Unseat King Bibi
Photograph of Israeli Prime-Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.
Israeli Prime-Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been busy setting records for himself and the State of Israel as of late. In July, Mr Netanyahu became Israel's longest-serving Prime-Minister, in November, he became the first Prime-Minister to be indicted, and a couple of weeks ago he described his recent election victory as the 'biggest win' of his life.
Despite these precedent-setting and record-breaking achievements, it is time for Mr Netanyahu to leave his office, and allow for the opposition to stabilise the government and the diplomatic corps. Mr Netanyahu poses a severe threat to regional stability, threatens to undermind the free and democratic framework that Israel is supposed to represent, symbolises the type of open corruption that plagues Israeli politics, and emboldens the religious and nationalist extremists that are tearing Israel and the region apart.
On 02 March, Israel held a legislative election, the third in less than a year, in which Mr Netanyahu's Likud Party, a conservative-nationalist party that has controlled Israel since 2009, won the most seats in the Knesset (39). Likud leads a coalition of conservative, nationalist, orthodox, and religious parties; however, Mr Netanyahu's coalition is still three seats short of a governing majority.
The Blue and White Party, a relatively new centrist party, led by former military officer Benny Ganz, came in second place with 33 seats. Blue and White control an opposition coalition of anti-Netanyahu parties, including the liberal Labor–Gesher–Meretz group.
While anti-Netanyahu parties control a majority in the parliament, it is highly fractured, and now all parties could cohesively work with the Blue and White coalition.
Another successful party in the election was Joint List, a group of predominantly Arab parties, which now has 15 seats (up two). However, Joint List worked to rebrand itself during this election, to include broader support from liberal and secularist Israelis. This tactic lured votes away from the Labor–Gesher–Meretz coalition, which lost three seats in the election (with a total of seven).
Although Mr Netanyahu's party has the most seats in the Knesset, he will find it difficult to form a coalition. His only viable tactic, to stay solely in power, would be to lure three opposition members to join his coalition, as no party is likely to work with him.
The only party that might work with Mr Netanyahu would be Yisrael Beiteinu, a nationalist party led by former Defence-Minister Avigdor Lieberman. However, Mr Lieberman's campaign was primarily based around a platform to unseat Mr Netanyahu, making a deal between the two unlikely.
An agreement with the Joint List Party would put either coalition into a governing majority. However, many of the conservative members of Blue and White Party have stated that they would not join a government that included Joint List, and Mr Netanyahu would likely never consider such an arrangement. These circumstances put any government, including Joint List, extremely unlikely.
This leaves Israel with three viable outcomes. (1) Mr Netanyahu lures three opposition members to join the government and secures a majority of 61 seats. (2) Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz enter a joint agreement to share power, likely with the two of them revolving in the Prime-Minister's chair. (3) With no clear outcome, Israelis are forced to vote in a fourth election, in a one-year period.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has until 17 March to give one of the party leaders the mandate form a government, and he is likely to tap Mr Netanyahu for that task, as reported by National Public Radio. However, coincidently, Mr Netanyahu has another commitment that day. On 17 March Mr Netanyahu is also scheduled to appear before an Israeli court in his corruption trial.
While there is no law saying that a Prime-Minister must resign once indicted of a crime, Mr Netanyahu's mandate to form a government is likely to be challenged in the courts and the Knesset.
If Mr Netanyahu is tapped to form a government, the Israeli Supreme Court is likely to intervene in the case, to question whether or not Mr Rivlin can give an indicted figure a mandate to form a government. Additionally, Mr Gantz's spokesperson has said that the opposition may present a bill in the Knesset, preventing an indicted leader from forming a government, according to The Economist.
Mr Netanyahu responded to these comments by saying that 'Gantz is trying to steal the election'. Mr Netanyahu and his supporters are attempting to give him retroactive immunity, to prevent him from appearing at his trial.
It is time for a breath of fresh air to Israel, and it is time for Mr Netanyahu to go.
While Mr Netanyahu has not always served as a destabilising force in the Middle East, in fact, in his earlier days in office, he worked to improve diplomatic relations with many of his Arab neighbours. However, his recent actions and campaign pledges will and are undermining regional progress and Israel's visage to the world.
During the September Knesset election (see article: Israel Headed for Hung Parliament), Mr Netanyahu promised to annex much of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, if he was given a victory.
This promise was solidified by American President Donald Trump's 'plagiarised' Middle East Peace Plan, which called for Israeli jurisdiction of the Jordan Valley and Jewish settlement areas, the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and which seemed disinterested in the creation of a Palestinian state, according to Foreign Policy.
A poll conducted by the Palestine Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) found that 94 per cent of Palestinians' categorically regect' Mr Trumps peace plan. Additionally, the Palestinian Authority rejected the proposal out of hand.
The plan clearly favoured Israel, disregarded international agreements and standards, human rights issues, did not lay out a clear plan for a Palestinean nation and did not seek a path for negotiation or reconciliation between the two parties.
United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council that the American Peace Plan' failed to meet the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people, according to the United Nations. The plan only narrowly avoided a condemnation by the Security Council, only after the US threatened Tunisia and Indonesia not to support the motion.
Since the announcement of the annexation, protests and violence have broken out in the occupied areas of the West Bank. UN officials have warned of increased radicalisation and destabilisation in the region.
Nearly every major power, except for Israel and the United States, have distanced themselves from the plan especially after United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres discouraged such unilateral actions.
Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu are not interested in building a lasting and stable peace or negotiating with the Palestinian authority. With the support of the United States, Israel will now annex the Jordan Valley, ignore human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza, and continue to galvanise people on both the nationalist-right in Israel and of Palestinean radicalist groups.
In July, Mr Netanyahu's government passed a new nationality law that defined Israel as a legally Jewish country, despite Likud's claim to support secularism, further established Jerusalem as the legal capital, and relegated Arabic to a 'special status' language.
While this legislation had a little substantive impact, it was a clear symbol by Mr Netanyahu that his government no longer valued its Arab citizens as 'true Israelis'. Joint List leader Ayman Odeh made a statement saying "Today, I will have to tell my children, along with all the children of Palestinian Arab towns in the country, that the state has declared that it does not want us here", as reported by The Independent.
The legislation was compared to the beginning of the racist apartheid movement in South Africa. The South African representative to the United Nations made a statement to the Security Council during the 30th-anniversary celebration of Nelson Mandela's release from prison, saying 'may this be a lesson in finding peace between Palestinians and Israelis'.
The legislation was also followed by accusations of racist campaigning during the election by Mr Netanyahu, as reported by Reuters.
It is time for a Prime-Minister who will be willing to negotiate with Palestinean leaders, respect minority populations, reverse human rights abuses, and return Israel to the world stage. Only with such a leader, can we hope to see a fair and just end to the conflict.
Israelis also have to decide whether they are comfortable with a Prime-Minister who has been accused of corruption. Even if Mr Netanyahu manages to obtain immunity, with a governing mandate in the Knesset, there is still an overwhelmingly amount of evidence that Mr Netanyahu has engaged in graft.
Additionally, Mr Netanyahu's wife, Sara Netanyahu, pled guilty in a case relating to the misuse of public funds, for personal expenditures. This case highlighted the systemic and hubristic corruption of the couple and the government, according to The Guardian.
Mr Netanyahu, it seems, has engenereed a state that both serves his own personal and financial interests, and which has been relegated to a primitively aggressive and polarising version of itself.
Israel was built to represent a new type of enlightened democracy and culture and to give new hope to people who had been disenfranchised and attacked for centuries. However, Mr Netanyahu has sullied that reputation and that history with his actions and rhetoric.
Mr Gantz should stick by his promise to not serve with an indicted Prime-Minister, and he should work hard to ensure that Mr Netanyahu is unable to form a government on its own. If he is unable to form a government and Israel heads for another election, Israelis should vote Mr Netanyahu and his coalition out of power, if his legal troubles do not stop him from doing so.
It is time for a new change and new leadership in Israel. King Bibi's reign must end for his country to move foward.
Sources:
Estrin, Daniel. 'Israel's Election: What Comes Next As Netanyahu Rises Just Short Of A Majority'. NPR, National Public Radio, 03 March 2020,
'Binyamin Netanyahu’s party has come out on top in Israel’s election'. The Economist, The Economist Group, 05 March 2020,
Shaul, Yehuda. 'Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan Isn’t New. It Plagiarized a 40-Year-Old Israeli Initiative'. Foreign Policy, The FP Group, 11 Feb. 2020,
Pollock, David. 'Palestinian Public Rejects Trump Peace Plan But Preferfs Calm, Practial Approach'. The Washington Institute, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 14 Fev. 2020,
'Key Players Reject Proposed United States Peace Plan as Failing to Meet Minimum Rights of Palestinians, Special Coordinator Tells Security Council', UN News, United Nations, 11 Feb. 2020,
https://www.un.org/press/en/2020/sc14103.doc.htm
Ben Zion, Ilan. 'Israeli parliament passes contentious Jewish nation bill'. The Independent, Independent Digital News & Media Ltd, 19 July 2018,
Heller, Jeffrey. 'Israel's Netanyahu pulls his punches after Sanders calls him a racist'. Reuters, Thomas Reuters Coroporation, 26 Feb. 2020,
Holmes, Oliver. 'Israeli court convicts Sara Netanyahu for misusing state funds'. The Guardian, Guardian Media Group, 16 June 2019,