On the coalition crisis: The day after Bennett

It is improbable that the government will survive for long. If elections take place now, at least 60 Jewish Zionists, headed by Netanyahu, could set up a government, his chance for a place in history with Herzl -if he attends to basic issues. Op-ed.

By Malcolm Dash, INN    19.6.22

A year has elapsed since Naftali Bennett cobbled together a Post-Zionist coalition of eight disparate political factions. This came about as the brainchild of Lapid, chairman of the Yesh Atid party, who co-opted an enthusiastic partner in the head of the Yamina party.

Although Bennett had only seven seats, he unashamedly assumed the prime minster-ship of the state. In his election campaigning, he swore he would not go into coalition with the Left, and that included Lapid. He emphatically repudiated seeking the support of any Arab party; with fraudulent insolence he reversed his promises, deceived his constituency, and in an egocentric, greedy grab for power, he extirpated his ideology, if indeed he had any to begin with? And forged his bizarre government.

The government is a disparate ideological mishmash of political factions, representing a variety of carpetbaggers the likes of Liberman, Post Zionists Meretz, Muslim Brotherhood and of course the purportedly Right-wing Yamina. The adhesive that unites these parties is the shared obsessional hatred of their nemesis, Benjamin Netanyahu. Including Ra’am, the Arab fundamentalist Islamic anti-Jewish faction has to be his most disturbing sin. Ra’am, the Muslim Brotherhood maintains a choke-hold on the government. it can do nothing without their approval.

Democracy, mugged by elites?

Lapid/Bennett’s ‘winning’ strategy could not have succeeded without the legal establishment’s coup de grâce to the elected Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. They indicted Netanyahu on specious charges, claims that have the odour of an extrajudicial assault on the democratic process. Without doubt, the juridical proceedings determined the results of the elections. Netanyahu, touted as the front runner, would have been able to establish a government, but the trial and negative media coverage prevented it.

Perhaps much worse, it fractured the nation into anti Bibi or pro Bibi advocates.

Apparently, these un-elected counsellors cannot restrain themselves, their judicial arrogance is without precedence in Western democracies. They are not subject to any external authority or judicial review, they pre-empt parliament, and take over the role of the appointed representatives. Substituting the system of majority rule and rule of law to the ‘rule by lawyers,’ Israel’s executive and legislative branches of government are subject to judicial restraints, but there is no comparable supervision for the self-styled brahmin aristocrats of the bench.

The legal institution alone was not capable of bringing about its malign agenda without the eager collaboration of the left of centre mainstream media: Plus the anti Netanyahu aligned chiefs at the helm of law enforcement.

They all placed themselves above the law, and without significant reform/makeover, there is a palpable risk to Israeli freedoms.

A teeter tottering experiment

It is improbable that the government will survive much longer than another week, or a couple of months at most. The Ehud Barak government was the most fleeting (fifteen months) in Israeli history. Today Bennett vies with him for that dubious honour.

If recent surveys are correct, most Israelis would choose elections rather than any alternative combination of coalition building. Predictions are that if elections take place now, a block of at least sixty Jewish Zionists, headed by Netanyahu, could set up a government. It’s been many decades since Israel has experienced a homogeneous parliamentary majority. So, for the first time in Netanyahu’s political career, he will have the parliamentary freedom to implement Zionist measures concomitant with the spirit of Israels’ founding fathers.

A Herzl, Ben Gurion, a watershed moment

The ruling Bon Ton endangers the Zionist enterprise to perils that call into question the endurance of the third commonwealth; The threats are real, imminent, and reveal deep structural fissures that, if not targeted, will eviscerate the character and significance of the Jewish state.These fault lines are so dangerous, they may erode Israel’s capacity to survive, assigning Israel to a footnote in the chronicles of Jewish history.

If the voters do award Netanyahu the priceless opportunity to transform the destiny of the Jewish people, a tabula rasa instant will arise for him. If he seizes the brass ring, it can post him into the annals of Jewish history, alongside the great Herzl and Ben Gurion.

Bibi is intelligent and au fait concerning what has to be done… but a little reminder won’t hurt. Here’s a checklist of structural issues he must rectify.

• Emphasise the Zionist narrative in the educational system and the public sphere.
• . Deconstruct the Arab (Palestinian) narrative, dismissing their false myths.
• . Shore up the national Jewish character of the state, focusing on Jewish doctrine, history and traditions.
• . End the creeping liberal progressive revolution poisoning our institutions
• . Democratise , reform or remake the legal structure. And very important, deracinate, and depoliticise the attorney general’s office.
• . Expose the left leaning mainstream media for what it has turned into: an editorialising mouthpiece for Post Zionism. .
• . Balance the media by promoting traditional and Zionist voices.
• . Dismiss civil servants who sabotage government policies.
• . Choose IDF chiefs of staff who ache for victory. Officers who repudiate social engineering and scorn progressive leftists attempts to democratise the army.
• . Enact a basic law that all Israeli citizens are required to pledge allegiance to the Jewish state, withdrawing citizenship of those who refuse, assigning them to residence status.

Mapai
Netanyahu embodies the ethos of a Mapai-nik, dressed in wolf’s clothing. If he intends to govern with Mapai-like concessions, when principled ideological stances are necessary, he should stand aside and support a leader with more mettle to do so.

Malcolm Dash, who made aliyah from Cape Town in 1968 and served in the IDF during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, has been Director of Operations at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies since 2011. Previously, he worked with the Public Diplomacy Section “Hasbara” of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and initiated a university studies program for Foreign Office cadets. He later joined The Institute for Zionist Strategies (IZS) as the Associate Director of Public Affairs. While at (IZS) he established ties with a number of Asian embassies, having identified that Israel should develop strategic diplomatic and economic ties with the Far East.