By Rich Kozlovich
On Friday, June 4, 2021 I posted this article, The World as I See It, listing a number of events I felt were profound, provocative and worth following, mostly from Geopolitical Futures, to which I subscribe and recommend everyone doing so, saying:
Unseating Bibi. Israeli opposition parties reached a deal on Wednesday to form a government and unseat current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The coalition consists of Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party as well as an Islamist party called the United Arab List led by Mansour Abbas. Under the agreement, Bennett would serve as prime minister for two years and then be replaced by Lapid. Israeli ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates and Greece have already said bilateral relations will not be significantly affected by the change in government.
My take on this was:
This is a mess in the making as these three groups are at odds with each other’s goals, visions and views of what Israel is and what it should be. Bennet is allegedly far right. It seems to me that Lapid is a former journalist who is more leftist than centrist. And Abbas is a liar, and the ruling arrangement is a formula for incoherence.
What could possibly go wrong?
I made that statement because I took the time to look up these characters to see what they were all about.
Naftalie Bennett was a
former Chief of Staff of Benjamin Netanyahu, and considered to be
military hero, and a successful businessman with a conservative
bent and an orthodox Jew. But that’s
more telling than not as he’s what he really practices is Modern Orthodox Judaism,
which is a hybrid Orthodox Judaism blending the secular with the religious. Is that telling?
His political positions seem to be an odd blending also. He insists, "I will do everything in my power to make sure they [Palestinians] never get a state", and yet he wants to create:
“a tripartition of the Palestinian territories, whereby Israel would unilaterally annex Area C, authority over the Gaza Strip would be transferred to Egypt, and Area A and Area B would remain with the Palestinian National Authority, but under the security umbrella of the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet to "ensure quiet, suppress Palestinian terrorism, and prevent Hamas from taking over the territory".
I can’t see how the long term consequences for this are foundationally stable since his plan relies on the agreement and cooperation of Egypt and the Palestinian National Authority. Dubious at best! All of which leads me to conclude the long term consequences would be to create the foundation for an individual Palestinian state.
He also claims:
"Israel must learn to live with the Palestinian problem without a "surgical action" of separation to two states: "I have a friend who's got shrapnel in his rear end, and he's been told that it can be removed surgically, but it would leave him disabled... So he decided to live with it. There are situations where insisting on perfection can lead to more trouble than it's worth." Bennett's "Shrapnel in the butt" quickly became widely known as representing his view of the Palestinian problem."
There’s even more and it’s all complex and confusing, leaving you with this question: So where does he really stand?
“I won’t allow Yair Lapid to be prime minister, including in a rotation (agreement.)” and “I will not establish a government based on the support of Mansour Abbas from the Islamic Movement.”
But he's just signed an agreement that allows all that. So where does he stand solidly? He stands for anyone but Netanyahu, as long as he's the anyone, even if it's just for a little while.
What could possible go wrong?
Yair Lapid is a former journalist and who became a politician [neither of which is a recommendation] and the opposition leader in the Knesset heading up the Yesh Atid and serving as minister of Finance from 2013 to 2014.
First, he really resents the Orthodox Jews in Israel because of the privileges and exceptions given to them by the government, and I think that's more universal in Israel than is openly recognized. But, they're a powerful force in Israel, and taking them on isn't going to make his leadership an easy one, or successful for that matter.
His solution to the Palestinian problem would be to have a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, with the goal of creating "two states for two peoples". Then of course he cites the usual caveats about Israeli security and rights in the settlements, and has refused to be a part of any government that stalls any "peace" talks with Palestinians. I'm sure HAMAS thought that was an excellent position for an Israeli government official. He goes on to explain how things would be laid out, which are complicated and unworkable. He's considered the "leader" of disillusioned "centrists" but who are they actually? Make no mistake about it, there are no centrists in Israel. These are leftists who support all the left wing clabber spouted by the media, left wing politicians, and a corrupt judicial system that's been used politically against Netanyahu.
As for his party's positions, this is what's been said: "We have noticed that the Yesh Atid party spends a lot of time on Facebook, instead of engaging in parliamentary activities. Their posts do not say anything. They are full of beautiful text and very little substance."
In short, he wants to continue the same failed policies as the predecessors of Netanyahu.
What could possibly go wrong?
Mansour Abbas supports his United Arab List party's position of a two state solution.
He's been exposed to the Islamist movement that advocates for Islam in Israel, particularly among Arabs and Circassians, how much influence that's had isn't definitive. He's opposed to the Abraham Accords because there's no peace treaty with Palestinians in that agreement, which seems to me to be telling. He states:
"If there will be a real agreement with the Palestinians, there will be real agreements with 55 Muslim countries. But what truly matters is that we are Israelis, and our actions are not supposed to be influenced by whether there is peace with Bahrain."
All of which is blatant nonsense, he no more believes he's an Israeli that do I, and he no more believes there will ever be an agreement with the Palestinians because they're rejected agreement after agreement, and if there ever was one, it would not be honored by the Palestinians, and he has to know that. It's a historically certified and time honored typical Muslim ploy known as the doctrine of taqiya. The Muslim doctrine of deception.
Here's the real thrust of this newly formed three party "government". A commitment to backing a non-Netanyahu government. And then there's the ten other political factions in Israel, thirteen in all. Factions as far as I can tell there are a bunch of political parties in and out of the Knesset! But it gets worse. There are 149 minor political parties in Israel.
If these two sites are accurate there could be over 200 political parties in Israel. I recommend following the two links as I can't really make heads or tails of this mess, and I wonder if the Israelis can. If my assumptions are correct, in a country with only nine million people that means there's a political party for every 45,000 people.
What could possibly go wrong?
So, this brings me to this article by David Singer in the Canada Free Press, Israel's dysfunctional Government cannot survive, saying:
An amalgam of eight leaders trading insults and denigrating each other—whilst their parties have adopted policies that are totally irreconcilable on critical issues—is not the foundation for any stable Government—especially in Israel—whose enemies will become increasingly emboldened following the announcement of a cobbled-together Israeli Government comprising very different bedfellows.
Let's just take one issue.
There are those in this group who support hauling Israel before an International Criminal Court that has specifically targeted Israel! A court that has no jurisdiction because Israel isn't a signatory, yet they've make up their own rules as they go along, much like the Judicial system in Israel, completely ignoring any legislative restrictions.
- The World as I See It: The International Criminal Court (ICC) is Corrupt to the Core!
- The International Criminal Court: Leftists Out of Control
- The World as I See It: The International Criminal Court
And that's just one issue. There's a lot more as Netanyahu makes some cogent observations saying:
"that the new government would not be able to withstand pressure from U.S. President Joe Biden to accept the Iran nuclear deal, and that it would be weak against Palestinian terror, given its reliance on an Islamist party."
- Iran Rearming Hamas with ‘Thousands of New Rockets’ Hamas: ‘This war will last forever’
According to Joel B. Pollak in his article, Benjamin Netanyahu Calls New Israeli Government ‘Biggest Election Scam, Maybe, in History’:
The crisis is exacerbated by the fact that incoming Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of the Yamina party betrayed most of his promises to his voters, including a pledge not to govern with Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party, or with Arab parties.
Israel’s new government is facing a crisis of legitimacy as a prime minister whose party won only 6% of the vote is set to take the reins of government, while the party that won the most votes is being pushed out of office and into opposition.
Hence my original take on this:
This is a mess in the making as these three groups are at odds with each other’s goals, visions and views of what Israel is and what it should be...... and the ruling arrangement is a formula for incoherence.
What could
possibly go wrong?
Just as American politicians on both sides of the aisle proclaimed, "Anyone but Trump", and got Biden, along with an entire band of insane cretins destroying America. Now the Israeli's are getting an "anyone by Netanyahu" government and the results will be even worse.
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