Shimon Stein was the Israeli Ambassador (2001-2007) and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Institute for National security studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University. Moshe Zimmermann, a Professor emeritus at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
When looking at the party landscape of Israel in the year 2019 it’s easy to lose perspective. More than 40 parties in the struggle for the voters ‘ favor. And because of the 3.25-percent clause will probably go up to ten percent of the valid votes lost. According to surveys, half a dozen of the parties is in a dangerous proximity to the 3.25 per cent threshold.
Netanyahu against Gantz
But one thing seems to be in confusion, to be clear: It boils down to a battle between the two major parties – below the belt, vulgar, mainly in the network. On the one hand, the Likud of Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, on the other hand, the new “Blue-White”party of the former General Benny Gantz. Basically, the question is: are you for or against “Bibi”?
2015, 2013 and 2009, it went already to this question. And each Time it was “Bibi,” managed to form the government, no matter who the Challenger was. Twice the main opponent ended up even at the end next to him in his coalition. And that’s exactly the scenario could repeat itself in 2019.
Many at home and abroad are amazed: it’s not about more? The two-state solution? To the Right against the left? Not. The two-state solution is no longer an issue. The comparison of the election propaganda of the two parties shows: “Blue-White” is only the Likud “light”. No wonder, because the talk of a possible Palestinian state, deters the majority of the voters. You wonder whether Donald Trump, after he recognized Israel’s claim to the Golan, will not approve of the Netanyahu announced the annexation of the West Bank?
All the two main matadors are right. Even if “Blue-White” as a party of the center to lure voters, mainly from the camp of the center, including those from the labour party. The most effective weapon of the Likud against the Migration of votes from the right to the “Blue-White” is the accusation that the party would be on the left. It works so well, because the majority of the Israeli Jews associated the right with right and the Jewish left, however, with betrayal.
And so dominate the political discourse long ago, the values and the language of the Right. In order to discredit a party or a Person, enough of the accusation, to be on the left. The parties are still to the values of the Left – that is to say: the labour party and the left-liberal Merez, the commitment to the two-state solution and for the equality of non-Jewish citizens – will gain in the best case, 15 percent of the vote. In 2015, there were twice as many.
Gaza? Slogan: “Platform
” On the right wing there are parties that put even more radical on the opposed right-to-left: The “New rights”, the “rights party”, “identity” or “Israel Our home” are parties who accuse the Likud’s lack of Jewish-national determination. They compete with each other, who is harder to deal with the Arab minority and the Palestinians in the occupied territories. They are irreversible for more settlements and the annexation of the West Bank. You outdo yourself with hard proposals for the solution of the problem of Gaza, to the Slogan “Flatten”.
your neo-liberalism is a Darwinist. Words like “strength,” “firmness” and “Power” play a huge role. The Likud Slogan, that the right and Netanyahu are for strength, the left and Gantz for weakness.
belongs To Netanyahu’s election strategy is the fomenting of fear of Israel’s Arab citizens since a Long time. His culture Minister, warned according to the voters prior to that, the “left Blue-and-White to support party”. She painted the spectre that there could be a coalition of “Blue-White” with the parties to the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel – as that would be treason.
then, As a well-known TV presenter, complained that in a democracy all citizens are equal, and the delegitimization of the Arab citizens of Israel was undemocratic, reported Netanyahu himself via Instagram: “Israel is not the state of all its citizens. Thanks to the new, adopted nation-state basic law Israel as the nation-state is alone of the Jewish people.“
government by weakening the judiciary
Netanyahu, and the Israeli-Jewish majority are convinced that neither this set nor the new basic law of the original idea of the Israeli democracy to speak. That the affected Arab minority in Israel (about one-fifth of the population, but as a Protest see only ten percent of the voters) and the shrinking of the Jewish Left, the different, does not change this basic attitude of Netanyahu’s nothing. In his chair, not able to shake (in the meantime) once the findings of the attorney General on corruption seriously. His followers, hold for a left-wing campaign. The results of the attorney-General will apply to them as an undemocratic attack of the judiciary, of the old elites to Netanyahu. Although the Likud’s 40 years in Power, he presents himself successfully as the representative of the “Suspended” and keeps the already severed, the old elites of the labour party is still the obstacle par excellence to the way the new elites to the deserved importance.
The government parties will generally be a weakening of the judiciary, which they accuse of left-wing intentions, even betrayal. Because this is also against settlers or soldiers, and takes her job seriously, to examine laws adopted by the Parliament, such as the nation-state law, the Constitution.
Minister of justice, to confuse fascism with democracy
The Minister of justice of the “New Right” promises in the election campaign, a greater “domestication” of justice in the Jewish state, with which it has already begun. In a choice spot, the Minister holds a perfume bottle with the inscription “fascism” and commented: “What our opponents of fascism call it, smells to me more like democracy.”
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Arte-documentary about Benjamin Netanyahu and His view of things
Christian Böhme
But a Minister of justice, the fascism confused with democracy; a candidate of the “right party”, the racism in law wants to translate; and the leader of the “identity party” could be for “a state for a people with a God -” advertising power, as a coalition partner even for Netanyahu unbearable. But then will no longer be “Blue-White” to be able to say no to a coalition with the Likud (and the parties of the ultra-Orthodox), in order to prevent “worse”. Those who hope for the end of the Era of Netanyahu, the Likud’s dominance, and thus a new beginning, do not agree with the predictions for the upcoming election on Tuesday is optimistic.
