Is Bibi Losing It Amidst the Rise of the Radical Center?

Back on December 24th, 2018 when Bibi announced elections, I predicted that Bibi would not be our Prime Minister following voting day on April 9th.

At the time, Benny Ganz had not confirmed his intention to run.  It was questionable if Bogie Yaalon’s new Telem could get past the threshold.  The right wing has never been stronger in the country and the people of Israel are seemingly or willfully blind to Netanyahu’s apparent flaws and alleged corruption.  To all it was clear that the newly announced election would return “King” Bibi to power, regardless, even if charges were to be brought against him on any one of the corruption cases currently sitting with the Attorney General, appointed, but now attacked by Bibi.

Fast forward a couple of months and we have a very different political picture.  The Zionist Union is no more, with Tzipi Livini left with no choice but to bow out of politics after twenty years.  When Labour leader Avi Gabbai took the helm of the ailing party, Labour Party members looked to the outsider to reform and reenergize the party which had been dogged by infighting and a seeming penchant for self-harm. 

Instead however, Gabbai took the ailing patient and killed it, leaving party members scratching their heads, wondering how the hell they ever allowed an egotistical, self-aggrandizing Likudnik to take over their beloved party?

Back in December, before the elections were announced, I had written that what Israel desperately needs is a radical center, where center is promoted not as a compromise between right and left, rather as an ideology in it own right, a pragmatic and balanced approach to the very real challenges faced by modern day Israel, which meet the expectations of the overwhelming majority of Israelis who sit somewhere in the center, be it to the left or to the right.  

A radical center is an ideology which rejects the division and tribalism of the old politics, which answers the needs and aspirations of the silent majority which rightly fears the polarization of society and the attempt to rule through fear and division. A radical center wiling no longer allow extremists to continue to drive the political debate nor to hold the country to ransom.

And then there is Benny Ganz, the ex, Chief of Staff and political virgin.  Back in December, he still hadn’t confirmed his intention to enter politics.  Even when he did, he remained, what seemed strangely and naively silent, much to the frustration of his political rivals and especially the media.   His silence set a tone and a disturbing message for both political rivals and the press.  Ganz did not intend to play their game.  Things would be different, or as different as they can be in Israel’s political mire. 

Thus far to be honest, Ganz has had a runaway success with this new Israel Resilience Party, without saying that much really.  For the first time in ten years it appears that there is a viable challenger to Bibi for the premiership, despite his total lack of political experience.  At the eleventh hour, the alliance between Ganz and Lapid with Yaalon and Ashkenazi has delivered a new party, Blue and White, which apparently will indeed garner the greatest share of the vote on April 9th.

Nothing is perfect however, on the face of it, Blue & White comes pretty close to the radical center I have been advocating.  Yes, it is too Ashkenazi (no pun intended), too male, too General (military), yet it comprises, left and right, religious and secular, people from all walks of life often with opposing views on key issues.  Commentators and political rivals alike ask how can this be, how can such people and such opposing views sit together in one political party?   They say it is impossible and cannot work.

The truth is, they just don’t get it.  They are still fighting yesterday’s political battles, those between left and right.  The new party is indeed radical, it represents a genuinely new politics in Israel and those involved that the real battle today has nothing to do with right and left, which indeed renders, Bibi and his cohorts’ intended insult of “left” or “lefties” as wholly irrelevant. 

This new alliance understands that the battle in Israel today is between those who believe in a Jewish Democracy and those who seek to destroy the democratic, liberal and pluralistic nature of our country.  They understand that there is far more which unites them than divides them and that it is imperative that those with opposing views can and must find a middle ground I order to preserve the miracle which is the modern state of Israel.

Now back to Bibi and why he has lost it...

With all due respect to Ganz, Lapid & Co., this new “radical center.  In the past week of frenetic political activity, alliances and failed attempts at such, they could have received no greater help than that supplied by Bibi himself.

Love him or hate him, one must acknowledge that Benjamin Netanyahu is a political master, seemingly always one step ahead of the opposition and political rivals.  However, this week Bibi made a mistake, one that in my opinion will prove lethal and will ultimately end his premiership and indeed his political career.

One can only wonder how desperate and how worried our Prime Minister had to be to get this week to err so badly.  But err he did.  In his desperate attempt to hold on to power, this week, Bibi shed any pretense of putting the interests of the country first.  He abandoned whatever integrity might remain, as he pushed for a union on the far right which would include those who follow a racist, extremist, Jewish Supremacist, anti-democratic and frankly dangerous ideology, outlawed back in 1994. 

That Bibi cancelled a meeting with Putin for which he has apparently waited five months, in order to ensure that that Kahanist, Utzma Yehudit party receive a seat in Parliament through a union with Ha Bayit Hayehudi only indicates how desperate the man and indeed how flawed his judgement.

There are many in his own camp who see his actions this week as a step too far.  In his move this week, Bibi has underestimated his own people, those who had displayed an almost blind allegiance despite his alleged corruption, his penchant for cigars and champagne, ice cream and the high life. 

He has misjudged most ordinary Israelis on the right of the political map.  These people may support his policies on many issues however they reject unequivocally, the extremist, racist policies of Utzma Yehudit and see them for what they are, Jewish Supremacists and Neo – Fascists akin to the very worst of the far right in Europe, or religious extremists in the Middle East.  They reject those who hold and act upon a blatantly racist ideology. 

They reject those who incite and justify violent attacks on Israeli soldiers.  They reject those who seek to destroy our democracy and replace it with some form of dictatorial theocracy.

Ultimately, they will reject the man who only recently seemed invincible, but who in his desperation has seen fit to legitimize such ideology and invite it onto our parliament.  In the coming weeks Bibi will be indicted.

Where previously he may have expected his supporters to rally behind him, with those holding reservations, keeping silent, albeit reluctantly, following his actions this week, his own people will turn on him, there will be a revolt in Likud and Bibi will finally have lost it.