brighter under him.
And Netanyahu’s ad campaign hammered home economic issues with clever ads that had him chatting with ordinary Israelis one-on-one about their problems. (Looking at Israeli election ads, American ads feel surprisingly lame and badly done.)
The existential stuff that Americans know Netanyahu for is another issue. And when it comes to that, he tends to be mostly talk.
But Israeli is a parliamentary democracy. And beyond giving him a governing coalition, this has been a sizable victory for the Right and a severe defeat for the Left.
As of now, with over 90% of the votes counted, Meretz and Balad aren’t making it into the Israel Knesset. Meretz, a radical leftist party, not even sitting in the Knesset is historic. Labor, the establishment leftist party, took another severe electoral beating. At 4 seats, it’s one of the smallest parties in the Knesset and barely made it past the electoral ‘threshold’.
While a handful of idiots still voted for Shaked’s Bayit Yehudi, a party that started with patriotic promise before betraying its voters and the country, it failed to pass. But in its place, the Religious Zionist Party, has scored a massive victory. And if it can, unlike its predecessors, leverage that to make real changes instead of falling into infighting, that could be truly meaningful.
First up is another effort to roll back the unelected tyranny of the Supreme Court.
Passing legislation enabling the Knesset to override High Court rulings is a top priority for the far-right Religious Zionism party, two of its incoming MKs said Wednesday.
Amichay Eliyahu, number nine on the Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit joint slate, told The Times of Israel that the party was determined to “restore democracy,” which he said had been “seized by a small group of people” in the judicial system.
K Simcha Rothman said there would be no justification for a right-wing government if it did not succeed in passing such a law.
The Religious Zionism-Otzma Yehudit alliance made passing a High Court override law a central pillar of its manifesto during the campaign. Such a bill would allow the Knesset to re-legislate a law that the High Court strikes down as incommensurate with Israel’s Basic Laws.
Rothman — along with party leaders MK Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir — strongly opposes the principle of judicial review, whereby the High Court can annul legislation passed by a majority in the Knesset.
All true. And vital to restoring some kind of democracy instead of a branja oligarchy.
Remember, this was why Netanyahu was ousted using a phony scandal to begin with.
In a recent op-ed, Caroline Glick discusses the transcript of Israel’s Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit discussing his decision to indict former prime minister Binyomin Netanyahu. The tape was either from a private briefing of sympathetic reporters at Ha’aretz or a talk to prosecutors in the State Attorney’s office. But in either case, it is clear that Mandelblit wanted it disseminated.
According to Mandelblit, Netanyahu “constituted a danger to democracy.” The specific threat, as outlined by Mandelblit, was that Netanyahu intended to change the system of judicial appointments and limit the power of the attorney-general.
Far from upholding Israeli democracy, it would appear from Mandelblit’s comments that it was he, and not Netanyahu, who threatens Israeli democracy. Philosophical differences over the proper method of appointing justices to the Supreme Court or on the powers of the attorney-general should not serve as the basis of a criminal indictment. And that is especially so when it is Israel’s current system of judicial appointment and the powers of the attorney-general which are glaring exceptions among with world’s democracies.
Mandelblit firmly placed himself in a long line of attorney-generals who have viewed their task as protecting from oversight the legal establishment – Supreme Court justices, the state attorney’s office, and the police – popularly known as the Branja. The most glaring example of the phenomenon was former Attorney-General Michael Ben-Yair’s decision to prosecute Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman shortly after his appointment.
The founder of Israel’s leading law firms and a prominent law professor, Neeman represented an unprecedented threat to the ruling clique in the State Attorney’s office. He was both one of Israel’s sharpest legal minds and not a member of the Branja.
As reported in Yediot Acharonot, shortly after Neeman’s appointment, Ben-Yair convened a meeting of top prosecutors in which he promised to make sure the new “dog” did not leave deep scratches on the furniture. The identity of the “dog” was made clear by Ben-Yair’s reading of a satiric article about the practices of religious Jews. Neeman was an observant Jew.
So a new government would be potentially another round in the struggle by Israelis to reclaim their country from the corrupt mafia that used the likes of Yair Lapid, Israel’s Trudeau, as their front man.
Thanks Daniel! The most complex political system I know of 🙂
I’m living in northern Israel and this is my take on it.
The Israeli parliamentary system would be better described as a cockamamie dysfunctional socialist system…by design. To wit – the 2 most recent prime ministers – Bennett & Lapid were unelectable. But through backroom political deal making they were able to become prime ministers.
Then there is the coalition dealmaking. In order to “form” a government there has to be a majority in the 120 seat snakepit (knesset for low information voters). That puts small parties with say a 5% representation to command an outsized influence in order to form that coalition…because “you need my 5 votes”.
Then there is the plethora of political parties. Most are led by an egomaniac with a supersized ego with their own agendas. Any and all members of that given party is only allowed to regurgitate the views of the leader and almost always must vote along party lines. No such thing as voting for an individual, only get to choose which flavor of socialism you think stinks the least.
The new government also needs to change the education system so public schools teach Judaism to Jews! I know, it’s a radical concept. LOL
Israel needs and has just started) to rebuild (not tweak) the educational system from top to bottom. In 1985, when I was in 12th grade (in Israel), the country ranked #5 out of all the countries in world in science education. Other subjects ranged out to 12th place. That was pretty good for a country with a tiny GDP. Last year, it ranked 39th in science and other subjects ranged out to 42nd. Ouch!
And the new government needs to explain why government forced communist fascism in the form of the ‘vax’ mandates on its citizens. Given the history of the jewish people one would think they would know better. That IMO is tyranny not democracy.
Are there any figures out on vaccine injuries in Israel, one of the most vaxxed countries in the world? If there is an increase in infertility or miscarriages, one might have to accept Naomi Wolf’s accusations of deliberate genocide. Once the truth gets out in the form of hard numbers from many countries we will be able to make decisions about whether or not to implement a Nuremberg II court.
The numbers are horrific, but there is no free open press and citizen reporters don’t have the resources of Americans. There are many videos of people dying and disabled horribly from it. As for official stats, they just say “the 5 year old died from covid after being protected from it with a protective injection. How scary covid should be to you inmate.
Israel is a judicial dictatorship
Thanks, Daniel, I learned more reading this one article than I could ascertain myself from elsewhere despite trying.
Israeli politics is so confusing but then so is U.S. politics.
I am glad Netanyahu won. The left needed beating (non violent beating of course, of course).
it is confusing, even to Israelis
parliamentary politics, as we can see in the UK, tends to be extra-confusing
I’ve also written an article to try to sort things out
I’m no expert on Israeli politics but am pro-Israel and was very unhappy to see Trump and Netanyahu lose back to back. As usual, scum filled the vacuum and did their best to destroy real progress. This painfully proves that the left anywhere is not progressive in any way other than facilitating corruption, failure, pain, and death.
Good for Netanyahu and and hopefully, for his old friend, Donald Trump.
Kol hakavod l’yisrael!
Daniel, I think you’re a national hero. But what happened to Mr. Horowitz’s full-throated defense of Kanye West, whom Mr. Horowitz dubbed a “great leader”? West recently published a list of Jews who he feels should be demonized and has been exposed for his past support of Hitler and the Nazis — developments in the face of which which Mr Horowitz and this website have been silent. I have nothing but tremendous respect for you, Mr. Greenfield, but shame on Mr. Horowitz and this website.
Kanye is just ignorantly repeating views that have been common in the black community since at least the 1960s. Kanye is not educated on Jewish issues.
“and has been exposed for his past support of Hitler and the Nazis”
You write that, but you have absolutely no proof. So why are you writing it? These are allegations of people who do not even reveal their identity, we do not know who these people are. So you repeat like a parrot what comes from a CNN article without having absolutely no proof. Put us on the table a text from him, a video, in which he talks about his admiration for Hitler. Then we’ll see.
” but shame on Mr. Horowitz and this website”
Start by tidying up your room, you peddle gossip without proof. It is a big sin. Where is this list you speak of? I want to read it.
An anti-Semite who admires the Jewish people, and who has never during his career developed, in a systematic way, a discours in the hatred of the Jews. Excuse me, but I have so far never encountered one.
An anti-Semite isn’t just someone who spouts a bullshit or two about Jews, it’s much worse than that. And I know what I’m talking about having studied the question. You overuse the word anti-Semitism, it’s a very serious accusation to accuse someone of anti-Semitism when you know what anti-Semitism really is.
Bring the proof that throughout his career he systematically developed hate speech against the Jews (as Louis Farrakhan was able to do) and that he admired Hitler, then we’ll see.
Yeah you should do your own research. Really not hard to find his Hitler comments YSV.
Kanye repeats lines from Jew haters. I don’t care if he is or not. He might as well be.
Kanye is a cheese ball. The fact is that most rappers are at best confused if somewhat worldly…that is worldly in a world that bends over backward to handle them and their often asinine complaints with kid gloves. Nevertheless, most black males who come into a lot of money tend to vote republican anyway. Dave chappelle has almost admitted as much. Charles Barkley is another story. Your best bet at this point in time would be to run Draymond green against Nancy pelosi. Otherwise, remember what Fred Douglass plead with white folks who were eager to help their brethren upon emancipation. “please, leave us alone.”
The fake right pushes for the left more than the left. All this means is get back to fighting 24/7.