Gazans do not approve of Joint List leader Ayman Odeh’s endorsement of Benny Gantz in the Israeli election because Gantz led attacks on Gaza. No one here, says Ayman Moin, “can easily forget a beloved who has been killed, or jailed for years, nor a house demolished by the same perpetrator.”
In a surprising turn of events, Benjamin Netanyahu will be given yet another chance to hold onto his title as Prime Minister — a potential lifeline for the premiere who is facing an impending indictment on charges of corruption and bribery.
The current political paralysis in Israel should not be mistaken for an equal split between the center-left and the right, as the media would have its audiences believe. Rather, Israeli elections are a contest over which brand of Israeli ultra-nationalism will triumph.
Mondoweiss talks with Diana Buttu about the possibility of a Palestinian-led opposition in the Israeli Knesset, the Joint List’s endorsement of Benny Gantz, and the reception among Palestinians inside Israel of the recent election.
The recent Israeli election has been a win for the Zionist right-center. The Joint List which mostly represents Palestinians has endorsed Benny Gantz, but that stance divided the List. That’s understandable because a unity government headed by Gantz would back policies toward Palestinians that are not different from those of a Likud government.
Electoral politics, while a potential means for harm reduction, will not save Palestine.
Benjamin Netanyahu will continue as caretaker prime minister for several more weeks – until a new government is formed. If he stays true to form, there is plenty of mischief he can instigate in the meantime.
When Donald Trump race-baits minorities, the New York Times offers his targets space to respond. But the Times published Netanyahu’s smears of Palestinian political parties as terrorists without giving them space to respond and repeatedly diminished their achievement in the election, in which they finished behind the two leading Jewish parties.
The Blue White party gave Israelis who used to vote left the option of voting Likud-light with the pretense of being centrist. Blue White is essentially a rightwing party. And there was only one winner in this election, and it’s the one that has always won: Zionism.
Haidar Eid says there is nothing for Palestinians to celebrate about the Israeli elections. “Only secular democracy under the rule of law and in which ALL citizens are treated equally regardless of ethnic and religious origin is what should be celebrated,” Eid writes. “Anything short of that is a recycling of 19th century ethnic nationalism disguised in slogans that mean absolutely nothing to us Palestinians.”