Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases, pending a hearing. While it is too early to tell the extent to which Netanyahu will be affected by the announcement, nearly all of his rivals have called on him to step down, and political analysts have said it could spell disaster for him come April 9th.
It is quite typical for Israeli politicians to carry out confrontational measures against Palestinians shortly before general elections are due. Ramzy Baroud argues Netanyahu’s closure of a gate that leads to Al-Aqsa mosque was a move to appease extremists at the expense of Palestinians.
The decision to indict Netanyahu is likely to knock down the right wing vote, and may give a path to the centrist Blue and White to form a governing coalition after the April 9 election. One thing is clear though: the indictment will have no effect on Palestinian conditions.
When the leading party in the Israeli elections, Blue and White, says it won’t work with “Arabs” to form a coalition, and the Labor Party announces its new agenda of “Three Paths to Separation” from Palestinians, you’d think there’s something wrong with the Israeli Jewish polity. But liberal Zionists can’t catch a clue…
The shock of Netanyahu’s deal with the Kahanist Jewish Power party is that it shows there is growing establishment support in Israel for a final ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people: “The right-wing doesn’t speak about it openly, but the Kahanists do. Some 10% of the Jewish population of Israel have been speaking about “a second Nakba” even as they denied the first; now Likud joins them.”
Mondoweiss speaks with Israeli journalist Yossi Gurvitz about Benjamin Netanyahu’s surprise deal with the Kahanist Jewish Power party that has rocked the Israeli election cycle. How will it affect the outcome of the April 9th elections, and what does it mean for the future of Israeli politics?
The unprecedented criticism of an Israeli prime minister by AIPAC and the splitting of the Palestinian parties into two lists may represent Israeli centrist Benny Gantz’s only road to knocking off Benjamin Netanyahu in April elections. Netanyahu is already calling Gantz an “Arab-lover” while Gantz has criticized Netanyahu for endangering Israel’s crown jewels, its ties to the U.S. government.
Benny Gantz partnered with Yair Lapid and Benjamin Netanyahu teamed up with the “David Dukes” of Israeli politics as Israeli parties joined forces ahead of the deadline to find running partners for the April elections. Jonathan Ofir explains where things stand now: “Gantz and Lapid, with their accompanying generals, may possibly succeed in unseating Netanyahu – but they will not unseat Zionist ultra-nationalism. They are running on that ticket too.”
The merger of centrists Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid in a joint party to take on Netanyahu in the April election has sparked “euphoria” for liberal Zionists who dream of ending the Netanyahu regime. Dubbed a new Labor Party, the merger gained strength from Netanyahu’s deal with a racist party that angered many American Jewish groups.
Israeli premier contender Benny Gantz has chided Prime Minister Netanyahu for lobbying to include the ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party in a future coalition, but in doing so, Gantz incited against the BALAD Palestinian-Israeli party which promotes democracy. The former army chief of staff equated the two.