keeping up with my blog of Israeli politics here –
The opposition had 30 days to form a government to replace Bibi.
They managed to set up a very strange coalition that included Bennett (very right wing), Sa’ar (a Romney-esque right wing that broke from Bibi), Lapid (center-left) and Labor party (left) and even possibly, for the first time in a very racist country, maybe include an Arab party support.
Surprisingly days before they manage to finish the negotiations, a war broke out.
Now Bennett decided to stop the negotiations (‘this is not the time’). Almost surely sending us to the 5th election cycle in the last 2 years. Wanna guess how the Israeli population going to vote after a month of rocket attacks and violence on the street?
There is an amazing paradox in Israeli politics i call the Bibi Paradox.
Things are good? Vote Bibi, you pickle (that’s actually what Bibi calls the left)
Things are meh? It would be far worse without Bibi, you pickle.
Things are literally burning? Only Bibi can save us now.
This sucks so badly, thanks for keeping us up to date Yuv. Israel is such a polarizing topic that I feel like it can be hard to get straight information on what’s really going on. I have cousins there who I am not really close with but I am hoping they are ok. I’m going to send her a message now because this stuff has been on my mind a ton over the last few days.
Yeah I have really nothing more than a layperson’s understanding of this stuff, so I’m appreciative of the perspective of people that are literally living what to me is just some academic political science debate.
how right wing is bennet? what is the right wing on the issue of palestine? actually a better query is, can you describe the different parties on the right wing? in my limited understanding i assumed everyone who was ever with bibi as right wing, but that’s obviously wrong.
how far down the rabbit hole you want to go? very very tl;dr warning.
In Israel the definition of Right and Left is not economic related. The orthodox parties are extremely left wing economically, but extreme right socially.
Keep in mind that Begin was a right-wing leader and the one who signed the peace treaty with Egypt. Sharon was a right-wing leader who pulled Israel out of Gaza.
The modern Israeli political map look like this →
Shas and “United Torah Judaism” - Two ultra orthodox parties. Shas are the Sephardic party, UTJ are the Ashkenazi party. Shas size can get huge at times, as they do get wider support. UTJ is steady with 5-8% of the seats in the Knesset.
Both care about budget for their communities and control of the religious bodies in the country. They go with Bibi and are unwilling to move currently.
The “religious Zionist” party - This is where Bennet originated. They are the most problematic party because their audience range from full blown Nazis to moderate right, depending on the general mood in the country and the inner-politics there. Bennett led the party for a few cycles. Bennet is a tech millionaire that the secular crowd can handle, but he is pro-annexation in general.
Bennett broke from the party a few cycles ago and formed a new party that was suppose to battle Likud for the secular right votes but also get some of the yummy Nazi votes. He kinda failed electorally (~7%) but got lucky with the way the map shaped out.
The party he left is now jam packed with actual Nazis and led by Smotrich who is sadly a name you might get familiar with in the near future.
Likud - The traditional right wing party. It has no principles anymore and serves only as a platform for Bibi to rule. He kicks out anyone he views as a threat. Think of it as the GOP and Trump, i suppose.
Bibi outcasts - Every election cycle there’s one party formed by some politician Bibi pushed out of the Likud. This time it’s Gideon Sa’ar. Think of them as Romney type. Bibi hates him more than anything in the world and Saar is pretty set on doing everything he can to take him down. Liberman is another one who has a party that gets the Russian immigrants vote and is right-wing with a hint of libertarian and fascism. He hates Bibi and the orthodox parties.
Center shit - Lapid is the current leader of that branch. Think of them as Dianne Fianstein’s type. They are very moral in their own mind and want to go back to when everyone agreed on that. Currently the 2nd largest party.
Labor party - a shadow of it’s old self, but has a feminist woman leader now that done surprisingly well in the election.
Meretz - the most left wing party but still under the Zionist umbrella (the actual term, not the US version).
The Joint List - An Arab party Led by Aymen Odeh, a mix of communist and nationalist Arab parties that had to unite due to Liberman’s laws to increase the minimum votes needed to get in the Knesset.
The United Arab Party - This is an important new addition to the list. It’s a very religious right-wing Arab Party with one exception - their leader, Mansour Abbas, has decided that he wants a piece of the pie. Since all Jewish/Zionist party are the same to them (which I can understand), he decided they might as well support it in return for budgets. This spark a very racist and absurd debate on the political map. Due to the way the parties ended up in the last election, his 4% seats are critical to forming a coalition.
Unfortunately that’s all I can do to verify a tweet as I don’t have the local knowledge and would much appreciate the follow up posts wrt the context…
I usually would not post in this thread or similar because of your said point and won’t post going forward and hope you can take some time to let us know how you and you’re family are doing. Thanks
That’s quite a thicket! In combination with the history and geopolitics of the Middle East, it makes for a pretty tough situation to even get a handle on, let alone think of positive ways forward.
Bibi thrives on stagnation. That’s why he is anti-war in general, as surprising as it might sound to the outside. He wants everyone to have no hope and to not even imagine a different future than a “quiet”, “steady”, “slow” occupation.
That what makes him so successful. He keeps the situation right below boiling. Now that he got under serious pressure, he just cranked it up a few notches and got his reign back.
I and others I’d assume want those details, it’s what’s great about the community is that we can get these posts from time to time, I realise this may be difficult for you and was some of the reasons I was posting itt and left that tweet in the morning hoping to get some context, I’m more of a generator of clicks type and post them to get a discussion going in most cases as I admittedly have a lack of history.
where do the anti-occupation jews belong politically?
this is quite a hellish political landscape tbh. a part of me appreciates a two party system where at least it is somewhat clear who the nazis support, and there’s a lot fewer party leaders doing a heel turn and making alliances with deplorables as tactics.
From Lapid to the left (Labor, Meretz). But anti-occupation has two different crowds
“Occupation is wrong and need to be stopped and thats a priority” - Largely Meretz and part of Labor Party.
“I want this to end but i don’t trust arabs, Ehud Barak gave them everything and they turned it down” - Labor party to Lapid.
Sadly the 2nd group is far larger.
The actual group that cares about settlement is mostly the “Religious Zionist” group. They are taking advantage of the 2nd group I mentioned. This is why to me Ehud Barak made more damage to the political map than Bibi, even though he was left wing who tried to get a peace treaty done.
Funny enough, the Israeli system is so fucked up that I didn’t even mention Benny Gantz, minister of defense, prior head of the joint forces and who, in theory, is suppose to be the Prime Minister in November if a new government isn’t sworn by then.
He was suppose to dethrone Bibi in 2020 but didn’t. I can explain why, but your heads might explode.
He is under the “Center shit” umbrella.
We’ve gone through 4 elections cycle without a government. Heading to the 5th. The landscape now is hellish even when compared to prior times in Israel. The problem is that while Bibi creates enemies to the right, the classical left is getting thinner and thinner.
I want to thank you for your posts. As a German there are only two general statements about Israel that I can make:
I completely support the right of the state of Israel to exist and defend itself.
The situatuation in and around Israel is far too complicated for me to form an opinion more nuanced than the first sentence.
As you seem like someone who is able to see the situation from different perspectives even though you have strong opinions yourself, I find your posts very valuable for learning about the situation. I thank you for that and wish you and your loved ones the best in this horrible situation.
i read a few articles about the gantz/bibi when they were deadlocked at the time. it’s crazy. i wanted to like gantz in that election, but his deal to give 2 years of freeroll to bibi has lucy/football written all over it.
