There is nothing new under the Israeli sun. Bibi has already governed for some nine years. After the 2015 legislative election, he gets the chance to stay in power for another four years, which gives him the possibility to equal the thirteen-year record held by the founder of present-day Israel, David Ben-Gurion. In short, Netanyahu will form another right-wing government and, therefore, peace with the Palestinians is not in sight.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party came in first with 23.4% of the vote and 30 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Second came the new oppositional Zionist Union, a coalition formed by the Labor Party and Hatnuah, led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni respectively. The Zionist Union managed to win 18.67% of the vote and 24 seats. The also newly-formed Joint List of four Arab-dominated parties won 10.54% and 13 seats. The fourth strongest camp in parliament is Yesh Atid, led by the former TV presenter and news anchor Yair Lapid. The fifth largest party is Kulanu, a party founded at the end of November 2014 by the former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon; Kulanu won 7.49% and controls 10 seats in the twentieth Knesset. The Jewish Home by religious, right-wing businessman Naftali Bennett, who is serving as Minister of the Economy in the current Netanyahu government, won 6.74% and 8 seats. The ultra-orthodox Shas party, led by Aryeh Deri, came in seventh with 5.73% and 7 seats. The secular, right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu, led by the controversial nationalist and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, managed to secure 5.11% of the vote and 6 seats. The ninth largest Knesset group is United Torah Judaism. Led by Yaakov Litzman, this alliance of two ultra-orthodox parties got the support of 5.03% of the voters, which was enough to secure 6 seats. The smallest party in the new parliament is Meretz, a social-democratic and Zionist party led by Zehava Gal-On, a lady born in Vilnius in 1956, at that time a part of the Soviet Union; she moved with her parents to Israel when she was 4. In the legislative election of March 17, 2015 Meretz managed to win 3.93% of the vote and 5 seats in parliament.
The early elections were triggered by a Basic Law proposal defining Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People as well as by disagreements regarding the new budget. It was the occasion for Netanyahu to move even further to the right. His government has discredited itself with the 2014 war against Hamas. It has been clear from the start that, with this Netanyahu-led government, there will be no peace with the Palestinians.
Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Tzipi Livni’s Kadima could not position themselves as credible alternatives to Benjamin Netanyahu, whereas Kulanu, led by Moshe Kahlon, already agreed to join the next Netanyahu cabinet, which will of course be another right-wing government formed together with nationalist, religious parties. Yesh Atid lost 8 of its 19 seats in the 2015-election.
Moshe Kahlon, with his egalitarian approach and credentials as the man who brought Israel’s wireless cartel down at his time as minister of communication, will have a tough time selling his joining of the upcoming Netanyahu coalition to his voters in the next election, unless he manages to actually do something against business monopolies and oligopolies in Israel.
Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home already had to pay a price for joining Netanyahu in the 2015-parliamentary election. Their number of lawmakers has been reduced from 12 to 8 seats.
There is little doubt that the next government will be formed by Netanyahu’s Likud together with The Jewish Home, Kulanu, Yisrael Beiteinu, Shas and maybe United Torah Judaism.
Dear Bibi, among us, you should seriously try to negotiate with the Palestinians as long as you are in a position of strength. Everybody know that Israel should give up its illegal settlement policy and that Hamas, not just the Palestinian Authority, should recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist.
Of course, Fatah is still corrupt and incompetent, Hamas has created Hamastan and does not want to recognize Israel and new elections are overdue in Palestine. Nevertheless, this is no excuse for additional, illegal settlements.
Some people have a better assessment of the current situation. In March 2015, the White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said in a speech to the Washington J Street Jewish lobby in Washington, D.C. that the “occupation [of the West Bank] that has lasted for 50 years must end”. At the same event, the Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat stated that “Benjamin Netanyahu is not a two-stater” and that this is why the PA went to the United Nations to ask for international recognition. Saeb Erekat added: “I hear some Israelis saying we don’t have a partner. … To these people, if Mother Theresa were to be the president of the Palestinians, Montesquieu would be the speaker of parliament and Jefferson prime minister, if they were to speak for two states and 1967 bounderies, they would still be terrorists.”
Books by and about Benjamin Netanyahu at Amazon US
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019. Photo: US State Department. This photo is in the public domain. Article added on April 2, 2015 at 11:23 CET
