Published: 7 April 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
The Likud campaign (managed by Netanyahu himself, his son Yair and a few close friends of Yair) was a negative ruthless campaign against his main rival, Benny Gantz. Haaretz journalist Yossi Verter called it a campaign “straight from Trump’s playbook”.
It included allegations that Gantz is mentally unstable and taking psychiatric medication, allegations against his wife and sister, and that he sexually harassed a fellow student at high school 40 years ago, hinting that he may have terrible personal secrets in the mobile phone that was hacked and that he might be blackmailed by Iran, etc.
Other low points of the official Likud campaign was an interview with an actor made-up to resemble journalist Amnon Abramovitch, who was wounded and suffered serious burns driving a tank in the Yom Kippur War, and video airing on pro-Likud TV with journalist Avishai Ivri in front of a military burial plot saying “Gantz is part of the left, and the left is dangerous”.
The lowest point was the deal Netanyahu reached with the Jewish Home party to grant it a pair of ministerial posts after the elections in exchange for merging with the racist extremist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party. To further remind us of the depths of his desperation, Netanyahu then announced a last-minute pledge to annex West Bank settlements if re-elected. With these two moves, the prime minister has demonstrated that he no longer cares about his country, only himself.
Gantz’s Blue and White campaign wasn’t positive but it at least focussed on the genuine vcorruption allegations against Netanyahu that led to his indictment (pending a hearing) and the new discoveries of his involvement in the Submarine affair. Compared to Likud, it was very clean.
Both major parties’ campaigns were aligned with the political reality in Israel in the last four years, symbolised by the nation-state law that makes Arabs second-class citizens. Netanyahu’s policies have polarised different sectors in the Israeli society and his government is riddled with corrupted leadership (four ministers under criminal investigations).
Yet Netanyahu’s most powerful achievement during this period may be the most invisible one: he has taken the occupation off the agenda as an electoral issue, only to insert it at the last-minute to woo right-wing voters when there is no time for debate. Up till that point, the muted response to its absence says something about how he has manipulated the psyche of Israeli society.
Who is the best candidate to lead Israel forward?
Netanyahu is a threat to the democratic fabric of Israeli society but the alternatives do not present any great beacon of optimism. Benny Gantz’s background in the army gives him credentials on managing national security and his centralism over the Palestinian conflict makes him more palatable than the incumbent.
But it also marks him as a compromised option, unable or unwilling to show genuine leadership over the singular most important moral and political issue facing Israel. And it raises doubts about the strength of his convictions to advance reform if elected.
The likely results:
There are two likely outcomes: a right-wing coalition with Netanyahu as prime minister or a unity government with Gantz as prime minister. The first option will be a disaster for Israel. It would be based on a coalition with at least four parties that support the rule of Halachic (Jewish) Law over civil law - Shas, United Torah Judaism, Zehut, and Otzama Yehudit. Netanyahu would add the New Right party of Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, Avigdor Liberman’s party and Kahlon, if it gains sufficient votes.
All of those parties will be pivotal to the government and will have the upper hand in negotiations with Netanyahu when he tries to pass legislation that would shield him from standing trial. This legislation would include two bills: the ‘French Law’, which gives a prime minister immunity from prosecution while in office, and another bill designed to weaken the Supreme Court.
MK Bezalel Smotrich, leader of the National Union party, has already announced that he supports such legislation. Two other parties, The New Right and United Torah Judaism, have said they would consider supporting such a bill. The implications of such legislation to the rule of Law in Israel will be dramatic.
The president and the diaspora
The first president of Israel Chaim Weizmann said in reaction to his political powerlessness: "My handkerchief is the only thing in the country I can stick my nose into. Into everything else, it's Ben-Gurion's nose." This saying is still relevant; legally the president of Israel has little to no-influence in the political arena.
The exception is the week after a tight election. President Rivlin, according to Israeli law, would then ask the MK with the best prospect of forming a coalition to form a government with the other parties. 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.
This possibility that Rivlin may invite someone other than the leading candidate has led to Netanyahu launching repeated of attacks on Rivlin.
In an article for The Jewish Independent’s Special 70th anniversary supplement, Rivlin wrote: “we need a partnership with the fifth tribe of Israel – the Diaspora. The Jews of the diaspora are true stakeholders in this wonder called Israel. You stand beside us at times of crisis and joy. You dream with us. You challenge us. You help keep us strong. And this is something cannot be taken for granted. The relationship between us goes to the very core of our Jewish existence.”
Now is the time that President Rivlin needs to hear from these stakeholders. Assuming there are no clear winners when the votes have been counted, Jews and Israelis in the diaspora, individuals and organisations, and all those who care about the future of a democratic Israeli state should send loud and clear messages in support of the president and his right to choose as he sees fit.
This election campaign has demonstrated that he can expect Netanyahu to attack him and his office, and the diaspora has the power and the right to voice its support of him in the interests of democracy.
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Cartoon: Avi Katz
