Elections in Israel, much more than it seems and (maybe) will seem – 12/04/2019

The ingenious and somewhat chicano criticism echoed by Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak about the ease of Palestinians never to miss the opportunity to miss an opportunity, perhaps it will suit the Israelis themselves now. This is at least one of the readings that can be drawn from the outcome of the recent general elections that marked, in principle, the continuity of the far-right government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

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The eventual change from the Israeli reality to more moderate and central positions, which seemed to imply this election by the new impetus of the Blue and White opposition alliance, had two dimensions. In one of them, that implied the reversal of the capitulation that the country is experiencing in the face of religious extremism. Netanyahu has guaranteed his majority since 2009, with theocratic parties, some openly racist who, in exchange for a legislative favor, they imposed medieval visions that scandalized even the Jews of the diaspora.

These minorities also influence the other dimension, which implies that it can be reduced to a disposable fantasy the complex Palestinian issue. Netanyahu has succumbed to the unreserved support of the Donald Trump government, destroying one by one the foundations of the two-state solution needed to put an end to the 70-year-old crisis.

These two controversies, the cultural realism and pure realism that warns that "about half of the population of the Mediterranean to Jordan are Palestinians," said the President of the World Jewish Council, Ronald Lauder, would only be An abstraction if the incomplete picture of the election is observed. We will see that there is much more.

Netanyahu asked to be re-elected not only to show his political power, but especially protect yourself from a bunch of allegations of corruption that threaten to drop him sooner or later in Wing 10 of Maasiyahu Prison, reserved for former prime ministers. The Economist recalls that his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who led the second Lebanon war in the middle of the last decade, suffered a defeat or draw, preferring the official narrative.

This conflict took place in the middle of an internal crisis. A president and a justice minister have been accused of badual harbadment. The army chief has been denounced for using his confidential information for his stock trading. Like Olmert, Netanyahu has been accused of receiving bribes, offering favors to friendly businessmen and media partners to ensure a successful coverage of his government..

To avoid the nightmare that lurks at these positions, the prime minister needs a strong government that promulgates a law banning justice from persecuting the acting president. For this, he needs the support of the ultra-Orthodox with his huge bill and arabophobes, which they generally translate negotiation by surrender.

In its future alliance, precisely, there is a group, Unión de la Derecha, which has won five essential seats for this meccano complex. At the heart of the group are leaders and forces such as the extremist Jewish power (Otzma Yehudit), a detachment of Rabbi Meir Kahane's Katch party, who in the 1980s proposed to "transfer" the millions of Palestinians to the countries Arab. and ban marriage between Jews and Arabs

Kahane's party was banned at the time by the court, accused of being a terrorist. And the same fate, as a racist, continued for his later variants, including that which guides a Baruch Marzel seeking a ministry in the new government. Marzel, like his co-religionists, is an admirer of Jewish extremist Baruch Goldstein, a member of the Katch party, who mbadacred in 1994 29 Muslims who prayed at the tomb of the patriarchs in Hebron.

The coalition that supports the government is also involved in the new New Right, which includes the current Minister of Justice, Ayelet Shaked, who became famous around the world for an advertising campaign in which she appears in a sophisticated model a fake perfume called "fascism". Netanyahu seduced these sectors and the ultra-clerics of the 16-seat Union for Torah and Shas, promising to annex part of the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and claiming that it would not withdraw a single settler from the West Bank. these lands, even to which the Israeli justice itself denounces as illegal occupations.

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It has for this the record already granted by the White House as one of the most beautiful campaign gifts. Trump announced, contrary to international criteria, United States recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights transferred to Syria during the Six Day War. If it was possible, everything else too.

This view of the election would be incomplete if it was not noticed that the election revealed the existence of another attitude that would manifest in Israeli society . The parliamentary system requires a minimum of 61 seats to form a government. The white and blue centrist alliance opposing Gen. Benny Gantz to the presidency won 35 seats, as against 36 of the ruling Likud. It is a political fact that this force, barely two months old since its foundation, has reached this level.

The formation is neither left nor far left, Netanyahu shaking it. scare the huge tribe of undecided with this term. On the contrary, it is a central movement, critical of the power of ultra-religious minorities and with a slightly more realistic view of the dispute with the Palestinians. Without exaggeration: the Gantz campaign also did not refer to the two-state solution.

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His base of support is what remains of Labor and Meretz, the former national center-left.

The elections also revealed that the Jewish House party, which until recently belonged to the former Minister of Education, Naftali Bennet, emblematic of ultranationalism and the breakdown of any agreement with the Palestinians. did not exceed the limit of the votes and outside the camera. Bennet is badociated with Shaked in the New Right.

It is hard to say today if these insights are part of a change that will be pronounced. The truth is that the panorama also reveals a decline in public confidence in the power of the vote. The abstention increased by 4 points compared to 2015. Among the Israeli Arabs, it was even mbadive. But for Netanyahu, there are other more immediate problems that compound the festivities.

In the best of all worlds, the new government will be formed with 65 seats. One of the key partners, former Foreign Minister and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, support conditions for a break with the ultra-religious. This hawk came from Moldova and the founder of a powerful immigrant party, Israel Our House, is the one who left Netanyahu without a majority six months ago, angry because he considered that the military action against Hamas in Gaza needed to be deepened.

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Acute observers in Israel told this chronicle that Lieberman wanted the Likud is badociated with the blue and the white of Gantz, in the style of the German Große Koalition between Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, sweep the ultra-Orthodox of the future government. Netanyahu needs the votes of the former leader to reach the majority. The question is complicated. Lieberman left his proposal and went "on vacation" to Europe. It appeared in those hours that Yair Lapid, the second Gantz, "had also left Europe in a surprising way," the source added to this chronicler. The question gains interest if it is observed that the newspaper Maariv He said Friday that the president's consultations with the parties will begin with Netanyahu and Gantz calling on them to form a national coalition government. The surprises
Copyright Clarín, 2019