Published: 15 June 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
COLIN SHINDLER: For many years, he was seen as presiding over a decent society but Netanyahu’s desperation to hold onto power tore a hole in Israel’s social fabric
ON SUNDAY THE KNESSET voted to approve the 'Change' government of Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid. Whether this multi-headed pantomime horse will survive is an open question, but it does appear that Benjamin Netanyahu has been put out to political pasture. While it is too early to write him off, what are we to make of the Israel that has been forged during the Netanyahu years?
Netanyahu came to head the Likud in 1992 unexpectedly and was prime minister for a remarkable 15 years. While he was pragmatic in his political manoeuvres — sometimes advancing, sometimes retreating, occasionally the conservative, often the radical — a clear ideological agenda lay behind this. It was to remake Israel in his own image and to replace the pioneering labour elite with a new elite. On being elected in 1996, he castigated 'the nomenklatura of the ancien régime'.
Netanyahu made light of Ben-Gurion's vision of an open-necked 'new Jew'. Instead, he preferred the world of the men in blue suits in smoke-filled backrooms. The change had already commenced in 1977 with the 'earthquake' that elected Menahem Begin. Netanyahu saw himself as the guardian of this newly emerging Israel and sought to promote its values.
However, his vision was not framed by Begin's frugality, disdain for materialism and respect for the rule of law. In time, Netanyahu's Israel began to resemble the old Rome rather than the new Jerusalem.
Netanyahu has a symbiotic relationship with Israeli citizens — sometimes he reflected their mindset, at others, he instigated measures that would force them to move in his ideological direction.
Aided by his expertise as a highly effective public relations practitioner — a technique honed in the American media when he represented Israel at the United Nations between 1984 and 1988, Netanyahu proved adept in providing soundbites and slogans: 'peace for peace'; 'without preconditions', 'reciprocity', 'there is no one to speak to' — and they entered the vernacular of argument and debate both in Israel and the Diaspora.
