Published: 17 September 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
This hearing is the chief cause of the political chaos that has shaped Israeli politics in recent years.
The two early elections, the annexation plan, the camera bill, the endorsement of the racist extremist Otzma Yehudit party and lack of substantial debate on core issues are all the result of Netanyahu’s attempts to bypass the legal system and save himself from indictment and possibly jail time.
Netanyahu’s ‘personal survival’ campaign reached a new level of desperation last Wednesday with the message that came from his official Facebook account, which lashed out at “the Arabs who want to annihilate us all – women, children and men”.
The impact of the indictment has been felt across the political board. The centre-left parties had to commit, again and again during the campaigns, that they will not sit with Netanyahu due to his legal situation (Labor leader sheds his moustache after 47 years to prove this point).
On the other side, right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties have exploited the desperate prime minister to squeeze political gain out of him, such as the promise for annexation, retaining the status quo for Ultra-Orthodox over the army draft legislation, etc.
The centre-left’s commitment not to sit with Bibi, Avigdor Lieberman’s promise to form a secular unity government and the latest polls, collectively paint a despairing picture: neither Netanyahu nor his main rival Benny Gantz is assured of receiving recommendations from 61 members of the Knesset (MKs) required for either to become prime minister.
The only foreseeable way for Netanyahu to get 61 recommendations is if the racist extremist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, which is running separately this time, will cross the minimum four seats threshold. This would mean that four racist MKs would hold the balance of power in the government.
This is a nightmare scenario.
The commentator Yossi Verter mentioned that the task of “extricating Israel from this entanglement” will fall on the shoulders of President Reuven Rivlin. There is no guideline as to how Rivlin must decide whom to entrust with forming a coalition. The prime-minister-designate can be any of the 120 newly elected MKs, including someone who is not the head of a party.
In the editorial that The Jewish Independent published ahead of the election in May, we urged Jews in the Diaspora who care about the future of a democratic Israeli state to send a “loud and clear message in support of the president Rivlin and his right to choose as he sees fit” and ask to choose a MK who is not Netanyahu to form a government with the other parties.
Unfortunately, the result of the first election made it hard for Rivlin to choose anyone else then Bibi for the first try. Rivlin, great democrat that he is, decided to play by the unwritten rules and gave Bibi the mandate. Netanyahu, again, didn’t play by the same rules.
Having failed to form a government, instead of returning the mandate to the president, as expected, and allowing a different MK the opportunity to form a government, he pushed for a new election. This was unprecedented in Israeli history and caught President Rivlin by surprise.
The only way for Israel to start a moral and political recovery process is by choosing a different leader as soon as possible. Due to this complicated political situation, in the short run, it might lead to more political instability but four more years under Netanyahu could bring the end of Israel as we know it.
We call on President Rivlin to use the power granted to him by the law and give the mandate to form a government to another MK who is not facing indictment. It’s an emergency hour, and we call on Jews in the Diaspora to back Rivlin in this decision.
READ MORE
Gantz asks Rivlin not to trust Netanyahu (Jerusalem Post)
“If we get one more seat than Likud, we will receive the mandate to form the government,” Blue and White’s co-candidate for prime minister Yair Lapid said
Final polls have Netanyahu edging toward majority right-wing bloc (Times of Israel)
Momentum is with the right even though PM’s Likud and its rival Blue and White are tied in pair of TV surveys, which also have extremist Otzma Yehudit entering the Knesset
'If Netanyahu wins, turn out the lights': meet the most die-hard opponents of Israel's 'crime minister' (Haaretz)
An older generation of protesters regard Netanyahu's corruption as an existential threat to the state. And they're fighting, almost tragically, for the simpler, more innocent, more moral Israel held in their collective memory
A plea to my Israeli brothers and sisters, from a Palestinian who can’t vote (Forward)
Israelis Vs the Jews: the real voters who will decide Netanyahu’s fate (Haaretz)
Even the longest-serving prime minister is transitory and cannot change the deeper trends in Israeli society, making Tuesday the first election that will be won by a new type of Judaism
Photo: An election poster featuring Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overlooking a street in Bnei Brak, December 2018 (Moti Milrod)
