Negotiations to form the next government of Israel became a game that nobody was going to win. There’re only losers in Netanyahu’s attempt to form again a right-wing government after the April 9 elections. The favorite culprit is Avigdor Lieberman for resisting Netanyahu’s undertaking to protect his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners by introducing a law that would further curtail the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox man in the IDF. Had Lieberman caved in, we would have had a government, we’re told. (I haven’t heard much blame of the ultra-Orthodox for not meeting Lieberman’s demands.)
Rumor has it that the proposed curtailment may not have been unwelcome by the IDF, because of the allegedly religious demands of its ultra-Orthodox recruits that cause the army more trouble than it’s worth. Lieberman, a former minister of defense, would have known this, but he has a different agenda: his old power base of immigrants from the former Soviet Union that was the bulk of his party is disintegrating because the immigrants have integrated into Israeli society and no longer vote for the “Russian” party. So he’s looking for a new constituency.
He may still be speaking for those immigrants from the former Soviet Union whose Jewish status isn’t acknowledged by the ultra-Orthodox establishment in Israel. That may be his way of getting back at the rabbis. However, perhaps he really wants to challenge Netanyahu as leader by insisting on the conscription clause. It made the coalition impossible and Netanyahu’s leadership was thus jeopardized. Lieberman may want to join Netanyahu’s Likud party and succeed him as the champion of secular Israel.
Then there’re those who question Netanyahu’s fitness for the office of prime minister reflected in his manipulation to get the next Knesset to approve a law that would grant him immunity from what otherwise would have been certain prosecution and likely conviction. The fact that such a law would also protect two ultra-Orthodox leaders accused of crimes, and Lieberman’s sworn enemies, (Litzman and Deri) would have been an added reason for Lieberman to stop the next government to be formed.
Whether the government after the elections, now scheduled for next September, will be different is by no means certain. At the moment, we can only see losers. In fact, Lieberman himself may not get enough votes to pass the minimum requirement and thus be out of the running altogether.
There’s no shortage of other potential losers. The biggest of them all is, of course, the Israeli public at large. New elections will cost untold millions spent on misinformation known as election propaganda and on the bureaucracy of organizing the elections. I’m by no means the only member of the public who feels cheated by the whole process and hoodwinked by unscrupulous politicians. I doubt whether we’ll be able to express it through the ballot box. More frustration is, therefore, on the cards.
In fact, we may end up with very much the same party constellation after the next election that we got after the previous one. The right-wing coalition isn’t likely to change, the ostensibly centrist opposition led by three former chiefs-of-staff and Yair Lapid doesn’t seem to have what it takes to challenge the sitting prime minister, and what’s left of the Left isn’t strong enough to present to the public a viable and realistic alternative.
Israel has achieved much, and the current prime minister has contributed to it. The haunting question is, of course, whether he and the other politicians are now about to squander it all.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World