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Israel election and political system explained
Since April 2019, the State of Israel has undergone three election campaigns, and all three have ended without a clear answer to the question: who won the election? Without clear election results, the fourth election date was already set to March 2021. This is an unprecedented situation that did not happen before in Israel and probably in any democratic country in the world.
How did it happen that a relatively stable political system was thrown into a jolt whose end was not in sight? In this article, I will explain Israel’s political structure and why we are so caught up in Israel’s political turmoil.
The political structure in Israel
The natural and traditional division of Israeli politics is between three major blocs:
- The right-wing bloc
- The left bloc
- Arabic parties
The right-wing bloc includes the right-wing parties, religious Zionist parties, and ultra-Orthodox parties. The left-wing bloc includes the leftist parties. The Arab bloc includes four different Arab parties. This is the structure that underlies the political map in Israel. Even when parties stand up, break up, connect with other parties, this is done in the basic political structure.
Occasionally opportunistic parties were formed because of a protest vote or because of a temporary political constellation. Still, these parties did not represent a political-ideological agenda, so they broke up at the end of the hype around them. Over the past decade, the right-wing majority in Israel has been growing for several reasons:
1. Leftist ideology failures
The biggest failure was the Oslo Accords. The Oslo Accords were born to bring peace with the Palestinian Arabs and, in effect, led to unprecedented bloodshed following a Palestinian Authority-led terrorist campaign established based on the Oslo Accords.
2. Demographics
Jewish demographics in Israel are getting stronger, year by year, but those who lead the birth chart are undoubtedly ultra-Orthodox and religious Jews, mainly Judea and Samaria residents. This is a process that has been going on for generations and is changing the fabric of Israel’s state.
3. Immigration to Israel
Most immigrants who arrived in Israel in the last few decades, and more than a million people, came mainly from Russia. Immigrants from Russia are mainly identified with right-wing parties. Another significant immigration comes from France, following the rise of anti-Semitism in France. These Jews, too, usually identify with the right.
Right-wing block structure
The right-wing bloc, also known as the National Camp, now consists of the following parties: the Likud Party, the Right Party, the Shas Party, Agudat Israel, and Agudat Israel.
Likud party (United) - ליכוד
After the third election (March 2020), the Likud is the largest party in Israel. A longstanding ideological party exists even before establishing the State of Israel (in a different name). The Likud party voters are huge and wide and include various populations, from the established cities, the periphery, the religious, the ultra-Orthodox, the secular.
Benjamin Netanyahu has been leading the Likud for a long time and has served as prime minister for more than a decade (making him the prime minister who has spent the most time in the State of Israel). The Likud party has more than 100,000 members, and the party holds primaries to elect its Knesset representatives.
Shas party (Six Mishna books) - ש"ס
Formed mainly in the 1980s for ultra-Orthodox Jews from North Africa, but the party has become a traditional Jewish public of Moroccan, Tunisian, or North African countries.
Shas party has a hard cast of voters, but about half of its voters are voters who can vote for Likud or the right-wing party, and their vote for the Shas party is not guaranteed, although, in all three recent election campaigns, they have shown great loyalty to the party.
The Shas Party does not hold primaries, and its representatives to the Knesset are elected by the leaders of the movement (who are not sitting in the Knesset). The leader of the movement today is Rabbi Arie Deri.
Yahadut Ha'torah (the Jews of the Torah) - יהדות התורה
An ancient party existed even before establishing the State of Israel (then called “Agudat Israel“). A definite party of ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews. The percentage of Yahadut Ha’torah is very high and not subject to changing moods or political fashions.
This is a very disciplined public that listens to several rabbis’ rulings and instructions who lead this public. Yahadut Ha’torah is a political party within Israel’s political system, but it represented a public that some opposed the Zionist movement for religious reasons.
Today, there are still several ultra-Orthodox religious groups who still strongly oppose Zionism. Still, the vast majority of these opponents take no part in the political system in Israel.
The voters of this party are not Zionist in the historical sense of the word, but they are Jews who are very loyal to the State of Israel and the Jewish people and are an essential and integral part of Israel’s State. Yahadut Ha’torah does not hold primaries, and its representatives are elected by the rabbis (the ultra-Orthodox leaders who are, of course, not sitting in the Knesset).
Yemina (right) - ימינה
The movement skeleton is based on an ancient stream of Israeli politics. It rose long before the State of Israel, changed names several times, but the principles and the voting public remained essentially the same. This is an Orthodox religious public, some very religious, some traditional. Historically, this has been a movement that has supported Zionism from the beginning. The party holds internal primaries and its representatives to the Knesset, elected by citizens who became members of the party. Yemina party in its current assembly is a combination of three different parties, one aimed at attracting secular right-wing members who do not want to vote for Likud or Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel Beitenu (Israel our home) - ישראל ביתנו
Israel Beitenu is a sectoral party founded by Avigdor Lieberman and traditionally appeals to Russian voters, consisting mainly of Soviet-born Jews who immigrated to Israel in the early 1990s, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
Quite a few of the Russian immigrants who arrived in Israel were non-Jews, and are a significant part of Lieberman’s target audience. In the last two election campaigns, Lieberman has also begun to target his campaign to Israeli-born Jews who view ultra-Orthodox Jews as a political enemy.
Lieberman’s party is dictatorial in its being and everything is determined by Avigdor Lieberman’s wishes and political whims.
He appoints candidates for Knesset members. There is no neat election procedure. Once Avigdor Lieberman has decided his opinion about a particular issue, party members must align with his decision, even if it is a reversal of positions. Of course, they can retire from the party, which has already happened with several Knesset members in the past who were part of Israel Beitenu.
The structure of the left block
The Left-wing consists of the following parties: Yesh Atid, Blue and White (at the end of its political way), Meretz, Labor party (at the end of its political way).
Blue and White Party - כחול לבן
The Blue and White Party is a party formed by the collaboration of a number of different parties when the glue that unites the party group is obsessive hostility to Benjamin Netanyahu.
It isn’t easy to find a clear ideological line within this party. In some sense, it is an ideological supermarket because it contains several politicians who call themselves rightists and a fair number of radical leftists and politicians in between.
Also, it contains those that support capitalism and those who support excessive socialism. According to quotes from party leaders and members, by its voters, by its supporters, and by its political partners, this is a left-wing party that has made a great effort to position itself as a right-center party to attract right-center voters.
The dissonance between the political essence of the party and the way it tried to position itself is because of the unpopularity of the left’s position among a large majority of the Jewish public. Therefore, to give themselves any chance of gaining several voters who would position them as a governing alternative, large leftist parties in Israel used to position themselves as central parties during an election period.
The party did not hold a primaries process, and its representatives are elected by party leaders making the party representatives politically enslaved to those who appointed them.
The Labor Party - עבודה
The Labor Party is the reincarnation of the Central Party in the Zionist movement during the pre-State period. David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of the State of Israel, was the Labor Party’s mythical leader.
Two of its more familiar heads were Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. The Labor Party made up the Israeli government until 1977, a year of political upheaval in the State of Israel. The Labor Party lost the election and the Likud party made up the government for the first time.
The Labor Party remained the largest and most dominant party in the left bloc and in 1993 returned to power, led by Yitzhak Rabin. It has always had a socialist orientation but not a Communist-style.
In a long, slow, and tedious process, the party slowly deteriorated until most of its voters abandoned it, convinced that it was no longer able to deliver the “goods” and become a governing alternative to the right, and moved to other leftist parties.
Even worse, from a party that was affiliated with moderate socialism, the security of the State of Israel, and the settlement throughout Israel, the Labor Party became a twin party of the radical leftist party, with a distinctly socialist and pro-Palestinian ideology.
Today, there is no significant ideological difference between the Knesset members of the Radical Left and the Labor Party Knesset members, which has created a natural basis for connecting the two parties.
Meretz - מר"צ
The Meretz Party is a radical left-wing party consisting mainly of Jews who completely identify with the Arab-Palestinian narrative. In the past, in the 1990s, when this party was only founded from three different left-wing parties, it contained a liberal economic component, along with a communist component.
Today its orientation is a socialist-communist one. Before the last election and even more afterward, members of this party are considering complete political assimilation within an Arab-Jewish party.
The Arab bloc
Ha'reshima Ha'meshutefet (The joint list) - הרשימה המשותפת
The unification of four different Arab parties to one party. Only one party out of the four includes a Jewish Knesset member, a very radical leftist who, in any confrontation between Israel and the terrorist organizations in Gaza, stands with his party members, alongside the terrorist organizations, against the State of Israel.
Most members of the party supported the terror actions of terrorists publicly.
One of the party’s leaders, Ahmed Tibi, was a close advisor to mass murderer Yasser Arafat. Some members of the party were convicted of supporting terrorism and imprisoned.
One of the party members suspected, during the Second Lebanon War, of in Lebanon to more accurately target missiles at Israel. Another party member (who retired a few years ago) took part in a provocative flotilla of the Marmara ship from Turkey to the Gaza Strip.
The flotilla was organized by an organization that was in contact with terrorist organizations. Another member of the list gave an encouraging speech to terrorists who committed suicide or other terrorist acts against Israel and paid for it in their lives. They call the soldiers of the Israeli army murderers and war criminals; they work to bring soldiers and officers to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
It is possible to continue with the list of party members, but the point is clear. The members of the four parties support terrorism against Israel. They are against the State of Israel as a Jewish state, and their first goal is to make Israel “the state of all its citizens,” a laundered code name intended to hide the real purpose and is to eliminate the State of Israel as a Jewish state
They want to promote the “right of return” of millions of Arabs into Israel’s territory and its transformation into an Arab-Islamic state as the end goal.
Despite repeated attempts by the Knesset Election Commission to disqualify one of the three parties that stood out even more in its extreme, the Supreme Court, in a series of scandalous rulings, repeatedly reversed the decisions of the Knesset committees over the years, allowing terrorist supporters to contest and be elected to the Knesset.
Due to their actions against the State of Israel, their support for terrorism (i.e., the indiscriminate murder of Jews in Israel), and their aim to eliminate the State of Israel, this party is seen as illegitimate. However, an overwhelming majority of Israeli Arabs elects it. Therefore, no Israeli politician who wants political life dares to cooperate with them.
Why was the political plunder in Israel created?
In general, the right-wing bloc is growth over the years, for a number of reasons:
1. Demographics
The demographic of the ultra-Orthodox and religious is much stronger. An ultra-Orthodox woman gives birth to an average of 7.1 children. Religious (non-ultra-Orthodox) woman, 4 children, and secular woman 3.2 children.
2. Immigration
Every year in recent years tens of thousands of Jews come from Russia, France, the United States and other countries. The political tendency of most immigrants is right.
3. Ideology failure
The Oslo agreements signed with the Palestinian Arabs and the catastrophes that followed caused many to sober up with the left’s illusions of peace and false promises.
Why Netanyahu has failed to form a government?
The short answer is the same in the three cases: Avigdor Lieberman.
Avigdor Lieberman is a veteran politician who began his career in Israeli politics decades ago, in the Likud party, as a political advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu. Later on in his political work with Benjamin Netanyahu in various positions.
He has held a long line of positions in the Likud governments. At one point, he retired from the Likud, formed a party, and ran independently. But even when Lieberman ran alone, he was always stationed on the right side of the political map. He became famous for many populist statements aimed at giving him the name of a tough right-wing man.
He offered to introduce a death law for terrorists. He offered to transfer to the Palestinian Authority territories within Israel where Arab citizens of Israel reside, thus making a transfer without moving them, but only by changing the borderline.
He arrogantly said that if he were to become Israel’s defense minister, he would provide an ultimatum to the Hamas leader and give him 48 hours to recover Israeli soldiers’ bodies, or he would be eliminated. Not long after this threat, he was indeed appointed Minister of Defense, but the threat never came to fruition, which made him an example of a person whose word is meaningless among right-wing circles.
Avigdor Lieberman’s constituency, which forms his solid political base, is largely composed of Russian immigrants immigrating to Israel in the early 1990s. Most of the immigrants from Russia have integrated well into the State of Israel, and the younger generation is an integral part of Israeli society.
But still, there is a fairly large group of Russians, mostly older but not only, and these point to Avigdor Lieberman because of his Russian origin and the tough image he built for himself as a right-wing man, sort of the Israeli Putin. Apart from Avigdor Lieberman, there is no significant politician in the party, and no one dares to defy him.
The members of his faction function as loyal, loyal soldiers despite him. The party has no democratic mechanism for electing representatives for the Knesset. The candidates are selected by Lieberman, which has a great influence on how they conduct themselves.
From the moment Lieberman decides on a particular direction, even if it is in the opposite direction, his party members are quick to explain the new position, even if it is opposite to the position they explained a month earlier.
One of the most prominent features of Lieberman’s political conduct is impulsiveness and unpredictability. Lieberman resigned more than any other politician. As a matter of fact, it is impossible to recall any role that Liberman played and ended normally. Lieberman usually completed his various duties ahead of time, in resignation.
Lieberman has never been “suspected” of being a clean-cut politician. On the contrary, he is considered one of the most corrupt politicians in the State of Israel. For 11 years (not continuous), he spent police investigations on various cases, though he was never prosecuted.
Several witnesses related to the investigations conducted against him have disappeared. Today, a trial is being held against one of his former party members, and there is a chance that a police investigation against Lieberman will open again.
The right-wing bloc
- Likud – 35
- Shas – 8
- Yahadut Ha’torah – 8
- Unification of right-wing parties – 5
- Israel Beitenu – 5
- Kulanu – 4
The lefy-wing bloc
- Blue and White – 35
- Ha’avoda (Labor party) – 6
- Merez -4
The Arab bloc
- Hadash – TA-AL – 6
- Ra’am – Balad – 4
First-round - election results (April 2019) interpretation
In the first election campaign in the current round that started the crisis in April 2019, the rightist bloc clearly won and could easily form a government, just as it did in previous rounds. Together with Avigdor Lieberman, the right-wing parties had the necessary majority.
But here’s a sudden surprise. Lieberman went to Austria immediately after the election. It was estimated that he met one of his sponsors, a man named Martin Schlaf, who is also associated with Yair Lapid, one of the left-wing blue and white party leaders.
Martin Schlaf’s name was found in several severe corruption cases. In 2010, the police decided to prosecute him because of what he defined as “a serious corruption case investigated by the police, the transfer of millions of dollars to the Sharon family (Ariel Sharon, former prime minister). Only Sharon’s fall into a coma prevented Martin Schlaf’s trial.
In the same year (2003), the police opened another investigation, on suspicion that a company owned by Schlaf, transferred millions of shekels (Israel currency) to a Cypriot company controlled by Avigdor Lieberman. In December 2012, the case was closed for lack of evidence.
After returning to Israel (in April 2019 after the first round of elections), he refused to meet with Netanyahu after meeting with Martin Schlaf and refused all references to him. Then again, it became clear that Lieberman, the unexpected, is the most predictable.
For decades in politics, Lieberman was an ally of the ultra-Orthodox and cooperated with them regularly. Ironically, the mayor of Jerusalem was elected to office because of a political deal between Lieberman and the ultra-Orthodox. Suddenly, Lieberman turned his skin and began to act very aggressively against the ultra-Orthodox.
He conditional on joining the right-wing government on a non-principled and insignificant issue, the Ultra-Orthodox Recruitment Law (to the army). An issue that was not really on his political agenda before the election. Lieberman suddenly decided to insist on the spine of iodine, and even when the ultra-Orthodox surrendered and agreed to all his capricious demands, Lieberman continued to insist and prevented the establishment of the government.
The 60 seats (out of 120 Knesset members) who were part of the Right-wing bloc (without Lieberman) were not enough to form a stable government, so the mandate was returned to the president, and new elections were scheduled for September 2019.
At that stage, Lieberman has begun to position himself politically as Israel’s liberal defender against the ultra-Orthodox “plotting to make it a religious state” and began a campaign of incitement against the ultra-Orthodox. Lieberman’s incitement campaign was conducted mainly in the Russian language, and of course, turned to Russian immigrants, some of whom are not Jews.
The right-wing bloc
- Likud – 32
- Shas – 9
- Yahadut Ha’tora – 7
- Yemina – 7
The lefy-wing bloc
- Blue and White – 33
- Ha’avoda (Labor party) – 6
- Democratic Camp – 5
The Arab bloc
- Ha’reshima Ha’meshutefet (Joined list) – 13
"Anti-Bibi" bloc
- Israel Beitenu- 8
Second-round - election results (September 2019) interpretation
In September 2019, re-elections were held, which ended again with the result that did not allow a decision between the blocs. The results of the September 2019 elections created an impossible situation. Likud, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, had 55 Knesset members from all the parties who support the right-wing. It was the right-wing block. The Blue and White Party led by Benny Gantz had 44 seats. It was the left-wing block. The Arab party received 13 seats, and Lieberman received 8 seats.
- Netanyahu could not form a government without Lieberman.
- Benny Gantz cannot form a government without the Arabs and Lieberman.
The picture became very complicated due to several circumstances:
- In the second round, Lieberman “forgot” about the recruitment law ( for the ultra-orthodox) that was the reason for the tangle in the first round and invented a new principle: a unity secular government or nothing, but still without a personal disqualification of Netanyahu.
- The right-wing bloc (55 seats) was united around Benjamin Netanyahu’s leadership and was not ready to split in any way.
- Almost all Arab party members (Ha’reshima Ha’meshutefet) actually support terrorism against the State of Israel and the elimination of the State of Israel as a Jewish state, making it very difficult to collaborate with them even for leftists.
- Avigdor Lieberman sees members of the Arab Knesset as a “fifth corps and part of the Arab enemy,” so he declared that he would not be part of a government they support even from the outside.
- Within the Blue and White Party, three Knesset members constitute the right-wing party in the list, who opposed any connection to the joint list.
- Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz’s senior partner in the leadership of Blue and White, vehemently opposed establishing a unity government between the Likud and Blue-White, claiming that Netanyahu was suspected of bribery (this was before the decision to indict).
Publicly, the big and small parties’ leaders said the results of the election required a single government. Still, Blue-and-White leaders put two conditions into establishing such a government:
First condition: The Likud will dismantle the right-wing bloc and form a unity government together with the Blue and White Party, and other parties will be able to join later based on this government.
Second condition: Benjamin Netanyahu will retire from the Likud and not lead the party because he is suspected of corruption offenses in three different cases (details below)
The purpose of both conditions was clear, breaking the right-wing bloc, weakening the Likud party, and perhaps even dismantling and removing Benjamin Netanyahu, the undisputed leader of the Likud and the most popular leader among the Jewish public.
These will allow the left to return to power. The Blue-and-White work assumption was that if Netanyahu first gets the attempt to form the government, he will fail due to the lack of a 61, the failure to produce internal pressure in his right-wing bloc and inside the Likud, and lead parties from the right-wing bloc and Knesset members from the bloc to join the government of Blue-and-White.
What was not taken into account was the power of Netanyahu’s leadership within the right-wing bloc and his popularity among right-wing voters, which have failed the Blue and White Party’s plan and failed in its attempts to form a government.
After realizing that they would not form a government, they debated whether to form a minority government based on the votes of the Arab party but following a veto by the right-wing faction in Blue-and-White. Following Lieberman’s unwillingness to enter such a government, the issue dropped out.
After he failed to assemble the government, Benny Gantz returned the mandate to the state’s president, and the mandate went to the Knesset for 21 days. Two days after Benny Gantz’s decision, the Attorney General decided to indict Benjamin Netanyahu on suspicion of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.
The indictment against Benjamin Netanyahu
The Israeli media persecuted benjamin Netanyahu from the day he joined politics. Israeli media in the 1990s were completely identified with the left. Apart from a few isotropic cases, the media in the press, radio, and television is dominated by the left.
Significant improvement has occurred in recent years, but still, the right is insignificant lag. Benjamin Netanyahu has been a star ever since he began his political career as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations and gave awe-inspiring performances there. His father was a history professor.
His brother, Jonathan Netanyahu, was killed in one of the most famous operations in history: Operation Entebbe or Operation Jonathan (named for Benjamin Netanyahu’s brother) to release 105 Jewish passengers who were aboard an Air France hijacked in 1976 by German and Arab-Palestinian terrorists.
In 1988, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to Israel, joined the Likud party, and was elected to head it in 1993. The background of Benjamin Netanyahu Israel, his father who was a famous professor of history, his residence in one of Jerusalem’s most prestigious neighborhoods, service in the IDF’s finest unit, academic education at MIT, one of the world’s best universities, fluent English, performances in excellence and natural charisma. Make it part of the elite of the State of Israel.
But his choice to join the right has made him a target for the left since his political start. Countless investigations have been carried out on and around him to find something that can bring him down. During his political career, he fell and rose again in 2009 when he returned to become prime minister for the second time.
Since then, Netanyahu has been in power continuously until today (2020). He was credited with major successes in Israel’s economic and foreign relations sphere. Although he served in parallel to Barack Obama’s two presidencies, who was the most hostile president of the United States, Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in curbing attempts to establish an Arab (Palestinian) state in Judea and Samaria and at the same time established Israel’s political position worldwide and in East and South Asia in particular.
Netanyahu’s strategy focused on developing and strengthening the Israeli economy and strengthening its military and political power. This strategy was based on a profound and comprehensive worldview that sees the State of Israel as the home of the Jewish people, without causing the right of non-Jews in the State of Israel to live in equality and security, which actually occurs.
The results of Netanyahu’s policies have proved the failure of the left’s political and economic outlook. The Israeli left, followed by the European and American left-wing, threatened the world to boycott Israel (and some Jewish leftist organizations worked hard to promote boycotts and actions against the State of Israel).
They warned that the State of Israel would pay a heavy price if it did not agree to establish an Arab state in Judea and Samaria, but Netanyahu proved just the opposite in practice. Although Netanyahu made no progress toward the dangerous solution of an Islamic Arab state (in addition to the 56 existing ones) in Judea, Israel continued to break records every year.
Inbound tourism broke records every year (until the appearance of the Coronavirus). Netanyahu’s foreign policy has been a resounding success. Benjamin Netanyahu has become one of the most powerful and influential leaders in the world.
Benjamin Netanyahu has transformed Israel’s small state into one that many countries in the world are repurposing for its technological, economic, and political power. But Netanyahu not only satisfied himself with this but continued to fortify the Jewish character of the State of Israel and promoted it through several laws, most notably the National Law, a basic law that defines the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
Netanyahu’s successes, immense popularity among an overwhelming majority of the Jewish people in Israel, and the demographics in Israel played to the right, turning the left into a hopeless player in the political arena. As the left weakened in the political arena, its political representatives and many left-wing organizations (funded through funds and foreign countries) moved the political confrontation scene to the Supreme Courts dominated by judges affiliated with the radical left.
The judicial system and the Supreme Court in Israel
Since the 1990s, the Israeli Supreme Court has undergone an unprecedented revolution. Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, a first-rate intellectual, led a revolution that changed the sacred balance between the three authorities: the judiciary, the legislature, and the executive.
The judiciary began to churn out pieces of government and control itself over the legislature. In a long but very determined process, the judiciary made the laws meaningless and subjected them to what it called the “test of reasonableness and proportionality.”
That is, where the Supreme Court’s judgment is made based on laws set by the legislature, that is, the Knesset, it is made based on an abstract criterion of “reasonableness and “proportionality,” and these are determined by what the judge sees fit. That is, written law loses its meaning, and together with it, Parliament loses its power as well.
And before them, the power of the Supreme Court is intensifying. In fact, a small oligarchic group, supported by media affiliated with the left, has actually taken over the decision-making apparatus in Israel and has turned itself into a government for allowing itself to intervene and rule on anything and everything, including foreign and security issues, according to its political view, without ever being elected and without assuming any responsibility.
Some of the results of their political ruling. Of course, the left-wing parties in Israel supported this because the entire empowerment of the Supreme Court allowed them to expand their power of control without being elected. In its legal rulings, the Supreme Court represented a radical leftist group that could not exercise its political doctrine because of a lack of a majority.
Thus, the democratic state of Israel has become a legal oligarchy. The tension between the two systems intensified. Even when there was a majority to the right, the right-wing government did not have a majority to pass laws limiting the Supreme Court’s power. There was always an incoming member who will position himself as “the protector of the law and the court” and gain excessive media sympathy and legal immunity.
Legal immunity is required for the defense of the State Attorney’s Office. The State Prosecutor’s Office represents the State of Israel and the government authorities before the Israeli courts. The prosecutor’s office is part of the State of Israel’s executive branch, although it is an independent body.
The Office of the Attorney General in Israel is to strengthen the rule of law. The prosecutor’s office is the one who decides whether or not to prosecute public figures.
Over the years, the State Attorney’s Office has become a corrupt political entity, conducting selective enforcement against the target’s politicians. Usually, these were politicians who promised to restrain the judiciary or politicians from the right-wing. While boasting about the objections of objective lawmen, the prosecutor’s office has turned the prosecution into an elimination syndicate of politicians they did not like.
All this took place with the backing of media personnel who provided media protection and public relations to the State Attorney’s Office. In return, they received illegal leaks from investigations conducted by the State Prosecutor’s Office against politicians and public figures.
During his reign, Netanyahu chose not to confront and even backed the State Attorney’s office and the legal system. It is unclear whether this is because he knew that he did not have a majority anyway to make a change. He chose to focus on the economic, security, and political issues or thought their work was nothing wrong.
Either way, a few years ago, according to the prosecutor’s office instructions, the police began a general investigation into Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to “fish” something. Gradually, while investing tremendous resources that are soon estimated at $ 100 million, the State Attorney’s Office began building four different affairs around Benjamin Netanyahu.
The various episodes were given names that created a numerical continuity to produce a corruption sequence semblance. Out of the four cases, three were left at last. Against Benjamin Netanyahu, he was indicted on the Israeli Attorney General’s recommendation, who had a key role in investigations, illegal leaks, and the attempt to bring Netanyahu to trial.
This is not the place to elaborate on the various cases. Still, in general, it can be said that many in Israel and abroad, including some of the most senior lawyers in the United States, these cases did not have any criminal element. The impression was that the purpose of the investigations was to obtain through the court what the Left parties did not achieve through elections: the removal of Netanyahu.
The legal assassinations brought by the prosecution have already shown that this is a practice that is not foreign to them. It was usually enough to file the indictment and cause the politician to retire. This was the case in the past. But in the case of Netanyahu, they encountered a hard nut to crack.
Not only did he not retire and spare them the need to go to court, but the opposite happened. His grip on the Likud party intensified. Public support grew, proving complete and unprecedented and dangerous distrust of the Jewish public in Israel by the Israeli police and the State Attorney’s Office.
Third round – Israel election results on March 2020
Ahead of the third election campaign, primaries were held for Likud leadership. Benjamin Netanyahu won in a big gap and was once again crowned the Likud party’s undisputed leader. This time, the Likud campaign included many of Netanyahu’s performances in various cities around the country, as well as an Internet campaign, as was the case in the previous election campaigns.
Unlike the previous election campaigns, several things have happened. The most significant thing was that Avigdor Lieberman, who used to boast that “his word is a word,” changed direction for the third time.
For the first time, he prevented the establishment of the right-wing government under the Ultra-Orthodox recruitment law’s pretext. For the second time, his campaign was about a secular unity government. For the third time, his campaign became a personal campaign against Netanyahu.
Lieberman stated clearly that his goal is “to end the Netanyahu era.” To preserve his political base, Lieberman launched a Russian-speaking campaign with anti-Semitic features, which focused on inciting hatred against ultra-Orthodox Jews, the “parasites” that “rob us of the money.”
The Blue and White Party led a campaign that hated Netanyahu when it compared Turkish dictator Erdogan who massacred thousands of people in Turkey and Syria. With Netanyahu’s picture, huge signs were posted on the main roads, and on the signs read: “Blue or Erdogan.”
The Likud ran a campaign that focused on the distinct and obvious weaknesses of Benny Gantz, the party’s candidate for prime minister. Following dozens of filmed and documented cases in which Benny Gantz was mistaken, he became confused at the trial, said unclear sentences, forgot what he wanted to say. At the same time, he spoke, mistook people’s names, the impression began to emerge.
That Benny Gantz has some problems. On one of the occasions, Netanyahu specifically addressed this issue and aroused Benny Gantz. Also, during the campaign, there were several harsh exposures about Benny Gantz.
The first exposure was that of an independent journalist. According to what he published, it turned out that the Iranians had broken into Benny Gantz’s phone (it was already known in the first election campaign). It brought out extremely embarrassing material, Including Benny Gantz’s abrasive films, which he sent to his mistress in the United States. Gantz threatened with libel but did not file it.
The second exposure was about his involvement in the alleged illegal cases. According to the report, Benny Gantz, who was the chairman of a technology company, illegally won a government tender after his military service, following ties with the police chief.
The company he ran and led eventually went bankrupt. Despite the suspicions against Benny Gantz, the prosecutor’s office dissolved the case. It refrained from instructing the police to open an investigation, apparently, not to prejudice Benny Gantz’s chances in the election.
The third exposure was a recording of his strategic adviser, who said he was “a danger to Israel’s security,” said Benny Gantz “had a relationship of authority with one of his female subordinates” and called it “a pit of impurity.” The third election results also ended in a tangle, although this time the Likud became the largest party, and the entire right-wing bloc won 58 seats in the Knesset.
The third election results – March 2020
The right block
The Likud – 36
Shas – 9
Yahadut Ha’torah – 7
Yemina – 6 seats
The left block
Blue and White – 33
Labor – Meretz – 7
The Arabs
Hareshima Ha’meshutefet – 15
Outside the blocs
Israel Beitenu – 7
The political options followed the third election results.
Historically, the main conflict was between the right and the left, and the Arabs were generally out of bounds as far as establishing a government was concerned. The reason for this was the identification of the elected representatives of the Arab public with Arab terror, with terrorist organizations such as the PLO, Hezbollah, and Hamas and their support for the elimination of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.
There is probably not one representative on this list who did not support terrorism in any way, direct or indirect. The platform of the Ha’reshima Ha’meshutefet includes a series of requirements that are no less than the elimination of the State of Israel.
Israel’s official state invests quite a bit in the Arab public, which enjoys equal rights, many rights, and very few obligations (they are exempt from military service while young Jews are required to have a regular three-year military, and women are obliged for two years).
The various governments have almost always avoided direct reliance on their elected political representatives due to the extremism that characterized them. For the first time this happened in 1992 when the left bloc led by Yitzhak Rabin won 56 seats, the Arabs won 5 seats, and together they had 61 seats (out of a total of 120 Knesset members in the Israeli parliament), which constituted a majority and withheld from the right the ability to form a government.
Rabin succeeded in attaching the ultra-Orthodox Shas party to his government and was supported by the votes of Arab members of the Knesset from outside, without having entered his government. Later, the Shas party resigned from the Rabin government; the Rabin government became a minority government that relied on the Arab Knesset members’ votes who gave it the necessary majority.
At no point did they enter the government. However, at this stage, when the State of Israel is about to go for a fourth election campaign, Blue and White decided to form a government based on the artificial majority, which consists of a mathematical majority of 62 seats that is more than 58 seats in the Knesset. Still, it is devoid of any ideological connection.
This majority consists of parties that despise one another and are only connected with one issue, which hates Netanyahu and wants to exclude him from Israeli politics.
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thanks for the message 🙂
I’m really happy you won breakfast, I could share it with you 🙂
This post is new but in comparison with the Israeli reality is almost old. I have to update the post and I will do it in the next two days.
Actually, Benjamin Netanyahu achieved the impossible and dismantled completely Blue and White party so he is going to remain the prime minister of Israel.
Any specific details you are expecting to get?
By the way, how did you find the article?