Home » In Israel, a group of strange bedfellows get together and finally oust Netanyahu

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In Israel, a group of strange bedfellows get together and finally oust Netanyahu — 19 Comments

  1. History doesn’t repeat but it rhymes. This puts me in mind of the 1930’s where France had a series of ineffectual governments coupled with economic distress. Also the totalitarians were attacking the structure of the government and calling it illegitimate. Eastern Europe had the same problems.

    All as the “Fourth Turning” predicted. Very interesting.

  2. 1. I respected Pipes until he called Oslo wrong and started sounding more and more like an establishment bobblehead.

    2. While the depths of pride and personal animosity always surprise me, I also will not be surprised to discover down the road that Bennet was either bought off or played for a patsy with promises that he would be “allowed” to do great things as Prime Minister. Given that his boosters’ and coalition partners’ idea of “great things” is a return to Oslo-era apologetics, let’s hope they renege on those promises.

    There is no other explanation for why an ambitious intelligent man would so thoroughly burn his political bridges.

    The Israeli internet has been full of old clips and articles showing that he is a serial liar and opportunist.

    3. I often say that Arab violence acts as a salutary wake up call that of keeps Israel’s utopian Lefties in check…. In comparison, the comfort and safety of the US have allowed the Left to make more cultural inroads, allowed more people to hover over reality.

    But in this case the majority of the Israeli public has already learned the sober lessons of Oslo. In the recent round of missiles from Gaza there were billboards in Tel Aviv urging the army not to take half measures but to “occupy and finish the job”.

    The fact that Bennet and Lapid are doing this just a few weeks after major coastal cities saw riots and pogroms by Israeli Arabs against their Jewish neighbors only underscores how out of touch they are and how they are burning their bridges.

    Perhaps it is the Israeli center-right that grew complacent. And as i have posted before, Bibi failed to work with these people to build a movement.

  3. One Israeli friend of mine who is pretty liberal, and not terribly keen on Bibi, is appalled. She did hold her nose and vote for Bibi’s party because while she doesn’t like Bibi, she realizes that he was the strongest horse and the best bet for safety.

    Another extremely left Israeli friend of mine is so ecstatic. He really deludes himself into thinking that: Getting rid of Bibi will be good for Israel; This coalition will work; The opinion of the “international community” matters; Israel getting into the good graces of the “international community” well be good for Israel.

    (He also posted all sorts of crap on Facebook about the Palestinian children “killed” by Israel in the recent battle with Hamas. He’s Jewish and lives in Tel Aviv. He left France because of increasing anti-Semitism. I really cannot fathom how his “brain” works. But I stay Facebook friends with him because it’s kind of like slowing down to rubberneck at a train wreck. His trainwreck.)

  4. US taxpayer dollars were spent to oust Bibi (unsuccessfully) in 2015. I wonder how much was committed to the effort this time around.

  5. Bennett’s a bit of a maverick.
    His positions have been to the right of Netanyahu’s on certain issues.

    His problem now is that if sticks to his guns he will likely break up the coalition.
    But if he breaks up the coalition and the government falls, he can kiss his political career good-bye.
    This, um, “tension”, creates two possibilities if the current coalition wishes to continue to exist (obviously there are more, so lets call them “main” possibilities:
    – that Bennett backs off and triangulates towards the center.
    – that his coalition partners cut him some slack even against their better judgment and triangulate toward the center (in some cases) or the slightly right-of-center (in others).
    – or a bit of both (I guess that makes “three”).

    (All this, it should be stated, to try to make sure that the coalition will live to see another day.)

    It is also entirely possible that Israel’s “partners in peace”(TM) will step in to “save the day”.

    Regarding the “Biden” administration, Bennett should not expect any help from that quarter—unless the definition of “help” in this case is that “Biden” will put so much pressure on Bennett that the latter will “be forced” to move leftward (toward the center and even beyond). IOW, he will be left gasping able only to say, “I’d really rather not do this but the pressure is intense AND I HAVE NO CHOICE!”

    Of course, he does have a choice and if any of this is accurate, it will be interesting to see what that choice will be…as well as what his rationalizations might involve.

    In any event, there will be a whole lot for the new government to try to accomplish (aside from security) in the realms of society, education, health, construction, minorities, and the potential need to absorb a great many immigrants….

    Disclaimer: The above is purely speculative and may in fact prove to have nothing to do with reality (as we know it).
    Disclaimer to disclaimer: We are living in exceedingly unreal times.

  6. I note that parliamentary systems are in many places unstable and create some very odd governments, of which this seems to be one. May God preserve Israel.

    But in this case, if the government falls, they have a chance to do better soon. We, on the other hand, are stuck with whoever’s running Biden for another three and a half years.

  7. I see that it’s not just the Palestinians who manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

    Pipes is half right and mostly wrong…

    There will be no successful partnership between the conservative and centrist factions because neither one is willing to address the source of Muslim hate.

    Nor will any Israeli government succeed in integrating its Haredi and Muslim citizens. As both are theologically opposed to integration.

  8. A few weeks ago I was relieved to read neo’s admission that she can’t follow the intricacies of Israeli politics either.

  9. Geoffrey:
    Haredi, an ultra-orthodox Jewish clan, total about 200 Israelis. Yep, just two hundred.
    Israeli Muslims, on the other hand, total about 1.9 million. They are the great Israeli internal danger, aside from leftist Jewish dullards, the demographic Afro-Ams of Israel.
    But let’s not give Haredis the equivalence your comment implies, for Pete’s sake!

  10. @LeeAlso:

    “He left France because of increasing anti-Semitism. I really cannot fathom how his “brain” works. But I stay Facebook friends with him because it’s kind of like slowing down to rubberneck at a train wreck. His trainwreck.”

    On the plus side, he didn’t emigrate to Florida to ruin it by voting Democrat and only then bug out to Israel to ruin it too by voting for rainbow flags, etc. I like a man who cuts to the chase. And at least in Israel with some real existential skin in the game there’s some tiny chance that he might learn. Eventually.

  11. “This says 1.18 million.”

    Haredi are Handy for picking up the pieces (of you). They otherwise appear to be a net drain unless obscure textual studies and speculations are a high priority.

    If Israeli national survival ever became last stand skin of the teeth like in Israel I guess they’d make effective human shields and just add water instant minefield clearance experts, voluntary or otherwise. Quantity has a Quality all of its own.

    Having your own country is good. It also invites Irony into your lives.

    Every country has its people tax. America has the Black Tax, Israel has the Haredi Tax and no doubt the Ethiopian Jew Tax. It’s OK when the good times roll.

    Can’t help thinking of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy episode about the space ship full of Telephone Sanitizers sent out to colonise a new planet ahead of the Engineers and Doctors. They were told it was their honour to go out first as they were the special people.

    Don’t know anything about Bennett except saw a quote somewhere purporting to be him saying that it was time for Israel to stop taking financial aid from the US because it’s perfectly capable of standing on its own two feet.

  12. So. Bibi missed the Iran-Pali War to eliminate the Jew opportunity to build bridges and influence people in the Knesset.

    But how did the media keep the masses ignorant about such an obvious menace to safety and the Israeli way of life?

    THIS is the Great Mystery to their American friends on the Right.

  13. Not up on the finer points of any of this obviously, but does Bibi lose any forms of immunity from prosecution or being otherwise tied up in legal processes once he stops holding the office of Prime Minister?

    If there’s a ratchet effect where knocking him out of the office means that he’s debarred from getting back in for the foreseeable future, then obviously his enemies have every incentive to say damn the torpedoes, blow him out of the game and sort out the rest at their leisure — they hope.

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