Media Analysis

To oust Netanyahu, Lapid would choose rightwing religious Jews over Palestinian parties

For those who follow Israeli politics, the news is continued stalemate. The fourth parliamentary election inside of two years on March 23 produced no clear result, and though Prime Minister Netanyahu got the nod from the Israeli president to try to form a governing coalition, it is quite an uphill climb for him. He has only 52 seats on his side, and his challenge is to pull over Naftali Bennett with seven seats and poach some defectors from the anti-Netanyahu bloc to get a majority.

Netanyahu is thought to still have the best chance to lead the government, though his presence sharply divides Israeli society and creates political instability, especially as he is tried on corruption charges. “I would say the fifth election would be a wash. Let’s meet ahead of the sixth election,” pollster Dahlia Scheindlin said earlier this week, speaking to the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies.

Let’s look at two contradictory developments of this election: 1, Israeli politics are more rightwing than ever. 2, Palestinians have been spoken of as kingmakers in the next government, with the rightwing party Ra’am, which won 4 seats, even saying it might support Netanyahu.

First, Israel’s politics are clearly moving to the right, with as many as 80 rightwing seats in the Knesset. (Gideon Levy and Scheindlin put that number at 70 or 72 — but I am counting Benny Gantz’s Blue/White in that number.)

Israeli election breakdown. Slide by pollster Dahlia Scheindlin for UCLA talk. April 2021.

This is the most rightwing parliament in Israeli history. The overall vote was about 60-40 rightwing to center-left; and Scheindlin says that reflects two trends in the last election.

a, A lot of center-left Israelis who support a Palestinian state voted for rightwing parties such as Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beteinu in order to get rid of Netanyahu.

b, Palestinian turnout was at historical lows, because they were demoralized. In the previous election, the Palestinian Joint List had offered to help form a center-left government, and maybe because of that feeling of inclusion, it reached a high of 15 seats; but the Joint List was promptly rejected by Benny Gantz. He wouldn’t make a government with Arabs! And this time all the Palestinian parties won 10 seats, a huge drop.

Pollster Scheindlin, from her twitter feed.

If Netanyahu were out of the way, Israel would have a rightwing government with a strong majority tomorrow. And several “hardline scenarios would happen without much resistance,” Scheindlin says. The government would move swiftly to solidify Israeli territorial claims, likely by annexation of portions of the West Bank, and also limit the independence of the courts. Scheindlin says that Israelis are still divided with a slim majority in favor of a Palestinian state, but she acknowledges there is a strong rightwing consensus on a “religious vision” of expanding and deepening and making permanent Israeli control over the occupied territories.

The Israeli political culture is dominated by a “virulent nationalist populist discourse in which it’s wrong to be leftwing,” she explains.

“It is generally understood whether you are religious or not that there is an integrity to the whole land of Israel and it must not be divided. The territories are called [by biblical names] Judea and Samaria normally, not just by the firm rightwingers.”

Now let’s look at the seemingly-contradictory trend: that Palestinians are mainstream players in a way they have never been.

Last week the head of the Islamist party Ra’am gave a primetime speech on Israeli television in Hebrew, which was hailed as a landmark political event, in which he called for co-existence and asserted his political leadership in the Arab community. Abbas did not use the word Palestinian, and did not say just who he would support. His speech was seen as a possible boon to Netanyahu, who had campaigned for conservative Palestinian votes– at the same time as he boosted Religious Zionism, a racist Jewish party that would surely expel Palestinians, and which won a shocking 6 seats, as part of that rightwing solidification. In the past this party was banned. Now it’s throwing its weight around, and people shrug.

Scheindlin says that the Netanyahu-Ra’am courtship is a continuation of the work Ayman Odeh, the head of the Palestinian Joint List, has been doing for years in Israel politics, making Palestinians players. In 2019 and 2021 Odeh broke down “taboos on Jewish Arab partnership.” Now Netanyahu is trying to take credit for that process.

But this is a fantasy. The Israeli political class is still not willing to accept Palestinians as equal players. For the rightwing parties, Palestinian citizens are simply “not legitimate” as political actors, Scheindlin says. Not for Naftali Bennett, not for Religious Zionism, not for large portions of Likud including Netanyahu. “Though Netanyahu is opportunistically considering” a deal with Ra’am, it won’t happen, Scheindlin predicts.

Just look what happened to the number 7 on the Labor list, now a member of Knesset: filmmaker Ibtisam Mara’ana Menuhin. “They [the right] went on the rampage as soon as her candidacy was known… to slander her,” Scheindlin says.

Ibtisam Mara’ana Menuhin, from her twitter feed.

This sort of delegitimization is just as strong with respect to the non-Ra’am Palestinian parties: the Joint List, with six seats. Benny Gantz rejected them as partners last year; and those six legislators duly placed themselves outside of the Israeli mainstream when they were sworn in this week: They changed their oath of office, to commit to fighting occupation, or racism and apartheid. This caused an immediate rage among Israeli Jews. And just yesterday one of those legislators, Ofer Cassif, a Jew, was beaten during a protest in occupied East Jerusalem over the eviction of Palestinians, in the continued ethnic cleansing of the city. Video below. Yes, and why aren’t American liberal Zionists organizing American Jewish protests of the ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem?

Consider Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz’s successor as the next possible Netanyahu-slayer. If Netanyahu fails to make a government, and Rivlin turns to the secular centrist Lapid, whose party Yesh Atid came in second to Netanyahu’s Likud (with 17 and 30 seats respectively) to form a Change Coalition government, arithmetic tells you that Lapid would have 61 “Change” mandates if you include all 10 Palestinian-party legislators. But Lapid won’t do that. Scheindlin says that next likely candidates for Rivlin will be a “triumvirate” of anti-Netanyahu pols, Lapid, Bennett, and Sa’ar, and they won’t touch the Palestinian parties.

In fact, she says, in the next month, Lapid and Bennett and Sa’ar will all be talking to Moshe Gafni of United Torah Judaism, the party of Ashkenazi ultra-orthodox, to try to win that party’s seven seats away from Netanyahu to a change government. “Well before they would ever consider going with the Joint List,” Scheindlin says.

The ultra-orthodox, after all, were part of Labor governments traditionally in Israel. That’s how the Jewish state works…

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No surprise!!:
Referred to as “Israel,” the borderless, racist, fascistic, expansionist, illegal/brutal occupier and ethnic cleanser of the indigenous Palestinians chooses to ignore the vital fact that its image in the U.S is in accelerating decline:

Majority of Democrats say US should focus political pressure on Israel | Middle East Eye

“Majority of Democrats say US should focus political pressure on Israel”

“For the first time, the majority of Democrats surveyed by Gallup say US pressure should be focused on Israel, not the Palestinians” Middle East Eye, March 19/21, by Sheren Khalel.

EXCERPT:
“This year’s annual Gallup poll has revealed a shift in sentiment among Americans regarding Israel and the Palestinians, with the majority of Democrats for the first time responding that the US should be putting more pressure on the Israeli government than the Palestinian leadership.

“The poll, published on Friday, said 53 percent of Democrats want US pressure to focus on Israel, compared with the 29 percent that said they want US pressure to be placed on the Palestinians. That figure is up from 2018, when 43 percent of Democrats said they supported putting more pressure on Israel.

“The findings continued among the general population, with the number of all Americans wanting more US pressure on Israel increasing from 27 percent in 2018 to 34 percent in 2021. 

“The figures represent the highest level of demand for pressuring Israel in Gallup’s data since 2007. Over the same period, the percentage in favour of the US putting more pressure on both parties, or on neither, declined from 21 percent to 14 percent.

“The findings come amid unprecedented moves in Congress, with critical demands coming from Capitol Hill, including those condemning Israel’s treatment of Palestinians during the Covid-19 pandemic, and a handful of lawmakers in support of applying conditions on US aid to Israel. (cont’d)

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“Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said the shift in attitudes laid out in the Gallup poll was particularly significant given the ‘very rigorous campaign’ launched by pro-Israel groups to silence those advocating for Palestinian rights. 

“‘I think what you’re looking at is that people understand this issue is one of justice, and no matter how much time and resources are devoted to attempting to misrepresent the issue, it’s finally reaching the general American public in a way that they can’t ignore,’ Berry said.” 

Ah, yes, “Israel, a light unto nations [NOT!]”

VIDEO: Prominent Rabbi Assaulted by Jewish Settlers as He Defends Palestinians – Palestine Chronicle

“Prominent Rabbi Assaulted by Jewish Settlers as He Defends Palestinians” Palestine Chronicle, April 8/21
“The former president of Rabbis for Human Rights was violently assaulted by far-right Jewish settlers yesterday.

“Video footage of the brutal attack near the Maale Ahuvia illegal settlement outpost, shows prominent Rabbi Arik Ascherman being beaten with a wooden club while surrounded by settlers.

“According to the Jerusalem Post, Ascherman arrived in the area to ask Jewish shepherds to divert their flock from plowed fields nearby belonging to local Palestinians. He used his Twitter account to share a video depicting the minutes preceding the attack; a heated conversation between himself and several settlers; and one of them calling him a ‘murderer’ while threatening him.

“Following the assault, Ascherman said that Israeli occupation forces stood by and watched as he was beaten with a club.

“’The brutal attack on me happened because Israeli security forces allowed Ma’aleh Ahuvia to rebuild after evacuating it yesterday,’ he explained, ‘and didn’t stop the flocks from entering Dir Jarir lands to eat what is growing there.’

“Last month, Ascherman was taken to a hospital emergency room following an attack by Jewish settlers, which saw him having stitches in his ear as his arm was checked to see if it was broken. Writing about the incident in the Times of Israel, the rabbi described what he called ‘the resurgence of Kahanism’ and said that ‘this was the latest and most serious of many attacks in the last few weeks. I’ve lost count, but have submitted close to ten police complaints about attacks.’

“Sharing a photo of the tear on his ear, Ascherman explained that, ‘I have not been the only victim, and of course the real victims are the Palestinians. The story is the same one I have told several times.’

“The settlers, he said, are ‘driven by an insatiable drive to dispossess Palestinian.’ He explained that they go on an almost daily basis to steal what others have planted in order to cause sufficient fear and financial loss to get the Palestinian Bedouin to give up, and not come back to their summer homes where their animals graze on what they have planted.”

If anyone had any doubts about the hatred these Israeli Jews had for Israeli Arabs, look no further.
The message is loud and clear. They’d rather associate with their own, however right wing and extremist, than with their fellow countrymen, who are Arabs. Arabs have been discriminated for years, and Israeli’s do not want to unite with them, EVEN TO HAVE POWER.

Breaking news from Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP):

(BTW, the vast majority of Canadians stand with the Palestinians!!)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
10 April 2021

NDP MEMBERS OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT MOTION CALLING FOR CONCRETE ACTION ON PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS AT 2021 CONVENTION

OTTAWA – “NDP Members voted today in favour of a motion brought forward by a coalition of Palestinian and Jewish activists calling to amend its policy book to include a boycott of products emanating from illegal Israeli settlements as well an arms embargo on the state of Israel. The motion comes after years of many within the party demanding that the NDP take a clear stance on Israel-Palestine.

“’The adoption of this motion today was a result of a groundswell of support from the grassroots membership.’ Said Amy Kishek, one of the lead organizers for the Justice and Peace in Israel Palestine Resolution at this weekend’s NDP convention. ‘Not only is this position hugely popular with the NDP membership but it is something that is supported by the vast majority of the Canadian labour movement as well as the Canadian population at large.’

“A 2017 poll done by EKOS Research confirmed that in the context of Israel’s ongoing human rights violations, 78% of Canadians believed that the Palestinian call for a boycott is reasonable. The number was even higher among those who identified as NDP supporters at over 90% in support. The adopted policy today also has strong support among many of Canada’s major labour unions including the Canadian Labour Congress which represents over three million workers across the country.

“’The adoption of this policy today firmly positions the NDP as one of the few parties demanding the end of Canada’s support for illegal settlements and suspending the flow of weapons to and from Israel until Palestinians are free.’ Said Geneviève Nevin, another organizer behind the successful resolution. ‘In a time of unparalleled and intersecting social, environmental, and economic crises, it is of paramount importance that the NDP stand with and take direction from marginalized communities and those fighting for peace and justice everywhere.'”