Benjamin Netanyahu's position weakens in Israel. What this means for India
After all the hullabaloo of a second election in five months, it seems nothing much changed in Israeli politics. According to the information available as of this writing, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan are likely to win 32 out of 120 seats each in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.
Career on the line
While Netanyahu’s bloc of Right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties is at 56 seats, the Centre-Left bloc of Gantz, excluding Arab parties, has 43 seats. For majority in the Knesset, a Prime Minister needs to have a 61-seat support. As a result, once again, the smaller Yisrael Beiteinu party of Avigdor Lieberman appears to hold the balance of power. With neither bigger party set to get a clear majority, even with their coalition, Israel faces the prospect of a long period of political haggling once again.
Though it is always difficult to predict the future of politicians, and that too a politician as formidable as Netanyahu, it seems that we might be standing on the cusp of an important political moment in his political career and of Israeli politics.
For more than two-and-a-half decades now, he has defined Israeli politics in more ways than one. But if the available results are to be believed, then by not gaining seats in the recent elections, Netanyahu’s political position gets weakened considerably. While the formation of a new Israeli government would take weeks, we would know in a matter of days if this is the beginning of the end of the Netanyahu era in the country’s politics.
It clearly looked like that when Netanyahu’s Likud party was downbeat and he addressed half-empty chairs in the party office. He was upbeat about the future and hammered home the point that “in the coming days, we will enter into negotiations to establish a strong Zionist government and to prevent a dangerous anti-Zionist government.” His “anti-Zionist” pitch was aimed at Israel’s Arab parties, which could become the third-largest force in the Knesset.
With this, Netanyahu was also making a key point about himself, an argument that has stood the test of time: He is the only one who can effectively protect the Israelis from the numerous threats that pervade the region and domestically. In the days and weeks to come, Netanyahu will play on this even more. He has already made it a point to mention the US President Donald Trump, suggesting to his supporters that “negotiations with President Trump will shape the future of Israel for generations to come. And because of this, Israel needs a strong and stable and Zionist government.”
Kingmakers prepare
For his main rival, Gantz, the leader of Blue and White, the fact that Netanyahu, despite calling these snap elections, could not really improve upon his tally, is in itself a moral victory, arguing that “it looks like for the second time, the citizens of Israel gave their trust to us”.
In his speech, Gantz is reiterating that he would seek to form a unity government with his political opponents and called on them to meet with him to form a better government for all citizens. However, it is Lieberman who is the kingmaker and has already laid out his demands, including military service for the ultra-Orthodox, public transportation and commerce on Sabbath, making it clear that he would not speak to other party leaders until they meet his conditions.
Much like Gantz, he is in support of a broad liberal unity government, but Netanyahu’s base remains firmly opposed to this.
For Netanyahu, of course, this is also personal as he faces three corruption charges on which pre-trial hearings are about to commence soon. A majority in the Knesset could grant him immunity from prosecution.
Colossal presence
Whatever might happen in the coming days and weeks, Netanyahu stands much weaker today than he was at the beginning of these elections. But he has already made his mark in Israeli history, having overtaken Israel’s founding father, David Ben Gurion, as the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister. But he has singlehandedly defined the trajectory of Israeli polity over the last two decades.
Even his declaration in the closing days of Israeli elections, that if he was returned as Prime Minister he would annex the Jordan Valley, and Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, would now shape the future of what remains of the Arab-Israeli peace process.
For India, Netanyahu has been a great friend. He understood New Delhi’s compulsions in following a multi-aligned foreign policy in the Middle East. And his personal equation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi helped.
If Netanyahu is back as the Israeli Prime Minister, it would be business as usual for New Delhi. But even if his opponents were to come to power, India-Israel relations are today driven by the political consensus in both capitals that strong ties between the two nations are an imperative.
This will continue to shape the trajectory of India-Israel ties, irrespective of changes in government.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)