Bibi Netanyahu’s failure to cobble together a
governing coalition
despite 6 weeks of trying after the last election, is embarrassing. The
only thing more embarrassing is his end-run around Israeli law by passing, at
the eleventh hour, a bill dissolving Knesset. That denied President
Rivlin, one of his arch nemeses, the opportunity to offer either another Likud
MK or Blue and White Opposition leader, Benny Gantz, the right to form the next
government. It appears that more MKs (70) could agree on voting for their
own demise than for legislation that would actually benefit the country.
Wednesday, just before midnight, was the Israeli Knesset’s witching
hour. Possessed by a dybbuk bearing an uncanny resemblance to Benjamin
Netanyahu, the Israeli parliament went bats, bonkers, berserk…and what have
you. A whopping majority of over 70 MK’s voluntarily terminated themselves,
less than two months after getting elected, in order to accommodate Netanyahu
and his quest to avoid the long arm of the law.
…They could have easily safeguarded
their Knesset seats, retained their hold on power and saved their own souls
simply by picking another Likudnik to lead them. Instead they walked to their
Knesset seats like zombies and voted to terminate themselves.
Though news reports call these
development “unprecedented,” that doesn’t begin to describe just how bizarre
these proceedings are. After serving for only a month, the new Knesset voted to
dissolve itself. Before this new record in infamy was set, to find the
shortest previous Knesset term you’d have to go back 60 years to 1961, when, faced
with the Lavon Affair, Ben Gurion resigned and disbanded the fourth Knesset,
turning to new elections.
It may be pertinent to recall that
in the elections to form the fifth Knesset, Ben Gurion returned as prime
minister, only to resign in a fit of pique when his Party allies failed to
offer him support. That, in effect was the end of his career. There
may be a lesson there for the current holder of his position.
It’s certainly understandable that
facing a scandal of the magnitude of the Lavon Affair, it was necessary to call
new elections 60 years ago. But now? What can this Knesset and
Israeli politics, in general, say for itself? That it failed because its
leader sought a Get-Out-of Jail-Free card in the form of a new law guaranteeing
him retroactive immunity from prosecution? And because its leader sought
a law that would enfeeble the Supreme Court, which already had been drained of
any independence after years of whittling away its former reputation for
protecting human rights?
Netanyahu, who has always been fond
of overreaching and often succeeded at it, couldn’t quite pull this one
off. Though he retained the loyalty of his Likud minions and the
ultra-Orthodox, who saw him as their patronage gravy train, he couldn’t quite
get over the hump and persuade Avigdor Lieberman to join him. It’s not
clear whether Lieberman balked out of principle (he claimed he wanted passage
of a military draft bill that would end exemptions for ultra-Orthodox students)
or out of pique (the two are long bitter rivals who nevertheless have managed
to co-exist in various governments over the years).
Under these circumstances, you’d
think the electorate would be disgusted and turn to the Opposition for
something fresh and new. That’s what would happen in almost every other
democracy in the world. But Israel isn’t a democracy and doesn’t obey
such norms. Political life there consists of two parties, Tweedle Dee and
Tweedle Dum. Both claim to be different. But they aren’t.
There is some differences in nuance. One speaks nicely but snarls under
its breath. The other speaks crudely and snarls with venom. So the public
rightly asks–what’s the difference? At least we know Netanyahu.
He’s a crook, but he’s our crook.
