Netanyahu Holds On Three lessons from Israel’s stalemated politics.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/netanyahu-holds-on-11569454352
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been counted out of politics many times in his long career, including after last week’s election saw his center-right coalition fail to win the necessary 61-seat parliamentary majority. On Wednesday he was granted a mandate to form a government, though what happens next is anyone’s guess.
Mr. Netanyahu’s main rival, Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party, also failed narrowly to win a majority. If Mr. Netanyahu can’t twist enough arms to form a government, Mr. Gantz may get a chance—or Israelis may need to head to the ballot box for an unprecedented third time.
There are wider lessons to be drawn from the political tumult. The first is that Israelis have moved right on security. Last week’s election was triggered because Mr. Netanyahu’s longtime partner Avigdor Lieberman, a secular-nationalist hawk, split with Mr. Netanyahu over religious issues. Mr. Lieberman felt comfortable sinking a center-right government in part because he knew that the opposition would not deviate much from Mr. Netanyahu’s positions on borders and security.
While the Blue and White party strikes a more inclusive tone when it comes to Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, many of its leaders are drawn from the upper ranks of the Israel Defense Forces, including General Gantz. In power he may be more aggressive about defending Israel’s interests in the region. American liberals hoping that a Prime Minister Gantz would repudiate President Trump’s Iran policies and make a priority of restarting the peace process will be disappointed.
Another lesson is that Israeli Arabs are participating more fully in the country’s democratic system. Their high turnout helped deny Mr. Netanyahu a majority. While the Arab “Joint List” says it won’t participate in any government, Arab parties made their first recommendation for prime minister since 1992 in endorsing Mr. Gantz. The ethnic divides in Israel are deep, but this could signal a healthy integration of the minority into the political process.
The uncertainty in Jerusalem also suggests that using corruption charges to oust Mr. Netanyahu may have backfired as a political strategy. The prime minister might be less willing to leave office while under indictment for corruption (which he vigorously denies). Mr. Netanyahu wants the Knesset to pass a law granting him immunity. While a unity government with both Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud and Mr. Gantz’s Blue and White may be the only plausible path out of the stalemate, Mr. Gantz has promised his supporters he won’t join a government with Mr. Netanyahu so long as he is under indictment.
The lesson about using the criminal-justice system to influence the political process has obvious implications for the U.S. If politics in Washington seems more chaotic than ever, it’s a comfort—if a small one—that the admired democratic systems in the U.K. and Israel are also struggling to find a workable consensus amid sharp political divisions.
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