Editorial of the “World”. The vaccine miracle was not enough. Benjamin Netanyahu led the world’s fastest vaccination campaign in Israel – he reopened the country two weeks before parliamentary elections on March 23. The Israelis are grateful to him, but nothing helps: the prime minister still lacks a majority.
In four polls over the past two years, Israel has remained divided in the middle, unable to form a lasting government. The Israelis are fed up with the state sailing on sight, without a budget, subjected to an endless election campaign. At 71, Mr. Netanyahu remains the most recognized and appreciated leader in the country, which he has governed for twelve years without stopping. But his propensity to stir up the divisions of the population and his increasingly solitary exercise of power weary.
His party, the Likud, has lost six seats in the Knesset since the last election in September 2020. It now has 30 out of 120. The “bloc” of right-wing and religious parties in a position to support it is missing two seats ( 59 seats). Facing him, the formations that could block him will have difficulty getting along. From the left to the far right and to the Arab parties, the ideological gaps are immense.
In a functioning democracy, a governing party whose leader fails the ballot box four times in a row would invite him to give way. Likud would urge Mr. Netanyahu to face his trial for fraud and corruption as a simple litigant, the hearing stages of which begin in early April. Without him, the Likud could form a coalition in twenty-four hours.
But the great formation of the Israeli right has lost the tradition of internal democracy which has long been its pride. She has corporalized herself. She is using Israelis’ confidence in their institutions by denouncing a “plot” by police investigators, judges, the left and the media to bring down her leader. Dissonant voices no longer have a place in the party: they slammed the door one by one.
Long negotiations
This paralysis suited Mr. Netanyahu for two years, who remains in power by yielding to the demands of the ultra-Orthodox, in order to preserve their loyalty. Counting each vote before the March 23 poll, he urged his allies of the religious extreme right to integrate Jewish, racist and homophobic supremacists into their ranks, who make no secret of their contempt for the state.
This “bloc” is dangerous for democratic institutions: it promises to reform the judiciary and reduce the power of the Supreme Court, so that it stops obstructing the will of the “people” as expressed by the Supreme Court. Parliament. He intends to reduce his reluctance to endorse the wishes of settlers in the occupied West Bank. In passing, he could offer Mr. Netanyahu immunity from his trial.
In the aftermath of the Jewish Passover, Israel is once again preparing for long negotiations. Small parties are asserting their demands. The hunt for “defectors” is open, under the threat of a fifth ballot. Mr. Netanyahu could ally a small, pragmatic Islamist formation, which seeks to break the glass ceiling under which the formations representing the Arab citizens of Israel (20% of the population) remain.
In September 2020, the opposition had not dared to take such a step: it had refused to join forces with progressive Arab parties. But, even today, Mr. Netanyahu remains the only one capable of making accept the political transgressions in Israel.
