So genuine question, why is Netanyahu continually able to keep forming governments if he and his party are as unpopular as I understand they are? Is it just because the opposition parties aren’t able to work out a deal to form a coalition, despite them having a plurality?
After Rabin’s death, the second Intifada etc. the Israeli electorate became disillusioned with the peace process and pretty much swallowed the right-wing idea of how to provide security wholesale, which is pretty much “checkpoints and harassment until they give up”, depending on just how right-wing a particular politician is that’s more or less of a euphemism.
The kicker is though that this was only about security, in other areas (like pudding) the electorate stayed as overall centre-left as it’s always been. Now the right has demonstrated that their approach doesn’t work, if anything it made things worse, and this very much already has entered public conversation though people are still rattled and busy otherwise. The usual suspects like the Haaretz of course are pushing that line – gently, in the sense of attaching it to their “Netanyahu has to fucking go” line which they held pretty much since forever, not in the “we all fucked up and ourselves fell for fascism” way. That’s a bitter pill to swallow for a civil society composed to a large part of survivors of fascism and descendants thereof.
The task the government gave the IDF, btw, that is, eradicate Hamas, as in get to every single member and imprison or kill them, is pretty much impossible without ending up killing 90% of Gazans. I guesstimate that’s why the ground offensive hasn’t started yet: While there’s certainly people within Netanyahu’s government who salivate at the opportunity of glassing Gaza not all of them are completely devoid of moral fibre, also side note the US sent people over to explain to them, in detail, how much of a military shitshow and political mistake Fallujah was.
OTOH, rolling back all that war rhetoric is also an impossibility for the government. As such getting disposed of by the electorate would kind of be an act of mercy. Not for Netanyahu though he’s going to prison for corruption.
Kinda OT side-note: From a German POV it always struck me as nuts that Israel freed over a thousand Palestinians, largely Hamas fighters, in exchange for a single IDF soldier. The German answer to such a thing would have been a simple “We don’t negotiate with terrorists”. Because if you start doing that all you’re saying is “please capture our people we’ll cave in again”. That is, for all their hard-nosed rhetoric and bombing campaigns the government (Netanyahu, again) has been awfully sentimental and non-strategic about it.
Some of those partners have other reasons for aligning with Netanyahu besides his hardline stance on Palestine.
Meanwhile, public polling in Israel shows strong support for diplomatic solutions – with a plurality in favor of the two-state solution – rather than military solutions.
If there’s a competitive party in the Knesset that is actively against bombing Gaza, sure.
But literally the leader of the opposition in the Knesset is *fully in support* of the IDF’s actions so far.
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/tête-à-tête/20231010-israeli-opposition-leader-yair-lapid-the-endgame-is-there-will-be-no-hamas-in-gaza
As it stands, Likud has had a strong grip on the Knesset for a long time, despite not really having a mandate of popular support.
Even when opposition parties have won a plurality, war hawks like Netanyahu and Sharon have still been able to build Likud-run coalitions.
So genuine question, why is Netanyahu continually able to keep forming governments if he and his party are as unpopular as I understand they are? Is it just because the opposition parties aren’t able to work out a deal to form a coalition, despite them having a plurality?
After Rabin’s death, the second Intifada etc. the Israeli electorate became disillusioned with the peace process and pretty much swallowed the right-wing idea of how to provide security wholesale, which is pretty much “checkpoints and harassment until they give up”, depending on just how right-wing a particular politician is that’s more or less of a euphemism.
The kicker is though that this was only about security, in other areas (like pudding) the electorate stayed as overall centre-left as it’s always been. Now the right has demonstrated that their approach doesn’t work, if anything it made things worse, and this very much already has entered public conversation though people are still rattled and busy otherwise. The usual suspects like the Haaretz of course are pushing that line – gently, in the sense of attaching it to their “Netanyahu has to fucking go” line which they held pretty much since forever, not in the “we all fucked up and ourselves fell for fascism” way. That’s a bitter pill to swallow for a civil society composed to a large part of survivors of fascism and descendants thereof.
The task the government gave the IDF, btw, that is, eradicate Hamas, as in get to every single member and imprison or kill them, is pretty much impossible without ending up killing 90% of Gazans. I guesstimate that’s why the ground offensive hasn’t started yet: While there’s certainly people within Netanyahu’s government who salivate at the opportunity of glassing Gaza not all of them are completely devoid of moral fibre, also side note the US sent people over to explain to them, in detail, how much of a military shitshow and political mistake Fallujah was.
OTOH, rolling back all that war rhetoric is also an impossibility for the government. As such getting disposed of by the electorate would kind of be an act of mercy. Not for Netanyahu though he’s going to prison for corruption.
Kinda OT side-note: From a German POV it always struck me as nuts that Israel freed over a thousand Palestinians, largely Hamas fighters, in exchange for a single IDF soldier. The German answer to such a thing would have been a simple “We don’t negotiate with terrorists”. Because if you start doing that all you’re saying is “please capture our people we’ll cave in again”. That is, for all their hard-nosed rhetoric and bombing campaigns the government (Netanyahu, again) has been awfully sentimental and non-strategic about it.
That’s a really thorough explanation, thank you!
Why do we keep getting shit presidents in America?
Mostly, political connections.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_camp
Some of those partners have other reasons for aligning with Netanyahu besides his hardline stance on Palestine.
Meanwhile, public polling in Israel shows strong support for diplomatic solutions – with a plurality in favor of the two-state solution – rather than military solutions.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/israeli-polls-regarding-peace-with-the-palestinians