Benyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving prime minister, has until December
21 to form the most extreme government in the history of the country, complete
with ultra-nationalists, religious Zionists and far right Cabinet members.
اضافة اعلان
The Likud leader has no challenger, but if he fails
to hammer together a coalition government before the deadline, Israel will find
itself once more in political wilderness. Last November, voters took to the
polls for a fifth time in four years in a bid to hand over a leader the 61
seats he needed to form a stable majority government.
The meteoric rise of the Religious Zionist (Tkuma)
and neo-Kahanist Jewish Power has shaken up the Israeli political stage,
throwing these far-right, once fringe, parties into the mainstream of Israeli
politics. Together they have become the proverbial kingmaker, giving Netanyahu the
necessary votes to form a coalition, but at a hefty price.
The head of the Likud already has the necessary
votes to form his coalition, but negotiations continue over meeting the long
list of demands that his new partners want. He has given Itamar Ben-Gvir, head
of Jewish Power, and a racist and supremacist by the definition of the Israeli
media, the critical national security portfolio, which controls the police and
will be in charge of security in the occupied West Bank.
Ben-Gvir has vowed to relax all rules of engagement
by the Israeli police and border guards when dealing with Palestinian
protesters. An already inflamed situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
will certainly get worse when he is in charge. That means more extrajudicial
killing of Palestinians — more than what has already been happening since the
beginning of this year. Almost 200 Palestinians have been gunned down by Israel
in the West Bank so far.
This has been dubbed ‘the crazy team’ by the leftist Israeli media. Even the more conservative ones are appalled at how Netanyahu, who wants to pass a law in the Knesset giving him immunity from prosecution, is handing over real power to extremists whose agenda is open and clear.
To make things even worse for the Palestinians,
Netanyahu agreed with Religious Zionism party leader Bezalel Smotrich to hand
him the finance ministry, on condition that Smotrich will appoint the next
defense minister, a portfolio he originally wanted for himself. Under pressure
from the Biden administration, Netanyahu rejected Smotrich’s demand for the
defense position. Still both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, directly and indirectly,
are now in a position to dictate policy in the West Bank.
This has been dubbed “the crazy team” by the leftist
Israeli media. Even the more conservative ones are appalled at how Netanyahu,
who wants to pass a law in the Knesset giving him immunity from prosecution, is
handing over real power to extremists whose agenda is open and clear.
They want to legalize all settlements in the West
Bank: a tent, a caravan and any Palestinian land Jewish settlers claim as
theirs. They want to go as far as to annex most parts of the West Bank,
including the Jordan Valley, and they want to expel Palestinians and even
Israeli Arabs who defy the occupation. Ben-Gvir vowed to establish armed settler militias that will be above
the law.
Israel’s military and intelligence establishments
have warned that the new coalition will be a recipe for disaster. They warned
that a new Palestinian Intifada could erupt at any moment. Centrist and leftist
politicians also warned that Netanyahu’s outrageous submissiveness to the
religious far right will spell the end of Israeli democracy and its secular
foundations. They warn of a misogynist,
homophobic and openly racist government. Others likened it to an Israeli
version of Daesh!
The leftist newspaper Haaretz described the incoming
government as “radical, coercive and violent”, while outgoing Prime Minister
Yair Lapid simply called it “crazy”.
But despite all the warnings, Netanyahu has no
choice but to go ahead with putting together this most dangerous coalition with
little concern for what it means for the future of Israel or the embattled
Palestinians. So it is astounding to see that US Secretary of State Anthony
Blinken chose his words carefully when he addressed the J Street National
Conference last week. He underlined the Biden administration’s commitment to a
two-state solution, Israel’s security, and expanding the Abraham Accords. He
added that “we fully respect the democratic choice of the Israeli people” and
pledged “to gauge the government by the policies it pursues rather than
individual personalities”.
Israeli media reported last week that Washington had
set two red lines for the incoming Netanyahu government. One is not to annex
any parts of the West Bank, the other is not to change the existing status quo
at Al-Aqsa Mosque. It also said that Washington had warned that any escalation
against the Palestinians would hamper its efforts to cooperate with Israel in
dealing with the Iran nuclear deal!
Those two red lines will almost certainly be crossed
by the next Israeli government. How Washington and other Western capitals will
react when this is done is something that could be the beginning of a major
shift in policies toward Israel; however, it is unlikely that this shift will
occur. What is most likely is that Netanyahu will put Israel and the region on
the path of a conflagration with unpredictable results.
Osama Al Sharif is a journalist and political commentator based in Amman.
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