Let this be a harbinger of things to come in the US!
2
To his question, "Why was Netanyahu desperate?", the writer seems a little too quick to reply, "Because he sees himself as the savior of Israel." That he then offers as a mere postscript, the more likely explanation-- that the noose of investigations for corruption is at last tightening-- suggests Mr. Cohen is not grappling with the real implication of the moment.
Israel's only chance at surviving the long, dark night of Netanyahu will require the man's conviction and sentencing. Anything less is deckchairs on the Titanic.
30
The Palestinians as a recent invention? What an odd and dangerous characterization for an Israeli as opposed to a Jewish leader. The Chinese probably think of Americans as a recent invention. Recent or not, we're all here: denying that basic reality seems a recipe for endless war.
7
Israel's ultra-orthodox religious parties looks a lot like the U.S. fundamentalists, selective on constitutional requirements.
6
Let's hope the fall of yet another Trump clone ushers in a Global Spring for humanity.
4
I hope the Israeli's rise to the occasion and turn their country into an actual democracy. Maybe this is the moment.
3
Netanyahu has played his hand exceedingly well, until now. He feigned interest in a "peace process" all the while setting up impossible barriers to entry for the Palestinians. He feigned respect for international law regarding settlements as long as U.S. presidents said it was important; but of course he continued to authorize building and did so while Joe Biden was in town.
Along comes Trump who gave Netanyahu free rein. He's now let the rope out far enough to hang himself.
4
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu skillfully "played" US President Donald Trump by plying him with inaccurate information, former secretary of state Rex Tillerson said. …
"In dealing with Bibi, it's always useful to carry a healthy amount of skepticism in your discussions with him," he was quoted as saying, using Netanyahu's nickname.
"They did that with the president on a couple of occasions, to persuade him that 'We're the good guys, they're the bad guys.'
"We later exposed it to the president so he understood, 'You've been played,'" Tillerson said, according to the newspaper.
"It bothers me that an ally that's that close and important to us would do that to us," he said.
https://www.france24.com/en/20190919-netanyahu-played-trump-with-misinformation-tillerson
1
Perhaps easier to see from a distance, cruel corrupt con men have a shelf life, which they extend by fanning fear and racial animus. Their time does run out. Let's hope Bibi is removed and disgraced now. Cohen is correct when he states that Bibi's agenda has been to illegally annex the West Bank all along. Talk of a two state solution was always a diversion, a cruel distraction, while Israel seized more land, more water, made life more unbearable for Palestinians, all violations of the Geneva Convention. May Bibi serve the rest of his life in prison; that's where he belongs.
3
Benjamin Netanyahu is a Mini-Me of Donald Trump. Bibi too is a liar, a grifter, a narcissist, who is corrupt beyond all doubt and a con man of the first rank. Israel therefore is lucky to have such intelligent voters, who have had enough of Bibi and Sara's foul behavior. Hopefully, that same outcome will soon occur in the USA, and Mr. Trump will be deposed.
2
Israel is an ethnocracy, a self-proclaimed "Jewish state" not a democracy. The Knesset recently passed a law declaring that only Jews enjoy self-determination in Israel. Merely placing the words "Israel" and "democracy" together in the same sentence does not change the ugliness of reality.
8
Re: the headline "Bibi Netanyahu Trapped in His Labyrinth": it's time for the NYTimes to stop referring to Netanyahu by a nickname aka term of endearment. I can't think of another world leader whom the Times refers to in this affectionate way. Certainly not other leaders in the Middle East. This is similar to Trump's use of epithets like "Crazy Bernie". Neither the nicknames nor the epithets are appropriate.
2
If Netanyahu didn't like Arabs why did he move to the Middle East?
2
The logical outcome of the present Israeli Prime Minister's rule will lead to either the ethnic cleansing of Arabs from Israel proper, the slow motion strangling of its non-Jewish citizenry the form of Apartheid, or the presence of brutal Bantus in an "open" society., An internal reckoning for that nation, which is self-inflicted.
2
great column
1
What’s in the water in Israel to make them wake up and throw the Emperor out? Perhaps we can borrow it here for the Trumpistas to drink and come to their senses.
2
It is a travesty that a man like Bibi was elected to the Knesset. A corrupt crypto-fascist with a corrupting influence on his people.
Down with people like him.
1
It's shameful that almost half of Israel supports that crook and tyrant! Sic Semper Tyranis!
2
Netanyahu has been a disaster for Israel. A two-state solution today seems very unlikely and in its stead Israel has only terrible choices: endless military occupation of a foreign land, annexation of the occupied territories coupled to the violent ejection of Palestine's Arab population or annexation coupled with incorporation of Arabs which would inevitably cause the loss of Israel's identity as a Jewish state.
This is Netanyahu's legacy: disastrous options. What were Israelis thinking when they kept him in office for a decade?
1
Labyrinth doesn't seem the right word to describe Netanyahu's strategy, there being nothing secretive or tangled about his stated intent to annex the West Bank. In contrast, there is Trump, a self-made Minotaur in a self-induced labyrinth which no one would enter even if invited, even if they could find the entrance. There is no comparison between the two. Netanyahu knows what he is doing. Trump doesn't.
But did Netanyahu really mean what he said about annexation? No one seems to care that Putin annexed Crimea. But, to annex the West Bank by force--there would certainly be some resistance--seems highly risky because it might well provoke millions of Muslims will billions in resources who do care. Who knows where that would go. It also wouldn't sit well with millions more who are not Muslims.
Fortunately for Israel and the world, it appears we will never know whether Natanyahu meant what he said. If so, West Bank annexation can go in the trash can where it belongs.
27
Israel may have had enough of this particular showman. I doubt it took into consideration any deep human rights issues, last hope for peace with the Palestinians in a two-state solution. And I'm not holding out hope that the next prime minister will do better on this front.
80
@PT
Ever wonder how the Palestinians have done on this "front" with Abbas at the helm serving his 15th year of a four year term. Who is the King in this scenario?
8
Others say that Netanyahu had good intentions at some earlier time. I doubt it. He has Rabin's blood on his hands. He incited the settlers to rebel against Labor in the early '90s and set the stage for the great man's assassination. If Rabin had survived, peace with a Palestinian state in place would have occurred long ago. Leah Rabin wouldn't shake Netanyahu's hand at Rabin's funderal, and I didn't blame her. To top it off, there is no way that Netanyahu has Israel's best long-term interests at heart. An accelerating death of liberal Zionism and real democracy is a failure that all Jews, Israeli Arabs and Palestinians should regret. I hope it's not too late, but incredible damage has been done, and all of Israel has taken a turn to the illiberal right, even if Netanyahu is really gone.
8
Well written, but I must disagree with one point.
You maintain that Ariel "Arik" Sharon evolved. (I disagree. I was at a New York synagogue in the spring of 1980 when Sharon spoke. He could not and would not say the word "Palestinian".) Sharon never evolved in his viewing of the Palestinians. Before his massive stroke, he agreed to withdraw Israel from Gaza. For whatever reason, he refused to negotiate the withdrawal with the Palestinians. Had he done so, the Palestinian moderates would have been able to say that yes, negotiations do work. That would have set in motion a whole new dynamic that would have encouraged future negotiations.
By unilaterally pulling out of Gaza, Sharon set in motion the take over of Gaza by Hamas and the resulting never ending rocket attacks and other terrorist actions again Israel and Israelis. It became a self fulfilling prophecy that the Palestinians would not negotiate with Israel because they saw (and still see) no reason to.
1
The only "solution" to the " Israeli" problem is a one state solution. 25% of Israel is non-Jewish. 20% are Arab and the Arab minority is growing. Most Israeli's are not religious. The geography and size of the Palestinian territories do not provide the a viable basis for a nation state. A one state solution will happen. It's only a matter of time, something that's in ample abundance in the history of the middle east.
I would think that Israeli Jews, of all people, would have been horrified at a government claiming am identifiable group of people didn't exist and had no right to exist. In this case Palestinians.
8
Netanyahu has always been the standard bearer for those who pine for "Eretz Israel" a return to it's biblical borders. Though hardly a realist goal for a government, like Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan it does have an appeal to certain voters. Hopefully the bloom is finally going off that rose.
3
If he is guilty of criminal acts, I hope he goes to prison, because that would show that at least one country in the world cares about prosecuting criminal politicians. Is it too much to hope that Trump would be next if Bibi goes down?
6
I read the headlines yesterday and breathed a big, if tenuous, sigh of relief. When future historians write of the events in our time, these first two decades will be looked upon with horror as the leaders of some of the world's shining examples of enlightened self-rule used their positions for little more than inciting anger, hate, and fear for self-interest and the peddling of misguided ideologies far divorced from any truth. Israel is one of those nations and, of course, we are the other.
To their greater shame, instead of using their nation's unparalleled good fortune and prosperity to responsibly lead the way for others, leaders corrupted their power to oppress others, as if anyone can wall themselves off from our common humanity. They mined the worst elements within their nations to support personal power, greatly inflated the intractability of existing problems and caused horrific damage and misery to untold millions. In the end, they only setback their own cause.
Of course, voters are equally complicit in supporting the perfidy of these leaders. But, if not our leaders, then to whom do we turn for inspiration?
Hopefully, as we close out these first two decades, people will finally tire of carrying in them the burdens of hate and anger and look to a better way. Israel is not only America's conscious, but one whose history carries a special responsibility to humankind. If not the Jewish nation, then to whom does humanity turn for its hope and promise?
2
How does an Israeli voter express concern for Israel's right to exist as a Jewish State apart from voting for Bibi? Palestinians and the Arab States surrounding Israel have never accepted the basic premise that the Israel has a legitimate claim to be a sovereign nation in Palestine. The BDS movement reiterates this position with its demand for a full right of return for Palestinian refugees. When asked about Israel's right to sovereignty as a Jewish State, BDS spokesman Omar Barghouti stated, "Not in Palestine." How would Americans respond to a movement that sought to return political sovereignty of the United States to the native tribes that were disbursed and ethnically cleansed as part of the European settlement of our own nation? Nation States are necessarily created through means, often violent, that establish sufficient ethnic, religious, and political homogeneity to secure their stable governance and long term existence. Liberal calls for other means and remedies ignore history, and their own easy acceptance of the identical crimes committed by their ancestors to secure the nation and personal safety they take for granted.
2
Bibi reminds me so much of Trump, two politically corrupt individuals who cause hatred and discord to stay in power. It is past time Bibi is gone.
3
Italians recently rejected right wing extremist government. Israelis have done the same. The misguided slog towards Brexit in the UK has been forestalled. Perhaps there is hope for a rejection of the error that is Trump come 2020. Perhaps there is hope that, unlike the mid 20th century, the world will come to its senses before the surge in fascist demagogues so mesmerize the fearful and the susceptible that only a global war can provide the corrective. Am I dreaming?
6
Thank you Mr. Cohen for such a thoughtful and beautifully written piece. I can only hope that our 2020 elections will bring the veil down and Mr. Trump will be sent packing. His destruction of America will be near complete if he gets 4 more years. Israel is a very small country that will always (Dem or Repub) have the unfettered support of America and the American people, but who will we have -- he's quickly turning the world against us and who could blame the world -- his vicious ignorance is painful to watch day in and day out.
6
Security and a peace via a two-state solution are intertwined. Cohen's emphasizes that this coupling demands Netanyahu's exit . I agree. Benny Gantz is not going to compromise Israel's security, but sadly he has become the last obstacle to an irreversible forever war if Netanyahu's proposal for annexation takes place. Gantz absolute position that Netanyahu not be included in any unity government nourishes hope. Good column by Roger.
3
"His tactical genius in advancing this goal must be acknowledged, even if the strategy leaves Israel mired in a forever conflict."
This is the crux - his policies lead for a forever conflict. He has promoted those policies unrelentingly, with the support of his party. He has taught Israelis that these are the policies that are essential to Israel.
And the only outcome of those policies is forever conflict.
There are terms other than tactical genius that better describe this man.
1
@Brent Beach,
Conflict = uncertainty, fear and doubt.
Uncertainty, fear and doubt = desire for stability, certainty
Desire for stability, certainty = leadership stability.
It's the perfect formula for re-election, maintaining power.
I am no fan of Netanyahu. I admire his strategy and tactics. He is intelligent, and a skilful salesman. He was able to convince his audience, by promoting his "I am the Savior" product banner.
Perhaps, Mr. Netanyahu, during his over the twenty odd years tenure, went too far with displaying his power in Office. Side stepping the prospects of the Israeli - Palestinian peace deal. Continuing to take over occupied West Bank land. Actions that were disliked by many. Of all these actions, what was most notable was Netanyahu's sheer disrespect to a POTUS. Forgetting the fact that the US was the strongest ally and supporter of Israel. It was Netanyahu's ego and power pride in display and practise.
The results in the recent elections, show the people have come to reckon that they prefer their country to be a democracy. That, they want a change in leadership, new blood and a different perspective, to benefit the people and country.
5
If, as Netanyahu apparently believes, there is no such thing as Palestinians, others may believe that Israeli Jews are as Palestinian as the Moslems who live on the West Bank.
Absurd? Maybe not.
The shift in power in Israel may well be due in no small part to the broad international opposition to Netanyahu’s right-wing, nationalist and expansionist policies. It won him the support of the ultra-religious parties in Israel, which he needed to form a government. It lost him support of Jews around the world.
Perhaps the rise of organizations like J Street and NIF and other American Jewish organizations that are revulsed by Israel’s hard right turn have been heard. Jews in the diaspora who love Israel think less of her as an undemocratic theocracy. Once can measure the level of concern by the increase support and attention paid to the BDS movement though out the world, including among college students in the United States.
There is a broad recognition that Israel cannot remain a liberal democracy with 20% of its population living as second class citizens or with an endless military occupation of the West Bank. Its choices seem clear; two states with an independent Palestine and no Israeli settlements on the West Bank or one bi-national Israel/Palestine with equal rights for Israeli Jews and Palestinian Moslems to live in peace wherever they desire. It is the only hope for a lasting peace.
10
Bibi could step down from leadership of the Likud party and a unity government would be formed in a heartbeat. His attempt to portray himself as the rational partner just looking to heal the political divisions in Israel is a cynical attempt to protect himself from facing prosecution. Is Likud a proper political party or simply a platform to keep Netanyahu as King.
76
@KJ Peters Netanyahu stepping down leaves a party that has supported him and his policies for decades. That is not good enough.
Trump stepping down leaves a Republican party that has sat silently by through all his outrages and his lies. That is not good enough.
Stepping down is comparable to allowing people to retire to avoid criminal charges.
Both Likud and Republican parties must pay for their abasement before these men.
Only then will their nations be strong again.
15
@KJ Peters Bibi is as corrupt as they come and Israel will never have peace while he is in their government.
5
Roger, as I read your essay, I find myself going back to one of Bibi's ilk, i.e., Donald Trump. The resemblance is striking and beyond a coincidence. To employ the old adage: Who came first, the chicken or the egg when it relates to a prototype, a model of corrupt egotism? Both men's history and character traits seem to have always been ominous. I do not feel as if Netanyahu's intentions from the get-go were either honorable or those of peaceful coexistence. Like his counterpart in a darkened White House, the bottom line has always been about omnipotence, total control, and nationalism to the exclusion of the "other." I truly hope that this is the beginning of the end of Bibi's rule. And I pray that we in the United States will learn by this debacle. Trump needs to be called to justice, also. But I have more faith in the people of Israel than I do of my fellow Americans and certainly the Republican Party.
235
I wish the preference to refer to Benjamin Netanyahu as ‘Bibi”—if he were some fond friend could end. He is neither a friend to the US nor even to Israel at this point. His many years in power seems to have eroded any moral compass he may have had and he has played Trump for the fool he believes Trump to be. He couldn’t get away with that with Obama which is why he showed such disrespect for him: Obama at least had Netanyahu’s number.
42
@S Goldberg The chicken, evolutionarily, obvioulsy came first. So, too, the vitriol these would-be dictators exploit came first. They are but symptoms of ancient grievances in the evolution of the human expereince.
3
@Kathy Lollock The chicken, evolutionarily, obviously came first. So, too, the vitriol these would-be dictators exploit came first. They are but symptoms of ancient grievances in the evolution of the human experience.
1
Roger Cohen's analysis is as well-reasoned as it is well-written. In the end, I attribute Netanyahu's exit to the emotional exhaustion felt by a large segment of the Israeli public who are driven less by ideology than by a yearning for some peace and quiet among the diverse strands of Israeli society. There are many challenges ahead, but this is a promising start.
231
@David S. Glosser
True; there is emotional exhaustion. But who among those who oppose Mr. N can deliver peace? What type of peace will emotionally energize the people? There isn't a person, and there isn't a peace to be had. Such is, very sadly, the reality.
9
@David S. Glosser
And let's see how exhausted the usual Israel-bashing Left is when no matter who becomes Israel's next prime minister, the Palestinians will reject yet another sweeping peace proposal ... only this time, Israel-bashers won't have the convenience of blaming everything on Netanyahu. And this is not counting Hamas who is sworn openly to Israel's destruction, and at least is honest enough unlike the Palestinian Authority to put on a show for the benefit of Western leftist naifs -- well-meaning and not so well-meaning.
13
Well JW, you'd expect a difficult course of negotiation given the bad faith exercised by the parties over time, particularly by Israel, the more powerful party by far. A necessary start would be the withdrawal from the illegal settlements. Do you think that is possible?
4
As for Donald Trump's conspicuous silence through Netanyahu's difficulties: this president has neither personal friends nor political allies. He will affix himself to whoever he finds it expedient to do so at a given moment, whether he thinks that someone else will do a favor for him, or if he thinks it will win him political support at home.
Bibi is just as shallow. Pity neither man nor his respective predicament.
480
@NM When Trump leaves, and he will one way or another, may he see the same quality of friendship and loyalty. We should give it a thought, shrug, and go forward to repairing the damage.
28
@Potter
Give it a thought, shrug? No, cheer! Dance in the streets! Declare a national day of rejoicing! The end of Trump - by whatever means - will a day for the history books.
34
@NM Pity they’ve aged out of the proper profession, which surely isn’t governance...but far, far older.
9
The prospect of him actually paying a price for his corruption, Brexit falling apart at the seams, and the populist woes in Italy give me some hope that maybe there is a path away from the lunacy that has enveloped global politics in the last 4 years or so. We get our chance to add a chapter to that book next year.
662
@DennisMcG
We may add a chapter to that book next year, God willing, but the novel is just being written.
We are seeing that humanity will not go willingly into the cosmopolitan, secular, globalist, post-gender, borderless Brave New World. Brexit, Trump, et al., is just prologue.
31
@DennisMcG
I have always looked at Star Trek: The Next Generation as a source of positivity in the belief and hope the people of the world could actually learn to work and live together. That the future of mankind does not have to be so bleak. As Captain Picard would say, “Make it so!”
25
Add to your list what happened in Greece. The populists were thrown out of office and sanity has returned after five years.
31
Wow, that's crazy. Hope everything ends up going well.
This is not a vote on Netanyahu as much as a struggle over the continuation of the socialist welfare state for the growing ultra-religious.
It’s time for math and English in ALL Israeli schools. Every last one of them...kids deserve a chance to be productive.
5
While I cheer the exit of Netanyahu and the reemergence of hope for Israel's democracy, Israel is not out of the woods yet. As with Trump supporters in the US, Israel has about a 40 percent voting block composed of religious zealots, racists and fear mongering liars who are not going away. An equally disgusting right-wing leader is just an election away. For that reason, progressives must remain vigalent and continue to go to the poles.
9
Israelis that vote and voted in the past for Netanyahu must have bought into this narrative basically denying Palestinians their rights their land and existence. In the meantime, with bully tactics fear mongering, wall building, settlement building, infrastructure building in the West Bank, land grabbing, while keeping Gaza a prison.
Netanyahu led poisoning the well with regard to getting along with Palestinians, talking out of both sides of his mouth about peace and two states. These years he has steered Israel into a corner so obvious one wonders. Israel must either become an apartheid one state or a democracy shared with Arabs OR, somehow now, "the two state solution"( and a viable one for Palestinians) must arise. Otherwise Israel continues along the same path, detrimental to itself.
3
"Why was Netanyahu desperate? Because he sees himself as the savior of Israel?" No. Because he is a racist bigot. And, as on these shores, the cementing of an extreme nationalist agenda at the top is the end goal. Of course, the ultimate irony of Israel's right wing has always been that they scream bloody murder about the Palestinians wanting to wipe out the Jewish people while they themselves try to wipe out the Palestinian people.
7
It's not just Israeli Jews who are fed up with Bibi. He's making life worse for Jews in foreign lands. The world is mostly appalled at his actions and Jews are being held responsible even when they do not agree with his hawkish policies. If Israel wants the continued support of countries like Canada, they need to remove this criminal and get back to running at least a somewhat honest government. The world is noticing and we're not happy at all.
8
Poor, Bibi. No matter how hard he tries, he's never going to be Yoni.
2
An Israel not off the rails would be a good thing for the region and for US interests. That would be any secular government not headed by Likud.
3
Another failure going into the trashcan of history. Failure as a human, a politician and as a leader.
2
Netanyahu seems to have had more support from American evangelical Christians than from secular Israeli Jews. That factoid speaks volumes.
10
Hopeful he will be gone from Israel's government and trumps ear. We will dump trump in 2000.
2
It would indeed be ironic if at the same moment that Netanyahu is consigned to history his poisoned trashing of the Iran nuclear deal is coming to fruition in heightened tensions north and east of Israel.
1
Roger: I would think that you and other liberals who believe that Israel has been too belligerent and heavy-handed toward the Palestinians would actually be in favor of the "ultra-Orthodox" being given "mass exemptions from compulsory military service" in the Israeli armed forces. But of course your antipathy to Mr. Netanyahu (primarily because our pathetic President likes him) trumps your concerns about Israel trampling on Palestinian rights.
2
@Jay Orchard I am a Jewish Liberal and I DO NOT feel the Ultra-Orthodox should be given mass exemptions from the compulsory military service. Also my (and Roger Cohen's) dislike of Netanyahu predates Trump's political rise by many years. Both are totally corrupt and for themselves only.
@Jay Orchard
> I would think that you and other liberals who believe that Israel has been too belligerent and heavy-handed toward the Palestinians would actually be in favor of the "ultra-Orthodox" being given "mass exemptions from compulsory military service" in the Israeli armed forces.
That is an astounding non sequitur
1
I'm with you Roger. As part of all this, it's worth taking note of the meaning of Bibi acting like Trump and all the bad things that says about Israeli and American politics, as I do here: https://realcontextnews.com/bibis-trump-show-how-israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu-wins-by-imitating-the-donald/
Netanyahu may not be king but he sure knows how to abuse his power. The Israeli people are well educated, and know what's at issue; because of that, it behooves them to send him packing; otherwise, they would fully own him, and deserving of their fate.
2
"Trapped in his own labyrinth"? That expression reminds me of Picasso's Minotaurmachy suite of drawings, not to mention his 1941 play, "Desire Caught by the Tail." See https://www.pablopicasso.org/minotauromachy.jsp
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desire_Caught_by_the_Tail
Getting Bibi out of government and into a jail cell will not solve Israels problems. But it's a start.
6
At the core of this issue is Israel's land use policy in the west bank that issues building permits on the occupied territories overwhelmingly to Jews. The consequence of this policy has been the restriction of Arabs to a sliver of lad that is as densely occupied as Detroit, and to enable the building of vast Jewish settlements on occupied territories. The Jews have all the power in Israel and in the occupied territories and this is how he uses this power. This power has corrupted the Israel. This situation will ultimately end and it will not end well.
4
Time for Netanyahu to go to prison for his crimes. The indictments have been filed.
I think that Gantz has a good chance this time as well .
2
Last chance for peace? This is the usual blather from an incurable naif like Roger Cohen who -- as with all types like him -- just can't get his head around the fact that Israel is NOT responsible for everything that goes wrong in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Such a mentality can't move beyond the main theology of identity politics: if you are a successful Western country, you must be an oppressor; if you are a failed Third-World culture, you simply must be the blameless victim (and of course, the darker you are, the more innocent you must be).
The Palestinians rejected each and every peace proposal ever offered them. By the League of Nations in 1937. By the UN in 1948. By Israel's offer to negotiate after the 1967 6-Day War. By a left prime minister Ehud Barak in partnership with Democrat Bill Clinton. By a centrist prime minister Ehud Olmert with Republican George W Bush. By suspending settlement building in established settlement blocks for 10 months by Netanyahu in 2009 at the urging and pressure of Barack Obama as a gesture to the Palestinians to come back to the negotiating table, which of course was rejected. Yet again. And that's not counting Gaza controlled by Islamists sworn to Israel's destruction who took it over after Israel ended that "occupation" unilaterally.
Let's ask Roger and people who swallow this dogmatic line why he thinks that somehow whoever becomes Israel's next prime minister will somehow bring peace this time? He'll never answer.
7
And yet the absolute criminal Bibi is already saying he's a "victim" of a "media bias". Israel finally (FINALLY!) gets a vote right, and now we all quake in our shoes wondering if this fraud will actually LEAVE his office. Can US voters measure up to the Israelis in 14 months time and do the same? I'm not sure. And even if we do get it right, will the Russian asset currently squatting in the White House actually leave? Who would have ever thought we'd be asking ourselves this question...in this country. We may never recover. Israel might not either.
5
Although the Israeli government does have its flaws, it's still a democracy nonetheless. Much of what occurs there is no different than what any other democracy would be facing. The only reason why Bibi has served so many terms as PM is because they don't have term limits. In other words, he will continue to serve either until he is voted out of office or just decides to retire after an upcoming term. However, losing an election doesn't deny them from trying to run again in the next one. Unfortunately, with what's going on with the Israelii-Palestinian issues, a person such as him is needed whether we like it or not. Keep in mind that Israel has seen PMs come and go for the last 70 years unlike in the Palestinian territories where both PA heads Arafat and Abbas tend to serve for life even though their terms are supposed to be for four years with elections to follow afterwards. As a matter of fact, the last time the Palestinian territories een had elections was more than a decade ago and will probably not hold any others for a good amount of time unlike Israel that holds elections on a regular basis. More importantly, if Israel was really and apartheid state, then its Arab population wouldn't be allowed to vote or even be allowed to run for political office, which was the case when South Africa had those laws for anyone who wasn't white when they under apartheid rule. Should they not vote, it will be because of their own choice, not by denial through law.
4
Benjamin Netanyahu wants to retain his Prime Ministership. He's proclaimed he will form a coalition in the Knesset to lead Israel. Benny Gantz, his Blue and White opponent says no, he'll form the coalition sans Bibi. Donald Trump, our president, announced "we will work with Israel" He didn't mention his great pal. Didn't throw Netanyahu an American lifebuoy.
Israel's democracy, rid of the Netanyahu government at long last, may well birth a two-state solution to the conundrum that's beleaguered the Middle East since the late 1800s. Will the baby be split in Israel?.
2
“bury any last hope of a two-state peace“
Two-state peace has been buried and dead for years.
It’s not just Netanyahu, who buried the two-state solution on the Israeli side. Revisionist Zionist leaders rejected the UN partition plan that created Israel. Likud charter rejects a Palestinian state. Likud has never wanted and will never accept a two-state solution for peace. Netanyahu was just particularly skilled at killing the two-state solution. The key part of his pitch to Israelis was that he could annex any land Israel wanted, deny the people of the annexed lands Israeli citizenship (Muslim and Christian Arabs in annexed East Jerusalem and in Golan Heights are not Israeli citizens), move Israel to a full Apartheid state, fully destroy the two-state solution, and still have Israel not pay a price in terms of international law or face world pressure because of his great relationships with Trump and Putin and MBS and Sisi and other autocrats.
But every Israeli Prime Minister since 1967 has expanded the illegal Israeli Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. Even a genuine peace maker and martyr (killed by a Zionist terrorist) like Rabin expanded the settlements.
And, yes, of course, the Palestinians also killed two-state peace with their terrorism, corruption, incompetence & terrible leadership.
The Israelis always have & probably always will outplay the Palestinians.
Two-state peace was buried a long time ago and may have been just a mirage in the desert all along.
2
And now, trump has cast Netanyahu aside like an old shoe. Bibi is learning what every other human being who has ever come in contact with trump has learned: "Friendship" with Donnie is distinctly a one way street, with an expiration "any minute".
By next week trump will say he doesn't even know the guy.
Karma does exist.
4
It will be nice to see the moving van pull up and drive Netanyahu into retirement. I wonder what the Palestinians think; with Abbas in year 15 of his 4 year term. Actually I wonder what all of the citizens of the Arab world think, only Tunisia has any semblance of democracy. Israel has shown it is a true democracy, and the numerous Arabs in the Knesset are a testament to that fact. It's interesting that most of the popularly elected Arab legislators in the middle east, elected in a free election, are in Israel.
2
Regardless of the intentions in its initial creation, Israel has never been a democracy. Let's understand that first of all. Palestinians cannot be part of the government except to vote in the Knesset, as they did.
Yet, to allow Palestinian Israelis a full measure of participation endangers the foundational reason for an Israel itself. A true democratic shift there means Israel becomes something other, perhaps preferable, than what it is. The present situation leaves no other option than to call it a kind of theocracy: Jews, yes. Muslims, no.
One thing is certain: An inclusive Israel literally ends the core reason that has sustained all those ME dictators, the mullahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, and all the others for 8 or so decades.
Israel is the Gordian knot of our time. There simply seems to be no universally acceptable way out of this problem.
3
As far as I can tell, plenty of Israelis still support Bibi. Personally, I can't think of a single person on earth who has done more to undermine the Israeli state and its relations with liberal democracies around the world.
9
Netanyahu -- just like Trump -- needs to be re=elected to avoid indictment. It's a shame people don't care about corruption. Netanyahu has done no favors for Israel.
11
Ugh. Religious fantics stuck in the 16th century. Giving the ultra orthodox, the equivalent of our evangelicals, special privileges in a modern state is madness and antidemocratic. The average Israeli is wiser than the average American it seems.
7
I suspect that Netanyahu, like Britain's Boris, is using Trump as a model for how to get away with extreme tactics.
This article doesn't mention it, but Netanyahu has been advising Trump, who of course is completely ignorant of religion, on how to manipulate evangelicals with phony prophecies. And obviously he will expect payback.
4
"Lost and Indicted", the most anticipated book in Israel, until next year, when it will be, quickly, eclipsed by a similarly titled American version.
5
Eerily similar to what we might expect here in the US a year from now.
2
Bibi Netanyahu exemplifies the moral and ethical underbelly of Israeli politics. His cynical, pre election appeals attempting to capitalize on anti-Palestine sentiment contained an ugly racist element. That loathsome appeal was exacerbated by the very nature of Israel's founding. Netanyahu's arrogance and sense of entitlement seemed to grow in office and are reflected in the criminal charges against him.His descent from wounded war hero to corrupt politician should be a warning to all future Israeli leaders.
1
Maybe Netanyahu won’t be the public head for a while, but he won’t disappear and his big backers will still be twisting elbows. Another 5 months? Who knows?
2
This may be the end of Bibi and his ugly pursuit of the lowest form of political infighting.
It’s amazing how voters embrace seedy personalities like Bibi and Trump!
Would that the Bibi downfall is a bell weather for the demise of the Donald.
1
This is the same as the story of the weeping King Saul (Bibi), after Samuel tells Saul that God has rejected him as the divinely appointed king of Israel, and that David is going to depose him. Bibi rails, rather than cries, but Saul railed too. Same story.
1
"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." It's time for Bibi and bis wife to face the music.
4
Religious fundamentalists should not be able to dictate to other citizens in any democracy....they are free to practice their religions but they must never force their religious views onto others.....being exempt from compulsory military service seems to be a big issue in Israel and with good reason.....COs can do their public service in other capacities that are not in conflict with their religious beliefs. No more hawks looking for war.....we need better smarter people running the important governments of this world. Not greedy power crazed people who profit from war, death and destruction.....no more merchants of death please. Times have changed and we need real leadership that reflects the real needs of all the people on Earth.
Let's hope that by the end of November, 2020, both Bibi and Trump will be bitter memories for the world, ideally out of power and heading for jail, where they belong. Too bad they can't spend the rest of their lives playing checkers with their fellow con artist Madoff. Lets hope, too, that Israelis do now pull back from the Shel Adelson brink and find a way to save themselves with a just peace with the Palestinians guaranteed by a new, decent, wise American honest broker president, like Warren for example, since Biden's as much in AIPAC's pocket as the hated Hillary was.
5
Netanyahu and Trump. Twins of hatred, cruelty, fear, and divisiveness. The world would be richer in spirit without these ugly inhumane power crazy men. Israel wins if Netanyahu loses. Same as in America next year. America wins if Trump loses.
4
Netanyahu has sullied the Israeli political landscape for years with his duplicitous, corrupt and greedy behaviour. His wife -- Miss Piggy II -- was convicted of misusing state funds in relation to meals served at the official residence. A jolly couple indeed who deserve each other, but not the privilege of governing Israel and using that position to enrich themselves, and their ever-expanding waistlines.
2
My take on the meaning of Bibi acting like Trump, and how sorry a commentary that is on Israeli politics: https://realcontextnews.com/bibis-trump-show-how-israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu-wins-by-imitating-the-donald/
1
So when America is going to learn that trump is also a total corrupt President and vote this liar in chief out ?
6
Everyone needs to remember that Bibi and his family are Jews from Morocco, not western European liberals who believe in equality'
Bibbi believes that the guy in charge, him, Netanhyu, gets to call all the shots. He has no knowledge or commitment to western European democratic ideals. He is your typical middle east autocratic politician!
5
Maybe if the New York Times had not only resisted for years propping up Netanyahu and the Israeli right, maybe if the New York Times had resisted the pressure to be Netanyahu's lap dog, maybe if the New York Times had long ago chosen to represent what goes on in Israel at least as honestly as has Ha'aretz, Israel's most respectable newspaper, Netanyahu and Likud could have never become the congenital problem for Israeli well-being, and peace in the Middle East, that they have been.
2
If Bibi isn’t the new Prime Minister our very stable genius will tweet that he is a “loser.”
5
I think Bibi's downfall was accelerated by his wife ie. The orders of expensive catered meals and champagne to their residence, and queenly abuse of staff,high handedness like dropping of traditional Ukrainian bread at bring welcomed in Kiev
1
An extraordinarily dishonorable man is required to lead an apartheid system.
3
Not once did Bibi Netanyahu consider himself a king. It was pundits like Roger Cohen who called Bibi Netanyahu a king.
2
The times need statemanship and courage; Bibi has neither.
Likud is pathetic. The party cannot find someone better than Netanyahu? Sad.
2
Roger,
If Bibi is reelected, he will be indebted to the Ultra Orthodox , who take the Torah literally, and believe the west bank is Judea & Samaria and part of the land that God promised the Jews, then all hope for peace is gone, along with the eventual destruction of Israel.This is not Bibi’s fault but those that reelected him.
32
@Independent1776 It is Bibi's fault. No one elses fault.
1
Thank you for this thoughtful commentary. There are statesmen, like Barack Obama, and self-promoters like Donald Trump and--make no mistake--B. Netanyahu. You can read on certain online venues that Israel is one of the five (5!) most disliked countries, after Russia, of all places. This is surely owing largely to Netanyahu, whose commitment to Israel, rather than to himself, must be called into question increasingly. Commentators and the TIMES are correct to warn that further victories for Bibi are defeats for Israeli democracy. The inspiration generated by the new Israeli state has been sadly tarnished by this overly long-serving autocrat who brings to mind ruffians like Sisi, Erodogan, Putin...he's joined a rather long list.
8
Is there Democracy in Israel?
You state that there are 20 percent of the electorate are Arab citizens. That's a surprise. One never reads or hears of these citizens. Who are they? How do they live? What are they like in their daily lives? Do their votes count for anything at all?
What is that Democracy you are talking about?
3
Goodbye, and jail is right for you, Bibi. Democracy must win. All other choices close the door on our future, our children.
In response to other comments about Trump refusing to leave the White House when he loses: given our history and the “loyalty” Trump can anticipate from the Secret Service and the FBI and other law enforcement to violate their oaths to protect and defend the Constitution? Trump brags about his support among “men with guns” is as vacuous as his claims to a big, stable genius brain.
7
A party winning the most seats in Israel is only helpful because it means that the President will most likely ask the head of that party to form the next coalition government. (All governments in Israel are coalitions.) The only path to forming a government is if Gantz's Blue and White party and Netanyahu's Likud party can get together. They only chance of that happening is if Netanyahu resigns or is forced out by his party members. Like Trump, Netanyahu doesn't just resign, and if he's forced out so that Likud can join with B&W, then the other right wing parties and Likud's own voters will turn on the party. The most likely scenario will be new elections in December, or less likely, charges against Netanyahu will be dropped if he resigns, allowing B&W and Likud to form a coalition. That being said, the hareidim overplayed their hand. It wasn't even their demands for military exemption or no secular education. It was their constant screaming for more and more money to support their poverty stricken communities while increasing religious control over non ultra-Orthodox Israelis. Greed always gets you in the end.
7
Not so fast Roger. The Jerusalem Post is already reporting that one possible solution to the deadlocked Israeli election is a power sharing unity government with Netanyahu and Gantz taking turns at being Prime Minister. Maybe Bibi isn't going to leave the building just yet.
1
I am not sure any comparison between Netanyahu and the faux president can ever be made. Overlying Israel is a strong non-relenting religious element that is simply not to be found in the U.S. Thank goodness for that because it always muddies the water in the Middle East. Here we have something new - a crazy element that is just as dangerous or an overlying cadre of true believers in the Republicans that have promoted non-American ideas to the hilt. They have spewed so much mischief so far that it is imperative that we clean house thoroughly before and after the next election.
5
Netanyahu doesn't just want to get rid of the Palestinians: no Palestinian State, no right to self determination in Israel for non Jewish citizens. The founders of Israel as a secular democracy compensated Orthodox Jews with exemption from military service and gave them control over religious issues. Today a Reform Jew cannot legally marry in Israel, for example. Netanyahu counts on the Orthodox vote, and connects the safety of Israel with Orthodoxy, and beating liberalism and secularism.
This election says that Israeli voters have confidence in Israel, which has nukes and has never lost a war in the ME and has embraced technology and they are tired of Netanyahu and his fear mongering.
3
“Prologue”, sure, but an election Hail Mary (to borrow a phrase), from Bibi is only a promise of evil, while our would-be king’s ploys include starting a war under almost any crazed pretext. Both of them, to be sure, face jail once evicted from power, and so have more motivation than simply pathological ego. I used to give Israelis more credit, but like us, I guess, best aspirations can rot away given suitable conditions. Nations do not come with guarantees, and flags are only pieces of cloth.
2
Cohen's analysis does not mention the significant shift in the Ethiopian community's vote from the Likud to the Blue-White party.
If this development is a one-time occurrence or indicates that the Ethiopian community has finally understood that the Likud's racist ideology towards the Arabic-speaking citizens of Israel applies just as well to them remains to be seen.
Cohen also fails to identify the following:
- Drift from the Democratic Camp and Labor Party to Liberman who embraced a strong secular platform
- Aditional drift from the Democratic Camp to the United List following the inclusion of Ehud Barak in the Democratic Camp list
Given the generally inconclusive results of the election, my take is that if Gantz remains true to his campaign pledge to unify the country he most certainly has his work cut out for him.
3
The semi-final total is one seat more for Blue and White, the secular Zionist opposition to Likud, Netanyahu's party.
However, things are not so simple.
It is all about building a coalition. Whoever can do this, gets to run the government and for that the magic figure is 61.
Things have been complicated a lot this election, which Bibi called to save himself, because.....surprise...Israeli Arabs not only voted in high numbers but they voted for a List of Arab parties which together decided to represent them.
There are a few problems for the non-Arab parties in making a coalition with the List which got a big chunk of votes.
The List includes the Communist party ( Hadash) and the Muslim Brotherhood, two groups sworn to the destruction of Israel. No non-Arab party can bring them into a coalition and ever have any chance of running again and winning.
Also, some of these new Knesset members are major security risks who, if in the government, would have to be included in security briefings.
They are a fifth column who do not fight in the army because they would be compromised in fighting other Arabs and, in many cases, would not lay down their lives for Israel.
So neither Bibi nor his opposition can play game with them which makes building a coalition very hard.
2
@simon sez
It is interesting that you accuse Israeli Arab citizens of refusing "to lay down their life for Israel" while at the same moment the Orthodox citizens are excused from military service while including themselves into the political battle. Double standard a bit, eh?
2
Now it will be The United States’ turn to do the same!
3
Cohen has it wrong. Whatever Netenyahu's multiple failings -- and they are legion -- his main goal was keeping Israel secure. And many Israelis agreed with his strategy to do this. That's why he has led Israel for such a long time.
4
Netanyahu is his father's son. Still, the Palestinians are what drove mass Israeli support for him -- not vice versa. Until they reconcile to an Israel, not much will happen. It's going to take a while -- decades. The children of Israel had to wander in the desert for 40 years. Sometimes it takes longer.
2
We can only hope that the toxin of Bibi Netanyahu is about to be cast aside, and that it presages our own reckoning with Donald Trump in November, 2020. As a Jewish-American, Netanyahu like Trump has sown racist divisions inimical to peace and threatened to replace Israeli democracy with his viral right-wing religious autocracy. Let's hope this election marks the turning point away from extreme nationalism toward a democracy that seeks finally to end the 71 years of hostility between Israel and the Palestinians. It's time to end intolerance, ethno-racism, and conflict both in Israel and here in the U.S. It's time to end the cancer of the Netanyahu-Trump era.
6
While Bibi's recent losses at the polls are somewhat encouraging, it is still not clear that his radical, prejudiced agenda is being rejected. Netanyahu and his family are corrupt, arrogant and long overdue for a wake up call that power is neither absolute nor indefinite.
But with all this year's voting being so close, it's hard to feel confident that a platform of further land thefts and the demise of even potential for a two state solution will end when Bibi's own political success does.
1
But he succeeded in make apartheid ‘legitimate and acceptable’ and also the use of religious scripture as an authority in land transactions; a considerable accomplishment worthy of billions from our taxpayers and the admiration of Trump and his followers.
1
Twenty three years as Prime Minister ??? What is WRONG with this picture ?? Enough. Netanyahu's Ego is only matched by his insatiable Greed for U.S. dollars, power and more prestige . That is not being a true Leader of a Nation, working for a peaceful World. Netanyahu only wants to feather his own nest, at the expense of freedom for other Nations.
If all of the Middle East is ever going to see a chance for Peace, it will never happen as long as Netanyahu is at the helm.
Hopefully, election results will send Beni packing.
And, don't let the gate hit you on the way out.
1
He wore them down, and eventually wore them out. That’s the fatal flaw with any despot or stable genius. Eventually the outrage and posturing become tedious and boring, and The incompetence undeniable. The world turns.
Congratulations.
1
Roger, are you familiar with Manifest Destiny? The United States as you know it would not exist today if statesmen similar to Bibi did not exist in the 1800s to steal America from Mexico. Most modern nation states are the product of aggressive leaders like Bibi. This contemporary liberal bleeding heart culture is a flash in the pan in the context of modern civilizations and the geopolitical reality we live in.
I will seriously rue if Netanyahu no longer shapes the future of Israel. It is also likely that I remain among his dwindling set of supporters. Evidence of his corruption is laughably unworthy of consideration, his megalomania is what I would expect from a leader of Israel, and his coziness with crazies in Israel (and here) I explain as necessary evils.
Israel seems fully aware of the the serious problem they have in their midst; i.e., the right wing crack pottery. This is not the Israel of 1970s and Begin. But Israel is too infected with left wing - doves, flower petals and olive branch - notions of peace with its neighbors.
Peace is not possible. Anyone imagining a two-state solution (like our wonderful J-streeters here), or lasting peace with Syrians (or Iran) are assuming Arab and Islamic sentiments and capacities into existence when they do not exist in the real world. I.e., these people are delusional only in ways that people far away, without any skin in the game, can afford to be delusional.
Peace cannot occur when one side will settle for nothing other than you six feet under.
West Bank and Gaza must integrate with the territory of Israel for people of Israel to live safe. I think Netanyahu understands this better than others - without succumbing to the right wing cracked pots' paranoia and draconian notions of solutions.
So you will ask: what about the Palestinians? I will ask you the same thing in return. They don't seem to care. Why do you?
1
His address to Congress, during Obama's term sickened me. His embracing Donald Trump and visa versa also sickens me.
2
Trump saw Netanyahu walk the Israeli elections plank yesterday and announced that "we will work with Israel", confiding that he's not throwing Bibi a life-ring.
Without Emperor Netanyahu, there may well be a two-state solution to the conundrum that's beleaguered the Middle East since the late 1800s. Will the baby be split?
Unfortunately he has dragged all Israeli citizens into the labyrinth with him. It will be such a long complex path out into the sunlight, if at all.
Nothing will save Israel. The country is imploding, with secular fighting religious, left fighting right. I wouldn't be surprised if Israel is forced to have a third election.
Only a king can save Israel now. Democracy is finished.
But wait a second. Just like we heard about Russian collusion for two and a half years before that turned out to be false, we've heard about how Israel is a right-wing autocracy on the model of Hungary and Turkey, a Jewish ultra-Orthodox theocracy and a place of systematic apartheid and Arab citizens have no rights or political power. Now those things have has turned out to be false, too. Isn't anyone going to say, "Sorry, we wrote and spoke not knowing what we were talking about?"
1
Netanyahu needs to go for Israel to do a reset. Much needed and a unity government the best means to an end. A fresh breeze a welcome event.
1
It will be entertaining to watch the commentariat realize, should Bibi be banished. that no Israeli government will meet the minimum demands of either the PA or, of course, Hamas, and therefor nothing will change.
1
Cannot explain this phenomenon - If Modi hugs a leader it so happens - he is out of office. There is someone waiting for this hug this weekend
The issue with anyone in power for too long is that they tend to forget that the country got along fine without them before and will again. Bibi tried every trick in the book and I am so glad he failed. If he had won, trump would have taken credit and claimed that the Jews love him. Now he will have to back off a bit with his phony peace plan and perhaps realize there are plenty of us Jews who do not love him. It’s time for a fresh government with Arab involvement.
2
Hopefully his lose will help avoid the planned war with Iran: "Proof of Conspiracy: How Trump's International Collusion Is Threatening American Democracy" by Seth Abramson.
2
Oh Roger, once again you miss the point of these elections.
The current snap election has little or nothing to do with the peace process or the Palestinians.
Much of Israeli secular, and non-ultra orthodox society couldn’t care less about the “peace process,” which is meaningless at this point.
I have immediate family in Israel. Their concerns are taxes, the high cost of living, limited housing, and perhaps most of all the hostile takeover by the Haredim of all religious institutions, along with their demands for more money, more political power, and less service to the nation.
Netanyahu was useful in his time — he kept Israelis relatively safe, encouraged the tech sector, and opened new diplomatic channels. He is not the demon portrayed in the leftist media. But his time is up.
If Gantz becomes prime minister, there will hopefully be a redress of domestic problems. If you’re expecting him to embrace the Palestinians, you do so at your own foolishness.
5
@David G
Unfortunately, I have to fully agree with your last sentence. And I'd bet the Palestinians do, as well.
The Israeli-Arabs' increased participation in this round of voting is encouraging, but I can't help thinking that, from the dispossessed Palestinians' point of view, it looks as "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" (minus the hubris and corruption, we can hope).
"they will have saved not only the last faint chance of a negotiated peace settlement with the Palestinians"
That is a huge leap, making assumptions without evidence.
Netanyahu killed the two state peace.
Nobody ran in favor of it this time. Certainly Gantz and his Blue and White did not campaign for two states.
Talk of two states is a mere smoke screen behind which the Israelis hide what they are really doing. It is a very thin smoke screen really, but Americans just don't want to see, so it is enough.
4
Once a politician depends on the extremists that love to dictate how everyone should live while they themselves contribute nothing to society, they have failed. Like Bibi, Donnie will attempt to hang on to power to avoid prison. I just hope we don’t end up with Biden, who like Obama will hold none of these criminals accountable for their crimes.
Federal prisons should be full of Wall Street executives.
2
I fear for both Israel and the USA as both suffer through a painful attempt to extract themselves from the politics of division, racism, religious extremism, and the self-inflicted wounds resulting from previous misguided elections. Yahweh help us...
It just might save our democracy too, from civil war triggered by another senseless war for Israel's benefit.
“In the last 30 years, I appeared innumerable times in the American media and met thousands of American leaders. I developed a certain ability to influence public opinion, and that is the most important thing: the ability to sway public opinion in the United States against the regime in Iran.”
-- Benjamin Netanyahu
1
Bibi trump parallels may be comforting but let's not be over optimistic. Bibi was in power for so long that corruption was inevitable. trump entered his rule deeply corrupt. Whether you agree or not Bibi maintained a political point of view while trump's only view is of his own interests. Bibi could identify his country's enemy easily while rockets rained down and trump's enemy is anyone and everyone who disagrees with him. Bibi managed to convince the electorate to vote for him and convince other parties to help him form a government but trump's best constituents are white nationalists and putin.
America is in danger from within. The republican party has been turned into sniveling little rat-faced gits (Monty Python) who have shown their true racist colors by disavowing our heritage with no regard for this counties safety.
I'm not defending Bibi - I's just scarred of trump.
2
Marvelous analysis of Netanyahu -- & with piercing candor. I have read it over gratefully twice.
This is so thrilling. And a harbinger of what's to come for the US in 20202. 1) Trump loses 2) Trump gets arrested and 3) Trump goes to prison. So nice of Bibi to pave the way for Trump, who is of course now disassociating himself as he doesn't like "losers".
1
After you consider Netanyahu’s labyrinth, please think of your own. The exalted EU communion of nations - quickly fading. The false hope that “enlightenment values” would penetrate the Middle East and peace would therefore descend. We got ISIS and Bernard Henri Levi stayed home. These were all dead ends. And remember also that Israel can not afford even one dead end.
I have a lot of respect for Roger Cohen. But I wonder why he calls a man who is lying "a tactical genius." If the man has been lying about the two state solution, as Cohen shows, why not use a word that fits the act and not "genius."
Like Trump, Bibi has used divisive identity politics to retain his power. And now, once voters are awoken and fed up...he may pay a price. He's not the only patriarch that can do the job. Israel has many many well-qualified leaders that rely less on deceptive practices than Bibi.
3
Netanyahu’s corruption should not be conflated with prospects for any eventual peace plan.
Not bad, Roger.
No Israeli leader has ever formed a governing coalition with the Arab Joint List.
Ireland has a gay Muslim as its Head of Government. The world
(or Ireland) didn't come to an end.
It's time for Israel to start conducting its affairs in a way that when the next leader of Israel addresses the UN General Assembly that person gets a standing ovation.
4
Not bad, Roger.
No Israeli leader has ever formed a governing coalition with the Arab Joint List.
Ireland has a gay Muslim as its Head of Government. The world
(or Ireland) didn't come to an end.
It's time for Israel to start conducting its affairs in a way that when the next leader of Israel addresses the UN General Assembly that person gets a standing ovation.
Nice piece. Very eloquent. but Israelis have not forgotten how Ehud Barak's peace offer was answered by a bloody suicide bombing campaign that left hundreds dead and Israeli society shaken and has all but destroyed any hopes that an accommodation with the Palestinians could work.
The rocket campaigns from Gaza have not helped foster trust on the Israeli side, either.
The threat by the Palestinians to Israel is very real and very deadly. If you ignore this fact you will never understand the Israeli electorate's attraction to Bibi. Or why the Left is nearly crushed. Nor, why Israelis don't want the Arab parties in the government. Nor, why annecting the West Bank seems such a good idea to many, even self-described moderates.
4
Desperate leaders, even in a democracy, do desperate things to save their own skin. And that is just what Bibi is doing now; he is fighting for his life, not political life, just his own life.
All of which brings me to Trump. Watch out for all the desperate measures he'll go to as soon as the Democratic party nominates their standard bearer. I can only hope and pray that many Americans do not fall a prey to these antics and will come out in droves and help him move out of the White House.
6
Netanyahu is a symptom, a woe, that stems from deep seated distrusts that reform means losing something that is considered owned. No one should have sway over another's basic rights. This pertains to both sides in a conflicted holy land. The right to fully exist is in the balance. Where are the wise? When does the freedom from harm become the most precious human right?
1
While no one can dispute hard figures and facts, this opinion piece smacks of hypocrisy with its focus on democracy, and how Netanyahu was undermining it. Putting Israel under a microscope, considering its neighborhood, and finding fault in its political situations, will almost always be hypocritical, so it's not just Mr. Cohen's error.
Some other facts are more relevant, such as that there are over 400 million Muslims in the 16 countries surrounding its 6 million Jewish population. And not one of them has, or has ever had in history, anything remotely close to a democracy. No free speech, no free press, no independent courts or newspapers, etc.
Which is why 140 years ago, British legal historian Thomas Erskine May, a strong advocate of democracy in Europe and among the authors of the Constitution of the United Kingdom, wrote in his treatise, "Democracy in Europe":
"Israel is the country, above all others, which Christendom regards with respect and reverence, as the birthplace of its religion...That a race more entitled to our reverence than any people of antiquity should have afforded an example of popular freedom, notwithstanding their Eastern origin, and the influence of Eastern despotism, by which they were surrounded, is a conspicuous illustration of the principle that the spirit and intelligence of a people are the foundations of liberty. "
Nothing has changed in its surrounding nations, except their civil wars, oil wealth and nuclear ambitions.
1
As of Thursday morning with almost all votes counted, it appears Blue and White and the Left block actually have a 2 seat advantage, but still 4 seats short of the ability to form a coalition.
What's amazing is that Bibi and his right wing partners are acting as if they won. They've invited Blue and White to join them in a coalition as the junior partner, with Bibi as PM.
If Blue and White doesn't agree, they threaten a third round of elections.
One side will have to give in, or a third round will be necessary. Who will the public blame if this happens, the left or the right?
1
PM Netanyahu is only the latest example of the corrupting influence of power. He used it thoroughly, and it corrupted him in the same measure. We can only hope that Israel can return to being a beacon of democracy in an anti-democratic region. We should all wish them God Speed.
1
Netanyahu is furiously tweeting away in his bid to avoid his coming prosecution.
There is a message for Trump's in his Mini Me's loss and he will definitely "wag the dog" to stay out of jail.
1
If not much Israel needs a break from the ultra nationalist populist euphoria and regain its normal identity as a modern democratic nation at peace with the world,which is possible with a changed electoral outcome from what has been a case for over two decades.
Mr. Cohen, you make it seem as if the Palestinians have been clamoring for peace and a deal the entire time Mr. Netanyahu was in office and only Mr. Netanyahu stood in the way.
I would assume that you know that this is absurd.
I would assume that you also know that the entire slew of generals in Blue and White would offer no more than offered in 2000 and 2008, by Mr. Barak and Mr. Olmert and turned down by the Palestinians. I would assume that you know that these offers probably cannot be repeated.
I would assume that you know that no Israeli leader can solve Hamas-led Gaza and that rockets will fall on Israel and Israel will retaliate whether the PM is Mr. Gantz or Mr. Netanyahu. I assume that you know that if Mr. Gantz opens the blockade and rockets still fall on Israel from Gaza then he is doomed.
So Mr. Gantz, maybe, will meet with Mr. Abbas, Palestinian president since 2005- he calls elections and cancels them- and will offer what he offers and the Palestinians will turn it down.
There is a Hebrew phrase, perhaps you know it: olam ke-minhago noheg. Such is life or life goes on. This will not change.
5
"He argued that... the Arab campaign against Israel was not a “negotiable grievance” but a “basic opposition to the very existence of Jewish sovereignty."
I'm no fan of Netenyahu, nor of any right-wing nationalists anywhere, but what has been said or done or written by the Muslim/Arab populace and leadership since 1948 that would lead anyone to believe he's incorrect in the above appraisal? They've said as much, unambiguously and repeatedly.
There's the rub. One could certainly argue that the creation of a Jewish state was an ethical error or worse and that everything that followed was inevitable or even justified, but it's the height of naïveté to believe that anything Israel does that leaves a Jewish state intact will be acceptable in the region.
3
@Len Safhay
All very true. But describing the problem as one of statehood only, is too limiting. We need to look at what has happened to the Christian populations in any of the countries surrounding Israel to realize that a Jewish state is needed.
From Egypt to Iran to Turkey to Lebanon and all the Arab countries to its east, including Pakistan, the Christians have been fleeing for their lives. Over the last 15 years, in Iraq as one example, Christians went from having 1.5 million people living there to 1/3rd of that. And even in Lebanon, the majority of its massive Christian diaspora population do not even have an automatic right of return.
And while only 10% of the population of Egypt are Christians (Copts), they have been emigrating from Egypt to escape systematic harassment and persecution, where even its Churches aren't safe.
There is no chance that Jews will ever be accepted in Muslim countries, and assuming that Arabs living in a Jewish homeland will become democratic and live in peace is an illusion. It's more than right wing vs. left wing problem, but of a survival wing vs. the capitulation wing.
"At a time in earth's history when all other nations were ruled by despots; beneath the shadows of empires, . . . anticipating and prophesying the divine ideal of human government-the Jewish Commonwealth, under the shield of Jehova, stood for ages, in the whole turbulent and inimical world, a solitary democracy. " (John McDowell Leavitt, 1896)
2
Reality check: if Likud and its allies continue to all stick together and insist that Netanyahu, the 23 year incumbent, retain the prime ministership, something they all fervently agree on, the only way for the opposition to get to 61 seats is to bring the Joint List (the "Arab" parties) on board along with Israel Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman will neither ally himself with Netanyahu nor the Joint List. Netenyahu views this existentially and would avowedly prefer a third election to stepping down. I don't know if Likud candidates could legally defect to Blue White, but even if they could, it does not appear to be happening. Given these undisputed facts, where on earth is there room for Gantz to get the prime ministership? For all the chatter, it does not really seem possible.
2
Excellent piece. Exposes Netanyahu as the shrewd, divisive, and now desperate man he truly is. It appears that the Israeli voters have had enough of his catering to the ultra-orthodox wing, and his assault on the democratic principles of the Israeli government.
Now if only the American voters will do the same to our own would-be-King and boot him and his cronies out next year!
1
There is a major error by omission to this piece. There is a chance that the Joint List, a combination of Israeli Arabs, might finally join with a Jewish coalition.
For background, Israeli Arabs have always had the vote, and elect members to Parliament, but they've always refused to join a coalition. Therefore, although they have seats they do not meaningfully participate. But this is entirely their choice: nobody is stopping them. The left-wing Jewish parties have repeatedly clarified that they'd love their support. Some Arabs who disagree with this policy of winning then not participating have run and won with Jewish political parties. None of this is well-understood thanks to poor reporting, the complexity of the system, and that it doesn't fit nicely into the whole Jews vs. Arab narrative.
If the Arab Joint List - the third-largest block - would join it would push the 61-seat requirement slightly higher but guarantee a win to the center-left parties they'd align with. If would also give the Arabs much-needed leverage and send a message to knock-off the hatred for good to anybody who wants to remain in Israeli politics.
The Joint List has won plenty of seats; they should take advantage of their democratic mandate and govern. It would be helpful if those who continually knock Israel would give them a strong nudge to join a coalition.
1
I'm glad The Netanyahu era may be over but he is right in his disbelief of "Palestinian" origins. It's a myth, a political narrative.
Ironically, he is in agreement with one of the movements founders, Zuher Muhsein:
"Way back on March 31, 1977, the Dutch newspaper Trouw published an interview with Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Zahir Muhsein. Here’s what he said:
“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism."
2
@Westo72
That's like saying there were no Native Americans when Europeans took over this continent.
That Netanyahu has been in power for so long and that after all his plotting and divisive, hate filled rhetoric, he still almost managed to win again, is the most incredible phenomenon and a dark stain on Israeli politics.
2
Yes it will be interesting to see how Netanyahu attempts to hang on to power...in order to avoid prison. I'm sure trump is watching carefully for when he comes to the same crossroad.
3
Reality check: if Likud and its allies continue to all stick together and insist that Netanyahu, the 23 year incumbent, retain the prime ministership, something they all fervently agree on, the only way for the opposition to get to 61 seats is to bring the Joint List (the "Arab" parties) on board along with Israel Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman will neither ally himself with Netanyahu nor the Joint List. Netenyahu views this existentially and would avowedly prefer a third election to stepping down. I don't know if Likud candidates could legally defect to Blue White, but even if they could, it does not appear to be happening. Given these undisputed facts, where on earth is there room for Gantz to get the prime ministership? For all the chatter, it does not really seem possible.
3
All the Trump comparison is crazy. Netanyahu see's himself as the only one who can save Israel. He is wrong; he is actually destroying Israel. Trump is trying to increase his fortune and build a private dynasty with Russian and American money. He has a deranged hatred of healthcare and the environment because Obama championed these issues. He is minuscule. I fail to see any value to the argument that Trump is patriotic. He is not. He is a Russian tool just hoping to get paid. Netanyahu has decided that Israel can only persist as a militant state. He views this as superior to Israel not existing. He views the needs of the Palestinians as the problems of Jordan or Egypt. This is a terrible position that cannot sustain Israel, but it is not, as far as I can tell, primarily motivated by a goal to get paid. It is primarily motivated by a love of his personal family history and the banishment of his ilk by Ben Gurion.
1
Good riddance, I think. Netanyahu seems to come back from the dead so much, who knows if this is really his ouster or yet another comeback. For the sake of Israel and the prospects of peace in that region of the world, I hope this is the first page of a long chapter on the post-Netanyahu era.
I don’t like Bibi, but Cohen and many commenters ignore history when they fail to acknowledge israeli offers of peace deals which were rejected and met with intifadas and thousands of israeli casualties. Cohen asserts that Bibi’s unwillingness to agree to a two state solution has been “abetted by the hopeless divisions and fecklessness of be Palestinian national movement.” The only division has been between Hamas / Islamic Jihad in Gaza - who make no secret of their belief that no Jews should live in Israel - and Abbas and his colleague’s in the PA, who say the right things to Western audiences, but tell teach their children that Jews have no connection to Israel and consider all of Israel to be occupied territory. Attacks on Israel started long before the 1967 war and the first settlement. If Israel withdrew from the West Bank, Hamas would quickly take over and the attacks against Israelis would continue. Israelis saw what happened when they withdrew from Gaza and do not want to commit national suicide. Until a leader like Sadat emerges on the Palestinian side, a two state solution is a fantasy.
1
Bibi is trapped by his own divisiveness over the Palestine question to and his biblical sense in his own sense of entitlement or patriarch as Cohen states. The tremendous military defense capabilities the US gives to the country have made it deaf to those Arab neighbors surrounding the very small country. That a large group do not serve in the military and are supported by the Israelis, the Heredi, have become a sore point to many. Bibi suffers from a sense of entitlement as in days of yore, leaning on Abraham and the evangelicals who lean into Trump for their sense of the end days and support of this country historically located between a rock and a hard place. I fear the US is on the wrong side of history in this and w/the Saudis as well as the Brits whom we followed into the region, knowing less than they did.
2
My impression of Israel has always been that it's a vigorous democracy. While I'd never profess to know the subtleties of Israeli politics, it's good to see that democracy working. And for those countries around the world that are succumbing to populist autocrats, it's good for them to see Israeli democracy in action too.
5
There is always the problem with God, land, and the human element. The fact that the Evangelicals in this country leapt into the hands of Netanyahu, without being concerned about the large number of Palestinians whose home was basically taken away by the Balfour declaration is what all the fighting has been about. The Jerusalem Post, used to be called the Palestine Post, and that says a lot about what the recent history is of the place that both the Jews, and the Arabs claim as their home.
18
@MaryKayKlassen
As Gilda Meir correctly stated. “I’m a Palestinian. “At that time there were Arabs and Jews fighting for what would become Israel. Jews were victorious but let some Palestinians remain in the land which is much more than The Arabs would have allowed The Jews. Today if
they and their descendants can live in peace in the nation State of the Jewish people with minority rights and obligations whatever the borders or leave or try and win a war
2
We can only hope that after nearly three decades of purposefully-crafted social division under Netanyahu, the pendulum is swinging away from the right-wing toolkit of division, corruption and malfeasance to a more tolerant, more constructive and earnest government of and by those who actually have a desire to work towards such.
Of course, fear-powered tyranny is much easier.
What I most fear is that Netanyahu will win the day and will continue to push the USA into a war with Iran. Bibi wants a wall of young US meat to surround and defend Israel. allowing him to posture and threaten beyond his own means.
This time, however, it won't be a few ancient SCUDs raining down on Tel Aviv from Baghdad, it will be hundreds--if not thousands--of terrifically destructive Iranian CRUISE missiles, along with hundreds of thousands of well-armed soldiers.
The world really needs this?
14
Lieberman quit the Netanyahu led government because he felt it was not strong enough in responding to Hamas during the last Gaza war. He is to the right of Likud re annexing Judea and Samaria but refuses to agree to further demands of the ultra Orthodox. He claims he will only join a unity government that includes Gantz and Netanyahu or whom ever leads Likud If Netanyahu resigns which at present seems unlikely. He is the kingmaker at present as long as he threatens each side to go with the other if they don’t follow his “suggestions, “ Seems to me if Trumps peace plan is rolled out quickly it could expedite a unity government that lets the Palestinians decide to reject it or accept it as Israel will be on board, but if not another election seems most probable.
3
@AVIEL. If only be had a plan.
@AVIEL, there is no "Trump peace plan", there are no Trump "plans" of any sort. Not in the Middle East, nor in Asia or at our southern border. What is it that y'all don't get after two years of chaos & confusion? There are no "plans", just Trump and his clown posse making it up as they go. Gosh but this is silly, egos and elbows is Trump and Netanyahu's way, the only goal is remaining in power for as long as possible and profiting from it as they go. The hounds of justice are barking at their heels and they will do anything to keep them at bay. Even spin up another war in the Middle East, this time with Iran. Just another day another war in Stupidville with Mayor's Trump and Netanyahu.
Thanks Roger for this illuminating piece which casts light not only on Israeli but our own politics. There, a Prime Minister foments hatred and ethnic division while abusing his power to commit self serving financial crimes for which he desperately uses his exalted position of power to avoid conviction. Sounds familiar.
30
Power was, and still tenuously is, the best insurance for the prime minister against prison.“
Unfortunately this paradigm seems to be spreading around the world. Here in the US, Trump knows he may face jail time when out of power. This disincentive to fair elections must be eliminated. No one can be allowed to be above the law without dire consequences for that government and it’s people.
38
I long for the day when trump is equally weakened, one way or another.
58
I very much hope the Republicans are paying attention to what happened in Israel and in Britain. You, plain and simply, cannot ram your agenda down the throats of the people and suppress the opposition. Compromise is required. Getting some of what you want may not be such a bad thing. I think, in reality, the world is looking for the next Lincoln. "A house divided against itself cannot stand". Leaders like Bibi, Trump, and Johnson are all trying to prove that wrong. The question is do they need another half a million of their own citizens to die to figure that out.
80
I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one...that democracy will prevail and those politicians left picking up the pieces of BiBi's rein, will evolve into a genuine movement to find a two-state solution. Having said that, I do not underestimate the fear factor, which Mr. Netanyahu has become the master of.
25
@Amanda Jones Fear factor? The IDF is more than a match for the armies of Israel's neighbors, and we'd step in with our military if Israel were threatened by believable forces.
Somewhere in the far off future, long after the current leaders of the Israelis and Palestinians have left the mortal realm, leaders will emerge to throw the seemingly endless cycle of hostilities into the dustbin of history.
These leaders will realize that no state anywhere can permanently have its identity determined by religion or ethnicity.
A multicultural, democratic, single state is waiting to be born but it can’t happen until people stop defining their political aspirations through the prism of religion and ethnicity.
113
@Joel Sanders
It's hard to be a tribe, a nation and a religion all at the same time. And only one choice favors democracy. They held on by a thread...........this time.
@Joel Sanders - If your dream is to have a "multicultural, democratic" state in the Middle East, it already exists. The name of this state is Israel. It's certainly multicultural - 75% Jewish, 20% Arab, with Druze, Samaritans, B'hai, Orthodox Christians, and others constituting the other 5%.
And Israel is certainly a democracy. Unfounded fears about what "may" happen in the future - the most likely scenario in case of annexation would be voting rights for all, just the way it is now - aren't reality.
Contrast this with Arab states, including the P.A. and Hamas, where there is no democracy because they haven't had elections in decades, have horrendous discrimination against women, and practice apartheid.
And your idea of a great outcome is to destroy the only Jewish state in the world by forcing these disparate nations to merge! How could anyone possibly believe this could end well?
4
@Happy and Proud
I never suggested force. I raised the possibility of enlightened leaders on both sides who willingly cast off the shackles of history. Clearly, it’s not possible in the near term.
It is profoundly unlikely that Palestinians will have equal voting rights if they are annexed into Israel Their rights are already greatly curtailed by the occupation.
“Greater”Israel cannot be both Jewish and democratic.
2
I find it remarkable that Roger Cohen finally admits what has been obvious for decades - that Netanyahu's main purpose, throughout his entire career, has been to prevent the emergence of a Palestinian state. What that realization implies is something that, as far as I recall, Roger has been unwilling to admit in the past - the fact that Israel bears most of the responsibility for the failure of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. However, that aside, I am not as enthusiastic about any new Israeli government advancing the cause of peace. Liberman is an ultra-nationalist cut from the same cloth as Netanyahu. If he has any major role in the government - as he surely will - he will block any effort to compromise on or remove existing Jewish settlements. He wants to kill Palestinian dreams just as much as Likud ever has. And, for decades, Labor govts were just as inclined to build Jewish settlements are Likud govts. I hope that Gantz actually proves to be the person who can finally reverse the Israeli land grab process, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe he will be the person to consider actually bringing Arab political parties into government, but that remains to be seen as well (it's also unclear the Arab parties would join).
60
I can't abide Netanyahu but to place most of the blame for the failure of the peace process on Israel and excuse the corrupt terrorist Arafat,who refused a reasonable offer of a Palestinian state at Camp David, the weak and corrupt Abu Mazen and the Iran funded Islamist terrorist Hamas,who want the destruction of Israel,not peace is ahistorical and wrong.
5
@Shaun Narine It's been clear since the Peel Commission under the British Mandate (1936) to the UN partition resolution of 1947 and the establishment of the State of Israel six months later that the animosity between Jews and Arabs (riots in 1912 and 1936-9) is such that only a "two state" solution is feasible with the lands of "Palestine" partitioned.
Problem is that while this outcome was acceptable to the Jews, it was not to the Arabs. Not only did the Arabs not accept partition in 1948 (but rather launched a bloody civil war and siege of Jerusalem, followed by an invasion from five neighboring Arab states the day after Israel proclaimed its statehood), but attempted similar invasions in 1956, 1967 and 1973, followed by Arafat's PLO and forty more years of terrorism, including several "intifadas".
Arafat walked away from the Oslo/Camp David "land for peace" two state process because the proclaimed objective of the Palestinians (to their own people in Arabic, if not necessarily credulous English-speaking westerners) was that ultimately there would be a "one state solution" and the Jews ("if any survived", a quote) would be driven out of "Palestine".
The PLO charter has never been repudiated. A fair reading of history would suggest Israel would accept a two state solution, but a Jewish presence in Israel (or the State) is anathema to both Arab "leaders" and the "street". Arafat and Abbas know to accept peace is to put a target on their back. Hence, stalemate.
3
I am not a Bibi fan, as his bullying style and cynical callousness long ago reached its past due date. But let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that removing him will suddenly bring an Israeli/Palestinian peace plan and harmony in the Middle East. Israel is still surrounded by its enemies and they use the Palestinians as pawns in their attempts to bring down Israel, while providing little actual relief to the plight of the Palestinians.
The same fundamental issues and differences will exist whether Netanyahu or Gantz runs the government. But perhaps just seeing another face at the table, other than the perpetually angry and uncompromising Bibi, will get the process moving again.
20
@Jack Sonville I’m sorry, I didn’t get the impression from this editorial that Netanyahu’s removal from the equation would suddenly bring peace. More so, it seems that there now is a glimmer of hope and, perhaps finally, opportunities for real negotiated settlement.
23
@Jack Sonville It is a stat. As long as Bibi is in office, there will never be any peace or progress toward being a real democracy.
1
@Jack Sonville
Israel is only "surrounded by its enemies" if it chooses to see its neighbours as "enemies". If Israel chose a different view, Israel might see different opportunities.
1
Pre electoral promises to not join the bad guy are meaningless, the recent Thai elections were an example of that.
Power buys any allegiance.
4
Thanks, Roger, for a clear analysis of the political stakes currently faced by Israelis. It seems - at long last = that not a few votes are informed by the obvious power grab that Netanyahu has tried to engineer. Many Israelis realize a majority win for Bibi elevates him to a throne which translates into a forthcoming abuse of justice - control of the courts, no further indictments and a prime minister absolved of all crimes committed. And, indeed, one can consider this possible outcome, shudder, as a preview of what could happen in the US in 2020.
49
This is the curse of having third parties who slice and dice politics and policy into ever more finely divided segments. The joke has it that two Jews arguing with each other will have three sets of irreconcilable opinions, and Israel proves the point. One writer pointed out that insular minorities have no compunction to moderate their demands, because mainstream parties are too willing to accommodate fringe movements over what used to be seen as minor issues. Case in point: The Anti-Vaccination lobby used to get its own way because mainstream politicians were forever concerned with votes and keeping things running smoothly. That outlook lasted only until the last year or two, when suddenly people started getting sick with diseases that those of us over forty had long believed had been relegated to history. That's what splinter parties dob use their outsized leverage to achieve undeserved and harmful results for everyone else. It's like having an Electoral College vote on a contentious issue every day; and coalitions are notoriously bad at focusing on what's fundamental and essential in making democratic government work. It's as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her rebellious freshman colleagues who make up 'The Squad': Together they have a million followers on social media; but altogether, they've got only four votes where it really counts. I think Ms Pelosi is onto something, and maybe we all should start paying attention to what's at stake. And the act accordingly.
23
@Arthur Silen
In India too, there are many community based parties which leap up to protest now and again, and claim that their 'community's sentiments' are hurt by any artistic expression that varies from traditional beliefs. Such insularity blocks progressive thought.
Equally however, the more diverse and widely spread the ideologies, the more the felt need in a democracy, for parties that express these positions.
Roger's article makes clear that even the relatively small population in Israel, is sharply divided ideologically on national issues. T
The secularists require that the burden of national defence should be borne by every citizen.
The Religious Right require exemption for their young to devote themselves exclusively to religious studies.
Equally divided are the views on the 2 state solution; Palestinian rights etc.
It follows that in a democracy there will be parties to voice these important and opposing positions.
A coalition-government balancing parties with diametrically opposed views is a high-wire act, not tenable for long.
Nor can a 2 party system serve, when the blocs are many.
As for the Anti-Vaccination and other anti-scientific Climate Change deniers, it is not the System but Nature itself, which will set them to rights, shortly and sharply.
6
You echo my sentiments exactly. I claim no familiarity with Israeli politics, but it's the same sad story the world over. You may have heard about Benjamin Franklin's letter to his colleagues at the close of the American Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, in 1787. Franklin, born in Boston in 1706, was the oldest, wisest, and most experienced in resolving disputes among groups of people, whether occupying office or not; and as a lifelong diplomat among his multifarious achievements, counseled his colleagues to talk amongst themselves and work out their differences, because there is some wisdom in every opinion. The truth of Franklin's observation is never more apparent than now, and mostly in the absence of reasonable and principled consensus.
I'm for the Labyrinth.
8
Thank you, Roger.
So well articulated.
There is finally a sliver of hope.
37
Sorry the real issue in the Middle East is the Sunni-Shiite war, the Israelis and Palestinians don't trust each other and the Islamist Hamas controls Gaza. It's good to have talks but there is no real possibility of peace here for many,many years.
1
A superficial treatise largely without reality. Likud can choose to stay with Netanyahu as their leader. The end. He is part of a coalition government. Underneath? Far more complexity. But in the end -- that is all there is as far as Netanyahu. Gantz cannot form a government without Likud. He knows this and his comments have changed to match if one cares to listen.
Secular Israelis concerns center far less on whether or not the Ultra-Orthodox serve in the military. Very superficial. It is the daily governing of life and rules that are the average Israeli citizen's concern. In addition, young Israelis cannot afford a home these days ( sound familiar?). So to see resources given to the Ultra-orthodox so they don't have to economically produce engenders resentment.
With regards to "peace," it is a non-issue. The result after the unilateral withdrawl from Gaza has been 14 years of war. No Israeli is going to vote for giving up security in the West Bank. Reminders are daily, The Palestinian leaderships (muliple) don't want peace, have no peace plan, have no Arab support, and hate each other in the true sense of the word.
Every military leader in the world recognizes that the Jordan Valley, where very few Palestinins actually live, will stay under Israeli control from a self-defense perspective, or else Israel becomes almost indefensible.
32
@Mark And anyone familiar with the history of countries with out-sized minorities knows that the outcome of continuing in the direction that Bibi is leading the country is disastrous (e.g. Israel's neighbors, including Cyprus, or the Balkans?). Israel is headed towards a single state with an even-sized Jewish and Arab populations. Obviously, the Likud and its right-wing (almost fascist) block have no intention to grant Arabs in the occupied territories any voting rights. So how long do you think such pressure cooker can last? President Obama understood that very well and kept warning Israel from heading in that direction. If Bibi stays in power, Israeli democracy will follow the Turkish path and Israel will become a high-tech version of its neighbors.
If indeed Bibi loses and Benny Gantz takes over as Prime Minister, most of the commenters here will be quite surprised to see that other than the face you see on TV once in a while, nothing will really change in Israeli politics vis-à-vis the Palestinians, the surrounding Arab neighborhood, or the United States for the simple reason that the great majority of Israelis support Netanyahu's positions, including Benny Gantz.
The reason is simple: there are no other rational choices, given the current Palestinian, Syrian, and Iranian leadership.
Until Mahmoud Abbas gives up his perennial presidency and is replaced by a new generation of Palestinian leadership who are tired of wasting their own lives, nothing will change.
When that leadership does arrive, the Israeli public will demand a Palestinian state faster than the Palestinians.
But those Israelis have to be made to believe the Palestinians want peace. Now they don't.
So it doesn't really matter if its Bibi or Benny.
51
@G. Same was said about Arafat. Smoke screen objection. And by the way, Israel has preferred stable dictators like Assad, Mubarak, and El Sisi, not to mention the House of Saud, over democracies
1
@G It does matter because Gantz is an honorable man.
1
“...he will not go quietly.”
The citizens of Israel, however, love their country and are determined to hold it together.
We, in America, aren’t so enamored of democracy as we are in strengthening tribal rites. The Israelis have a profound of nationhood because of what it took to achieve and maintain it, however nettlesome it was.
We, on the other hand, have less of an interest in nationhood than in strengthening sectionalism—one state or region against the other. We’d sooner blow it up than seek consensus.
And Donald Trump won’t go quietly either. That’s our true peril.
57
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
Yankees 19'
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18 I think you are selling us old Yankees short. Some of us are descended from people who fought the French and Indians in their own front yards, fought the Tories and Hessians and British, fought the slave states, and fought the armies of the Kaiser and then Hitler. We have paid the price of unity over nearly four centuries, with our sweat and blood.
May be a tide change? The world might look a bit different in 14 months.
17
When you make your political career off of EXCLUDING people, eventually you exclude so many that you find yourself EXCLUDED.
It is a dynamic not unrelated to our contemporary political process in America.
90
@Paul McGlasson
Interestingly, only one thing has changed that matters; Lieberman's party will not sit with the Ultra-orthodox. Nothing else has changed. If you take his party's 9 votes and add it to the 55 right wing bloc it equals 64.
I hope this gives some realistic perspective.
FYI- Lieberman is secular non-religious ( the largest group of Israeli Jews), but he is considered an ultra-nationalist and his policies are further to the right than Netanyahu overall.
12
@Mark
I am not convinced the Lieberman switch is the one thing that has changed, with respect.
The emergence of the Arab vote is new. The Joint List is now a political force, with a role yet to be determined.
BN made a career making villains of Arabs. The fact is, as you doubtless know, many Israeli voting citizens are Arab, a sizable minority.
The fact that they are stepping into the Israeli political arena—if that is what is happening—is the dynamic I meant to describe.
5
@Paul McGlasson
The joint list , which is what you are describing, has moved from 10 seats to maybe 13. In addition, you may be surprised to learn that not all Arabs vote for Arab parties...many do not. The reason is that many Arabs feel that their own Arab Knesset representatives do not represent local Israeli Arab interests.
1
Bibi must be in serious trouble when his staunch ally and fellow provocateur Trump is conspicuously silent. The Donald does not proclaim that the election was rigged against Bibi.Nor does Trump blame the Israeli media for defaming and defeating Bibi. Perhaps Trump sees his future in Bibi. And it is not very promising. In a democracy words and actions matter. And votes count.
48
Notice neither potential coalition is interested in the Labor party, and vice versa. Three military men in Blue and White, while not diplomats, are quite close in political orientation to Netanyahu, and Lieberman is even more stridently right wing than them. So, the difference is personalities, not conviction. Or, as one Palestinian phrased it, a difference between Pepsi and Coke.
The peace dealing died definitively after 2008, after Olmert's even more generous offer was roundly rejected by Abbas, with nothing further to say. Israel will not leave the Jordan Valley until a meaningful, respectful plan is offered by the PA which acknowledges Israel's unwavering security needs, and that includes being posted for an extended period in the Valley. None of the parties will leave unilaterally, and nobody within the PA is remotely interested in dealing with reality.
To expect Israel's expanding population in the West bank, and I'm talking about their birth rate, not newcomers, to not build, even within existing settlement boundaries, is ludicrous. At the point when close to a million Jews will live beyond the Green Line, what solution do the Palestinians expect to offer? The ball is always in their court, but their options lessen with time. Do they not get it?
20
@Rosalie Lieberman. Not sure what you expect as an offer. Can you be specific?
@MEH
Not sure, either. No Israeli govt. will ever pull back to unfair 67 armistice lines, totally give up on the Jordan River valley control, or remove half a million Jews, let alone more. Some pullout of soldiers and population, yes. My main point is the longer the Palestinian hold off, the worse their bargaining position. Some vote with their feet and leave for America.
The column shares the hopes of everyone, but with a privileged intimacy with the players which leaves readers residually uninformed. From the point of view of an American citizen, however, the aspiration to be done with a figure who trifled with our democracy at the behest of a drunkard Speaker of the House, and in league with our own worst nemesis, the President pro tempore of the United States, the response to this election is clear and emphatic. Get rid of him.
13
Rejecting Netanyahu and his fear mongering will be a statement of confidence in Israel, which has never lost a war in the ME and has nukes.
Netanyahu has not evolved as Prime Minister from relying on fear mongering - no variety, no evolution. Israel has much greater potential.
11
Seeing Boris and now Ben run into democratic reality is indeed a foreshadowing event of Donalds looming future. Where Johnson's bone spur is Brexit, Netanyahu uses his heel issue to draft and anger the extreme right against the Palestinians, while Trumps overused and erratic foot repeatedly finds its way into his mouth as he wars against most of America: people of color, the poor, the environment, and everything beyond his deferred and elite experience.
30
I wish the general public had more sympathy for the challenging role of the authoritarian these days. Bibi, Putin, the Donald, will all soon fade into history as the inevitable unification of all nations on earth proceeds apace.
14
Trump put his eggs in Netanyahu's basket no matter how he will spin it. As went Bibi will go Trump in 2020. Hopefully a peaceful outcome between the parties, and a strengthening of our alliance Israel will result in the absence of these polarizing leaders.
35
Netanyahu is like a cat; he has nine lives. In March, he too was considered doomed, then he emerged victorious.
The latest results I could find indicated that Netanyahu is losing by one seat. Channel 12 reports 95% of the vote counted, while the government entity which over sees Israeli federal elections, indicates only 63.4% of the votes were counted.
One thing The Jerusalem Post indicated was that the Israeli military voted, of 1 million votes, will be counted after all other ballots are processed.
Based on 4 million votes (63%) these are the party totals:
Blue and White: 25.66% (33)
Likud: 25.02% (32)
The Joint List: 10.73% (12)
Shas: 7.57% (9)
Yisrael Beytenu: 7.12% (8)
UTJ: 6.24% (8)
Yemina: 5.72% (7)
Labor-Gesher: 4.81% (6)
Democratic Union: 4.30% (5)
Otzma Yehudit: 1.87% (did not pass the electoral threshold of 3.25%)
If Channel 12's numbers are right, then Netanyahu has been sent packing. He was re-elected to his seat, but that won't last long as corruption charges are about to come to a head.
So, it probably won't be until tomorrow that all votes are counted. They are counting 6 million ballots by hand.
14
I hope Bibi's time is over. In my view, the Issue with Bibi is character. His bast quality is his intelligence and his interest in history. But he always lied, always felt that he deserves more than other people, so he always expected others to pay his way - restaurants, real estate, etc. If he has to give up his prime minister-ship, he will end up unhappy blaming everybody else - never himself. Many in Israel are still conditioned to see no possibility of a future without Bibi - I am hopeful that this change will open more eyes.
Bibi always won by walking over dead bodies, like Rabin, using his brother's death for political purposes, using Hamas, Iran etc to frighten voters. He thrived on inciting divisions and fear.
Israel needs to strengthen its democratic institutions and it deserves leaders with character.
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All human beings are born equal. No religion can say theirs is the only scripture that counts. Moral and ethics are mainstay of every religion. Netanyahu is incorrect in saying the world is wrong in saying Palestinians are newcomers to this land in the Arab world; it is the Europeans and Russians who have come recently to this land claim theirs by virtue of monetary strength.
A person who has committed crimes must face the law and repay for misdeeds, before seeking an elected official position in any democracy. Israel must not be ruled by such people. It has so many great self-less warriors who should lead. We miss the great-Yitzhak Rabin.
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Superb analysis. The Jewish people of Israel have the opportunity to include Arab Israelis into meaningful community, economic, and political life.
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Thank you Mr. Netanyahu for:
-- remaining vigilant and proactive to the continuing threats posed to the existence of Israel by Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah
-- promoting the interests of freedom and democracy in the Middle East
-- working to maintain Israel as a place where women's rights, gay rights, freedom of the press and freedom of religion and speech are valued and flourish
-- helping to combat anti-Semitism in the world wherever it exists
-- providing a safe haven for Jews fleeing from assaults and discrimination in Europe and other places in the world
-- making Israel a world leader in science and technology
-- freely sharing the important military and political intelligence that Israel gathers with the U.S.
-- combating the spread of terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere
-- working tirelessly to prevent Iran from developing nuclear capabilities that would threaten Israel with nuclear annihilation and result in a massive nuclear arms race in the Middle East
-- and for remaining open -- despite the absence of substantive Palestinian interest in negotiations -- to the prospect of a negotiated settlement that would provide an independent demilitarized state of Palestine alongside a Jewish State of Israel with secure and permanent borders.
Please take a few days off now and get some rest, before returning to the battle.
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@A. Stanton
The next 1000 years are going to be interesting.
@A. Stanton
- why doesn’t Netanyahu/Israel use its ground troops to wipe out terrorists Hamas and Hezbollah and existential threat Iran? Cowards?
- Netanyahu/Israel is allied with every autocratic, anti-democracy Arab leader in the region: MBS, MBZ, Sisi. Tunisia is now ranked as more democratic than Israel.
- the Orthodox Jews that are part of Netanyahu’s coalition are as anti-women and anti-gay as Evangelical Christians and Wahhabi Muslims that Netanyahu is also allied with. Israel’s nation state law openly discriminates against non-Jews. Muslim and Christian Palestinians are denied citizenship in illegally annexed East Jerusalem and Golan Heights, are kept under illegal occupation/blockade in West Bank/Gaza.
- Netanyahu is allied with anti-Semitic white nationalists, Wahhabi Muslims, white Evangelicals (pro-Israel for End Times) as long as they support Israel. Pro-Zionism trumps anti-Semitism
- safe haven for Jews is true and absolutely essential
- true about being world leader in science and technology. 20% of our $4 billion/year to build their military industrial complex that underpins their technology helps, but most of the credit belongs to Israelis - truly impressive
- true about intelligence sharing. But Israel/Saudi Arabia wants our soldiers to fight their war with Iran
- so take out Hamas and Hezbollah
- Israel has nuclear weapons. Should have kept Iran nuclear deal
-Netanyahu, Likud, Revisionist Zionists have never supported two-state peace. Never will.
All I see in this opinion piece are ad hominem insults to Netanyahu -- no discussion of actual policies and historic events that shed light on the situation.
All Israeli leaders must cozy up to the US and its president, who is the head of state. Americans who justifiably hate Trump unjustifiably hate anyone who must so kowtow.
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Disagree. The politics of Nethanyahu have been discussed ad nauseam during his never ending reign.
Roger I hope that you are right but if Israel can salvage their democracy that alone was worth the fight.
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Netanyahu's set back for the moment, is a great loss. However, no matter what happens in this election, both the Israeli and Arab opposition will see that no one can bring peace because the issue here is not peace, but the horrible, heart breaking desire of the Arab and rest of the world to see the total destruction and disappearance of the Jewish State of Israel, and even the Jewish race, as history has proved over and over again.
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Prologue for the US in 2020? Do we dare to dream of a country that swings back to sanity?
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@Allen Prologue for the US? You mean a stalemate after a do-over? You call that swinging back to sanity?
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Netanyahu's desperate demagoguery should make Israeli citizens blush with shame. And this doesn't even take account of his corruption. How could he continue as prime minister and not degrade his nation.
Israel badly needs a change. Certainly there will be neither peace nor security in Israel with a prime minister willing to incite violence to hold on to power.
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What if Mr. Cohen's evaluation is deficient, as have been many NYT prescriptions for seven and more decades? What if a "two-state solution" is not the answer? I myself foresee an autonomous Palestine entity in a federation with Israel under Israeli sovereignty analogous to French-Canadian Quebec in the Dominion of Canada? What if Mr. Cohen's subjective, tendentious characterization of a "desperate" Netanyahu does not capture the measure, strength, and skill of the man at all? What if Avigdor Liberman will not be a "kingmaker" as anticipated? And, from where I sit in Palm Beach County in Florida, just as I humbly accept the wishes of Israel's electorate, I believe that a number of know-it-all columnists in comfortable New York offices need not be so sure of themselves. The verdict of history is not so certain at this point as they think.
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It's questionable to say the Arabs are "a little more than 20% of the Israeli population". Israel controls and has what they regard as permanent settlements with hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in much of the West Bank. It would be more accurate to say "only a limited number of Arabs living in Israel and in Israeli controlled lands in the West Bank have Israeli citizenship, those that do represent about 20% of Israeli citizens."
In effect, most of the Arabs living under lives heavily controlled by Israel are effectively stateless. As Israel talks about formal annexation or practices de facto annexation of much of the West Bank lands, there have been no plans for offering Arabs the right to vote or obtain other benefits of full citizenship in the state that heavily controls their lives.
The World has seen this situation before; in general it has not endured.
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@Ron Adam
Currently, the PA and Hamas won't hold elections and do not allow the Palestinian population to vote. Same in Lebanon where Palestinians live in camps. Palestinians are seeking, literally, escape from Gaza and Lebanon and do so by the tens of thousands.
The issue of extending soveignty , which is not annexation by definition, is on the table for Israel. In the end, there are situations of some similarity across the world; Kashmir, The Kurds, Tibet.. and on and on.
Are there solutions in general and in Israel/West Bank in specific? Of course there are, but not the ones being discussed. Perhaps for another time.
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@Mark
Somehow citing Kashmir, the Kurds, Tibet...and so on doesn't make me hopeful that there are solutions for these problems in the Middle East.
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@Ron Adam
The article is referring to the voting Arab citizens of Israel, Don't those in the West Bank and Gaza have the right to vote for Palestinian political candidates and parties? Perhaps some day all will be citizens of a single nation.
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It has never been clear to outside observers of Israel in America and Europe if Benjamin Netanyahu, like his strong supporter, Donald Trump, is instinctively clever without having more than slightly above-average intelligence.
There is also the strong suspicion that Netanyahu, again like Trump, has a God-complex and imagines himself as ordained by heaven with a special mission.
Benjamin Netanyahu, as Roger Cohen points out, has never evolved like previous leaders of Israel because he cannot. Again, the similarities to Donald Trump are inescapable.
The simplest explanation for Netanyahu’s self-destruction and Trump’s bizarre behavior may be that both men are playing checkers, while their rivals and critics are playing chess.
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@sdw
Fascinating. Netanyahu is the master of thinking 6 to 7 moves ahead. The population is mostly secular and now the head of the secular Israelis is considered " The Kingmaker." I can assure you Netanyahu has thought this through. I just wonder if he is interested in serving in any capacity other than prime minister. He has just as much support as the other large party, essentially.
Whatever the outcome, Netanyahu has been one of the most successful leaders in world history. Israel is a very young country in a difficult part of the world to survive and has catapulted to world leadership in many areas and is considered, overall, the 8th most powerful country in the world. Certainly well accomplished with accelerated excellence during Benjamin Netanyahu's years of service to his country, which is in no way similar to President Trump.
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@Mark
You give Netanyahu much too much credit for thinking ahead. He has been a one-trick pony all of his professional career, playing the fear card and relying upon the ultra-orthodox religious community. The one aspect of his personality which is in sharp contrast to Donald Trump is his control. He is not plagued by the impulsive urges which characterize Trump. Netanyahu, however, still cannot see the big picture or rejects it as inconsistent with his personal ambition.
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@sdw
I'm agnostic as to just how intelligent Netanyahu is, but I've heard him speak and read things he has written and he's a virtual Einstein relative to Trump. As is my cat.
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"Since he first took office as prime minister in 1996, 23 years ago, this has always been Netanyahu’s core underlying purpose: to prevent, forever and always, the emergence of a Palestinian state on the West Bank."
If true, his view is shared by Palestinians and their leaders who have never shown an interest in the establishment of a state simply in the West Bank, but one that encompasses the present state of Israel.
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@ZHR
Which is why many Palestinians on the West Bank were hoping for Bibi to win. As long as he held office, they never had to fear being forced to make choice they did not want to make.
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@ZHR the Likud party platform expressly forbids any other state coming into existence, west of the Jordan River. This of course, naturally dovetails with Revisionist Zionism, the school of thought Netanyahu was raised within. Therefore there will be no Palestinian State, as Israel will not allow it.
@ZHR
Since killing your last leader who treated Palestinians with a modicum of respect and peace as a real, and an attractive, possibility, you have confronted them with a lying, bigoted, cynical clown-faced boy who made clear by his every breath and gesture that he would never abide the settlement he was continuously negotiating.
Negotiations he used to pin the Palestinians down to hopeless positions and self-destructive attempts at settlement.
Yet you persist in blaming them for doubting your veracity, the possibility of ever living peaceably with people who lie, steal, cheat, and play the victim at every opportunity.
It seems to me you boys have a lot to prove before your complaints will have any meaning at all.
It also seems that, at long last, you have given yourselves a chance.
Congratulations, Israel. Get to work.
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"King Bibi cannot abide opposition, which is what democracy delivers. He will not go easily, that is certain. As in many things these days, Israeli politics often look like prologue for the United States."
Trump is already saying "you can hate me but you must vote for me", much like Netanyahu.
The vast difference between the two is Bibi was an actual politician, Trump is not.
The other big difference is we have found out that even with a confused, intemperate, mercurial pull it out of my nethers "acting" President the workings of government still grind on. Apparently the deep state works just fine.
We have nothing to fear replacing Trump in 2020
Trump will not go quietly, but he will go.
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@folderoy The deep state can survive four years of Trump and more. But not forever without leadership that understands, values and repairs the system.
I can see President Warren taking the oath of office and ordering the army to remove Trump. from the White House. It should be quite a spectacle.
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@folderoy -- The "deep state", which is radically right wing, is doing irreparable damage outside the public eye. The outrages that make the headlines like the California emissions order are the tip of a very large iceberg of destruction throughout the workings of state and federal government. And all those changes are in support of the super wealthy, major corporations, and the christian right.
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@MKR
Warren is too much of an extremist Left Winger.
Her scapegoats of "greedy" bankers and wealthy people as the "cause" of all problems …
and her lies on the costs of her FANTASTIC social programs.
makes her the Donald Trump on the FAR LEFT.
3
Here's hoping for an even more resounding rebuke of Trump and the far-right (i.e., the majority of the GOP now) come Nov. 2020.
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@Matt You call a stalemate of a do-over a "resounding rebuke"?
4
@Matt Work for it!
2
I am not seeing the part where either Lieberman or Gantz have indicated any interest in a peace with the Palestinians that does not involve the annexation of the West Bank. So much for a faint glimmer of hope.
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One thing is clear--Gantz is a vastly more decent person than Netanyahu, and that is not a bad place to start.
2
"He was desperate and he has come up short. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bared his inner being in the run-up to the Israeli election ... only to find that Israelis may have had enough."
Substitute Trump for Netanyahu and Americans for Israelis and perhaps we have a hopeful prophecy for next year?
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@Blue Moon My hope is that both Bibi's and Trump's final act will take place prison. Fingers crossed.
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I hope that Trump is defeated far more decisively than Netanyahu apparently has.
4
Mr. Cohen, another superb column. I've been following this Israeli election like no other. The Joint Parties (Arab) will not be invited into any government, but they will be at the door making their wants known. At this point, no one knows what will happen next as it's up to the President of Israel as to who to ask to form a government. However, Mr. Lieberman's secular reforms are very popular by brining the ultra-orthodox into line with the rest of Israel to defend their nation amongst other things.
President Reuven Rivlin is a very interesting person. His family has been in Jerusalem since at least 1809 under the Ottoman Empire, British Mandate and, now, the Israeli State. His father made the first translation of the Quran into Hebrew. Mr. Rivlin is a "One-State israeli" meaning he wants the country to run from the Jordan River to the sea including Gaza. This would include full citizenship for Arabs with full voting rights, health care and so much more. He also speaks Arabic. I wish him luck in a difficult task.
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@JWMathews
Today, India and Pakistan look in the rear-view mirror and say what if they were not divided. In India approximately 255 of 1.3 Billion people are Muslim and barring handful occasions, live to-gather very well.
I agree and admire President Rivlin for the translation-meaning he knows all by himself the texts the two religions are identical so why not they can prosper to-gather. Get rid of all arms suppliers and progress.
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@JWMathews
Thanks for informing the rest of us about the very interesting background of President Rivlin.
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@JWMathews He's for two states. Reuven Rivlin: "We must respect the idea (of a Palestinian state) because they're here, and they must recognize the idea that the Jewish nation has returned to its homeland. These are difficult challenges when there is no trust between nations."
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