Netanyahu: The Price of Power

Politicians are often tempted to sign deals with the devil to obtain and maintain power. Indeed, they are often ready to ignore their principles and even to sacrifice the institutions of the very state that they propose to lead regardless of the costs.

It appears that such is the deal that will return Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu to power after a year’s hiatus.

In order to secure his coalition, Netanyahu has had to invite a number of small extremist religious parties on the condition that he agree to pursue policies that have the potential of ripping the fabric of the Israeli state as its founders envisaged it. 

First, in his deal with ultra conservative religious right-wing parties, his government proposes to further expand Jewish settlements in the occupied territories – against international law and despite opposition from many Israelis who believe in a two-state solution on the basis of relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. 

Indeed, this will cause a major rift with Diaspora Jews who do not agree with Israel’s ultra-right-wing parties or their policy proposals that Netanyahu will now support despite the fact that these religious parties only represent 7 or 8 percent of the Israeli electorate.

Second, as a result of his deal, he may well submit to their demands that Conservative and Reform Jews (the majority of the Diaspora population) no longer enjoy the automatic right of return to Israel since Orthodox Jews do not consider them to be real Jews. The ultra-right’s objective is to create a theocracy of orthodox Jews in which Jewish religious laws would be paramount. The fundamental question is whether this is also Netanyahu’s goal or if he is willing to risk his coalition to resist such an initiative by parties that only won 8% of the seats but who hold the balance of power in the Knesset.

They also propose that legislation that is passed by a majority of the Knesset (parliament) not be subject to veto by the Supreme Court – resulting in absolute and unchecked power for anyone who controls a majority of parliamentary seats – in this case, the coalition that could seek to perpetuate itself in power without the democratic checks and balances currently in place.

Leaders of the religious right – Itamar Ben Gvir who will head the National Police responsible for security in the West Bank and Bezalel Smotrich, who will be responsible for overseeing settlement policy – will be in a position to steer government policy in these critical areas of governance despite their low standing in the polls. Thus, Netanyahu is creating a government where the minority runs roughshod over the majority to the detriment of Israeli democracy.

Third, both right-wing leaders have advocated ridding the country of the Palestinian presence or further severely limiting their political rights.

According to Voice of America, President Isaac Herzog met with Ben-Gvir after members of his party this week called for the legalization of discrimination against LGBTQ people based on religious belief.

Herzog’s office said the president urged Ben-Gvir to “calm the stormy winds and to be attentive to and internalize the criticism” about the incoming government’s stance on LGBTQ issues, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and a bill to remove a ban on politicians supporting racism and terrorism from serving in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.

I don’t like to use the word apartheid loosely. Indeed, many Israeli Arabs serve in senior positions in the military, the judiciary, and the government. They also serve in the Knesset and have also served as government ministers.

Hence, it is easy to conflate labels of apartheid, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israelism.

And the Netanyahu government threatens to blur the lines even more.

Zionism as conceived by Israel’s founders was a Jewish democracy with fundamental respect for human rights. From the beginning, the rights of the Christian and Muslim Arab minorities within its borders have been respected. Israel thus served as the only multicultural democracy in the Middle East. 

After the occupation of the West Bank, the equation changed, and Israel found itself home to a few million Palestinians who do not see themselves as Israelis in the same way that Israeli Arabs. 

Now, at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise around the world, Netanyahu is bound by his coalition agreement to portray Zionism as an oppressive expansionist force set on reducing human rights for all and drastically reducing the space that an independent Palestinian state could occupy.

Netanyahu and his followers are bound to label opposition to his government’s policies as anti-Semitic, when many Jews within Israel and in the Diaspora oppose his government’s policies. 

Are these Jews anti-Semitic? 

I don’t think so.

In my view, their view is a call to arms for Israelis to defend their democracy from an extreme right-wing determined to transform the fundamental identity of the country from a Jewish democracy to a fundamentalist Jewish theocracy.

And that is the price Netanyahu may well be willing to pay to hold power. 

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Edition: Estefanía Cardeña