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Are Bennett, Sa'ar Right-Wing Heroes Or Traitors?

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Are Bennett, Sa'ar Right-Wing Heroes Or Traitors? Selected articles concerning Israel, published weekly by Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim’s (Baltimore) Israel Action Committee Edited by Jerry Appelbaum ( [email protected] ) | Founding editor: Sheldon J. Berman Z”L Issue 8 8 3 Volume 2 1 , Number 1 4 Parshias Shmini | Shabbos Mevarchim13th Day Omer April 10 , 20 2 1 Are Bennett, Sa'ar right - wing heroes or traitors? - analysis By Tovah Lazaroff jpost.com April 6, 2021 President Reuven Rivlin didn’t do either man any THE FOCUS to date has been on pressuring Bennett, favors when he gave Prime Minister Benjamin with the idea that Sa’ar would be swayed by his choice. Netanyahu the first option to form a government. Sa’ar has seemed so irrelevant that Smotrich didn’t even The next four weeks will determine if party heads mention him in his statements. Gideon Sa’ar of New Hope and Naftali Bennett of Yamina Smotrich’s warnings are just the begin ning for the will be viewed as right - wing trai tors or heroes. pressure cooker these two men will be in during the next President Reuven Rivlin didn’t do either man any four weeks, in hopes they will rejoin the fate with favors when he gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Netanyahu. the first option to form a government. How far can these politicians go without angering It underscored the obvious: that were it not for these their base to the point where they lose support? two men, the country could easily have a 65 - member Many predicted the demis e of Yisrael Beytenu head government united by a common right - wing ideology, Avigdor Liberman when he first broke away from the often referred to as the National Camp. Netanyahu - led right - wing bloc in the aftermath of the Even before Rivlin’s dramatic announcement, April 2019 election, sending Israel into a second Religious Zionism Party head Bezalel Smotrich issued a September election. long statement describing the dangers inherent in the But the veteran politician of Muldovian origin proved alte rnatives to that 65 - member right - wing bloc. t hat he had a solid base of support, particularly among Those who support those alternatives, he said, “will Russian - speaking voters. His party has passed the have no home to return to” on the Right and will be threshold in each and every election. viewed as those who have “betrayed” its ideals. Bennett also appeared in danger of disappearing from He wanted Bennett and Sa’ar’s dogged pursuit of a the political stage when he refused to join a Netanyahu - led right - win g - led government without Netanyahu to avoid government last year, with many still blaming him for the two long - term dangers. Alternative scenarios he said fact that the prime minister had to rely on Blue and White empowered Israeli - Arabs and/or destroyed the long - term Party head Benny Gantz to form a government that was covenant between the Likud and the ultra - religious parties not fully right - wing. which has been one of the pillars on which th e Right has But Bennett proved that he also had staying power, rested. receiving sev en seats, so it is likely that he has a base that The Right has already not been kind to Bennett and would continue to return him to the Knesset. Sa’ar, who have dreamed of ousting Netanyahu, but who Both Liberman and Bennett made their moves when received only seven and six mandates respectively they were already veteran party heads. Sa’ar, on the other compared to the Likud’s 30. Right - wing ideology however hand, is the new politician on the block and he has no way is as natural as air to b oth men and thus they cannot totally of knowing in advance how his decision to block the abandon it to strengthen their base by fully moving to the formation of an easy Netanyahu - led 65 - seat government center. will play out. Had both men recommended to Rivlin that centrist In his speech at the Knesset, Netanyahu spoke of the politician Yair Lapid of Yesh Atid, who received 17 importance of a right - wing government to the settlement mandates in last month’s elections, be empowered to be movement, of which Sa ’ar is an ardent supporter. prime minister, it is likely Rivlin would have given Lapid In the Knesset on Tuesday Sa’ar could not have been the first option to form a government. more clear about his intention to stand firm to his ideals In short, the question of whether a coalition will be and promises, repeating that he had no intention of joining formed or the government will head to a fifth election is a Netanyahu - led government. on some level about the inability of these two men to His comments made it seem lik e he preferred to either sit with Netanyahu or abandon their right - wing gamble on finding a way to have a right - wing government ideals. without Netanyahu, or head to elections. Bennett has attempted to rebrand himself as a flexible The spotlight might be on Bennett, but it could be politician, and has kept alive the idea that he could possibly Sa’ar who, at the end of the day – like Liberman before be swayed. him – brings the house down on the possibility of a But since both men would be needed to make a government and sends the country into its fifth election in differen ce, would Sa’ar follow? three years. Focus o n Israel April 10, 2021 Page 2 Should that happen, voters will have to decide: Is he a of preventing a coalition that would approve almost every hero for preventing a government led by a man facing issue that brought him into politics in the first place? corruption charges – or did he betray his right - wing ide als The Myt h of Israel’s Political “Blocs” By Michael Koplow israelpolicyforum.org March 25, 2021 The most ideologically coherent coalition is the one Netanyahu and thereby keep Kahanists out of a coalition least likely to come about. will be successful, shows why everything is so fluid. There For two years, anyone who pays attention to Israeli are no black boundary lines in Israeli politics in the current politics has been bombarded with elec tion news and era, only a muddled haze where any combination is political analysis about Israel’s political blocs. The first two theoretically conceivable. elections were structured by analysts and pollsters into a But conceivable combinations are not the same as right - wing bloc and a left - wing bloc, which never made likely combinations, and that is where the Netanyahu any sense given that the left - wing bloc included Kachol factor does insert itself. Because Netanyahu is so Lavan – a centrist party that leans to the right – and polarizing, he effectively acts as a dam that blocks the eventually came to include Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael natural flow of Israeli politics in a couple of ways. Without Beiteinu, which cannot be described as left in any him, the outcome of the election would not have been in meaningful sense of the word. At some point before the doubt; everyone would have predicted a large right - wing third election and then in earnest prior to this wee k’s coalition of 70 - 75 seats and the actual results bear that out. fourth election, people started describing the blocs as pro - His presence drives Sa’ar away from that theoretical right - Netanyahu and anti - Netanyahu. This seemed to better wing coalition, and it partially drives Liberman – who also comport with the landscape, as you had a decidedly right - has to contend with the Haredi parties in that grouping – wing party in Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope in the anti - out as well. The other way in which Netanyahu creates a Netanyahu bloc and another one in Naftali Bennett’s jam is that in addition to being the obstacle to a right - wing Yamina not making any ironclad promises in either government, he removes the possibility of a center - right direction. Yet if there is anything to be learned from the coalition too. If you knew nothing about Israeli politics preliminary results of Tuesday’s election – and full results beyond where parties stand on actual issues and had none will not be known until Friday – it is that talking about any of the background context , you would think that the most type of c oherent bloc in Israeli politics is silly. logical government is Likud, Yesh Atid, Kachol Lavan, A political bloc is a grouping of political parties all New Hope, and Yisrael Beiteinu. That is a 70 seat coalition committed to working together, and what makes a bloc is a that is hawkish on security but short of being fully tie that binds them that also outstrips the wedges that push annexationist, centrist on social issues, and secular but them apart. You are never going to hav e complete respectful of religious observance. Netanyahu’s presence agreement among every party in a bloc on every issue, makes a coalition like this, and coalitions similar to ones since if you did those parties would have no cause to exist that he himself constructed in the past, impossible today. as separate entities. But having a similar overarching Netanyahu is not the only variable turning conceivable worldview, or a principle that connects all of the parties coalitions into fantasy ones. The past weeks were filled together, is enou gh to ensure cooperation. with anointing Bennett as a potential kingmaker, and the Looking at the deadlocked results of the fourth past days have been filled with anointing Ra’am chief election, which come on the heels of the deadlocked Mansour Abbas as the new fulcrum who will determine results of the first two elections and the wholly predictable which side gets to form a government.
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