Biden Will Discover Bennett Is No Bibi | the Washington Institute

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Biden Will Discover Bennett Is No Bibi | the Washington Institute MENU Policy Analysis / Articles & Op-Eds Biden Will Discover Bennett Is No Bibi by David Makovsky Aug 25, 2021 Also available in Arabic Also published in The Hill ABOUT THE AUTHORS David Makovsky David Makovsky is the Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations. Articles & Testimony Given Bennett’s emphasis on bipartisanship and Biden’s desire for good news, Washington has ample room to avoid the public tensions seen during Netanyahu's tenure. sraeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will be welcomed to the White House on Thursday. Many in the U.S. have I come to view his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu as synonymous with Israel, as he led the country for the last dozen years. While both leaders have a hawkish foreign policy orientation and both are as comfortable in English as they are in Hebrew, it would be a mistake to view them as interchangeable. It is critical to understand the key differences between them... Read the full article on the Hill website. View/Print Page as PDF SHARE EMAIL ALERTS Sign Up TO TOP RECOMMENDED BRIEF ANALYSIS Cairo Acts on its Fears of Radicalization after Afghanistan Sep 24, 2021 ◆ Haisam Hassanein ARTICLES & TESTIMONY Transatlantic Cooperation on Countering Global Violent Extremism Sep 22, 2021 ◆ Matthew Levitt BRIEF ANALYSIS Fearing the Aftermath of the Elections: Will the Power Keg in Iraq Ignite? Sep 22, 2021 ◆ Munqith Dagher TOPICS Arab-Israeli Relations Peace Process U.S. Policy REGIONS & COUNTRIES Iran Israel STAY UP TO DATE SIGN UP FOR EMAIL ALERTS 1111 19th Street NW - Suite 500 Washington D.C. 20036 Tel: 202-452-0650 Fax: 202-223-5364 Contact Press Room Subscribe The Washington Institute seeks to advance a balanced and realistic understanding of American interests in the Middle East and to promote the policies that secure them. The Institute is a 501(c)3 organization; all donations are tax-deductible. About TWI / Support the Institute © 2021 All rights reserved. Employment / Privacy Policy / Rights & Permissions.
Recommended publications
  • Jabotinsky Institute in Israel Peres, Netanyahu and Edelstein Praise
    Jabotinsky Institute in Israel Published by the Hon. Chairman Jabotinsky Institute in Israel Mr. Yitzhak Shamir Z"L Founder and first director: Former Prime Minister of Israel ז"ל Joseph Pa'amoni Volume 52 Octobre 2013 ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו מעיין בכרך "לאומיות ליברלית" מאת Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu looks through volume ז'בוטינסקי, שהגישו לו )משמאל( ד"ר קרני רובין־ז'בוטינסקי, יוסי Liberal Nationalism, given to him by members of Institute אחימאיר, מרדכי שריג וכן עמירם בוקשפן. .Executive Board Peres, Netanyahu and Edelstein Praise New Volume of the Works of Jabotinsky - Liberal Nationalism “Your renewed publication of the Works of Jabotinsky, edited the new book, that he has had the honor of reading a number by Prof. Arye Naor and translated by Peter Kriksunov and of Jabotinsky’s works in their original language—Russian. He Hamutal Bar-Yosef, marks an important theoretical stratum lauded the Jabotinsky Institute for this project and stated that there in the research of Jabotinsky’s doctrine,” wrote President was a great need to aid the Institute to continue this praiseworthy Shimon Peres in a thank-you letter to the director general endeavor. of the Jabotinsky Institute in Israel for the book Liberal Liberal Nationalism, the first volume in the new series of Nationalism by Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Jabotinsky’s ideological works, is edited by Professor Arye Naor. Currently the book is being produced by the Jabotinsky Institute Peres added, “The reader of Jabotinsky’s writings cannot help but be in an annotated edition featuring new translations to Hebrew from moved by the liberalism so inherent in his doctrine, by Jabotinsky’s such languages as Russian, Yiddish and English.
    [Show full text]
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Discusses the Middle East, the Iran Nuclear Deal and Israel’S Growing Economy
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discusses the Middle East, the Iran nuclear deal and Israel’s growing economy. His Excellency Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel Wednesday, March 7, 2018 1 DAVID RUBENSTEIN: Thank you very much for coming, Mr. Prime Minister. I know you have a busy schedule and you’re flying to New York afterwards. The weather’s not good. When you have problems with weather, do you ever communicate directly with God about the weather – [laughter] – or how do you deal with that? PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: All the time. [Laughter.] And we used to say it’s a local call but, you know, the Internet changed all that. [Laughter, applause.] MR. RUBENSTEIN: So, thank you for – PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: Are you – are you in the authority of God here, because could you get me a pillow? Do you have connections here? MR. RUBENSTEIN: I have some connections. But is there a pillow somewhere? [Laughter.] PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: Let’s go on. Maybe God will show his hand – her hand. MR. RUBENSTEIN: Well, you know, if you’re – if you’re Jewish sometimes you have a weak back, my experience is. And I could use a pillow too, but OK. PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: Well, I have a strong backbone. I have a lousy back, but a strong backbone. MR. RUBENSTEIN: All right. No doubt. OK, so I’d like to ask you about some things you’re not asked about very often. One is the economy in Israel. The Israeli economy is doing quite well by almost any standards.
    [Show full text]
  • Israel's National Religious and the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict
    Leap of Faith: Israel’s National Religious and the Israeli- Palestinian Conflict Middle East Report N°147 | 21 November 2013 International Crisis Group Headquarters Avenue Louise 149 1050 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 502 90 38 Fax: +32 2 502 50 38 [email protected] Table of Contents Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... i Recommendations..................................................................................................................... iv I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1 II. Religious Zionism: From Ascendance to Fragmentation ................................................ 5 A. 1973: A Turning Point ................................................................................................ 5 B. 1980s and 1990s: Polarisation ................................................................................... 7 C. The Gaza Disengagement and its Aftermath ............................................................. 11 III. Settling the Land .............................................................................................................. 14 A. Bargaining with the State: The Kookists ................................................................... 15 B. Defying the State: The Hilltop Youth ........................................................................ 17 IV. From the Hills to the State ..............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • How Palestinians Can Burst Israel's Political Bubble
    Al-Shabaka Policy Brief Policy Al-Shabaka March 2018 WHEN LEFT IS RIGHT: HOW PALESTINIANS CAN BURST ISRAEL’S POLITICAL BUBBLE By Amjad Iraqi Overview the allies holding up his fragile rule, from the ultra- orthodox Jewish parties to his personal rivals within Although no indictments have been issued yet, Israelis Likud. “King Bibi,” however, survived them all. A are speculating whether the latest developments in skilled politician, he has been adept at managing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption Israel’s notoriously volatile coalition system, and [email protected] scandals finally mark the beginning of his political has remained in power with three consecutive demise. The second-longest serving prime minister governments over nine years – each more right wing after David Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu has had a than the last.2 profound impact on Israel’s political scene since the 1990s. It is therefore troubling, especially to Netanyahu directly influenced the country’s media Palestinians, that if these corruption cases are the landscape by shaping the editorial stance of Israel harbinger of Netanyahu’s downfall, they will have Hayom (the nation’s gratis, most-read newspaper, had nothing to do with the more egregious crimes for funded by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson), which he is responsible, and for which he – and future and used the Communications Ministry to threaten Israeli leaders – have yet to be held accountable. and harass media outlets that were critical of him. Despite crises and condemnations throughout This policy brief analyzes Israel’s political his career – including mass Israeli protests for transformations under Netanyahu and maps out the socioeconomic justice in 2011 and, more recently, current leadership contenders from a Palestinian weekly protests against widespread government perspective.1 It argues that Israel’s insular political corruption – Netanyahu withstood public pressures discourse, and the increasing alignment of Israeli to step down.
    [Show full text]
  • C1. Naftali Bennett, the Israel Stability Initiative, February 2012
    DOCUMENTS AND SOURCE MATERIAL 195 ISRAEL already called for Israel’s annexation of speci"c territories in Judea and Samaria, C1. NAFTALI BENNETT, “THE ISRAEL to actualize their words through con- STABILITY INITIATIVE,” FEBRUARY 2012. crete action. What separates this plan from others is that it’s practical. This “proposed solution” to the con- !ict was "rst circulated in late February 2012 to Israel’s political and military The 7-Point Plan for Managing the elites, who reportedly (Jerusalem Post Arab-Israeli Con!ict in Judea and 2/23) gave it “high praise.” Its author, a Samaria self-made multimillionaire and a “ris- ing star” in the religious-Zionist-nation- 1. Israel unilaterally extending alist right, was Netanyahu’s chief of staff sovereignty over Area C: Through (2006–8), and for two years (until Janu- this initiative, Israel will secure ary 2012) head of the YESHA settlers vital interests: providing security council. Bennett is also founder and to Jerusalem and the Gush Dan head of the extra-parliamentary move- Region, protecting Israeli commu- ment My Israel. The Israel Stability Ini- nities, and maintaining sovereignty tiative is posted on the One State Israel over our National Heritage Sites. website at www.onestateisrael.com. The world will not recognize our Currently, in Israel’s marketplace of claim to sovereignty, as it does not ideas, only two solutions are being pro- recognize our sovereignty over posed for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian the Western Wall, the Ramot and con!ict. They are: Gilo neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Yet eventu- 1. The establishment of a Palestinian ally the world will adjust to the state on the majority of the terri- de facto reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Opinion New Government, New President, New Israel?
    Journal of Military and Strategic VOLUME 20, ISSUE 3 Studies Opinion New Government, New President, New Israel? Melanie Carina Schmoll, PhD Israel in summer 2021 – the end of the pandemic seems to be near. Israel opens up, almost all mask requirements are cancelled, international travel groups are welcome and even the individual guests are allowed to travel to the Holy Land with almost no restrictions. It seems Israel is back in pre-pandemic times. But it is not the same country anymore. Some fundamental changes have happened over the last few weeks. When, in March 2021, the Israelis had to vote again for the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, it was for the fourth time within two and a half years. The outcome was almost the same as the three times before. Benjamin Nethanyahu, Israel´s long-time prime minister, won most of the seats with his Likud party. As the State of Israel is a parlamentary democracy the executive branch or the government draws its authority from the Parliament (the legislative branch) and needs its confidence. Therefore, the prime minister is not decided directly by the voters but depends instead on a process of bargaining among the various fractions elected to parliament. In Israel, no single party holds most of the seats in Parliament and thus the process of forming a government is long and complicated.1 Israel also has an extreme proportional system of government, 1 For more information see Melanie Carina Schmoll, “Israel and the permanent siege: The people have spoken - who will find an answer to the needs of the voters?” Journal of Military and Strategic Studies 20, 1 (2019).
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Real Reason the Gaza War Broke
    The real reason the Gaza war broke out Adam Raz | Haaretz There’s no shortage of pieces in Haaretz based on the political theory that the great ones – to borrow from Bertolt Brecht – often slip on banana peels as they go about the work of government. Consider Haaretz’s Hebrew edition this past Wednesday: Columnist and business editor Sami Peretz explained to his readers that the current round of violence “began with a series of mistakes by the Israel Police” in Jerusalem. Senior Middle Eastern affairs analyst Zvi Bar’el wrote that “thanks to Israel’s mismanagement, Hamas identified an opportunity” to marginalize the Palestinian Authority. And top Military correspondent and defense analyst Amos Harel added that in recent days Israel “underestimated Hamas’ intentions and operational capabilities. But it’s possible that now the Hamas leadership in Gaza is making the same critical mistake.” Another Haaretz military correspondent, Yaniv Kubovich, reported on that same day that defense officials incorrectly believed that Hamas would be deterred from fighting, while chief intelligence and strategic affairs columnist Yossi Melman adopted Barbara Tuchman’s “March of Folly’’ thesis to explain how sometimes leaders act just plain foolishly. As Melman put it, the measures being taken now “violate the self-interest” of Benjamin Netanyahu. In other words, according to Wednesday’s Haaretz, the prime minister and Israel’s other decision-makers are, to put it crudely, thickheaded – as if they were making mistakes day in and day out. Mr. Melman, like other writers, insured himself against the risk that facts would emerge to destroy his thesis, so he added that we can’t rule out that “folly doesn’t apply to what’s happening to us right now.” Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Bennett-Lapid ‘Change Government’
    BICOM Briefing The Bennett-Lapid ‘Change Government’ June 2021 The Bennett-Lapid ‘Change Government’ On Wednesday evening, 2 June, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid informed President Rivlin that he had succeeded in forming a coalition government, adding that it would “work for all the citizens of Israel, those that voted for it and those that didn’t. It will do everything to unite Israeli society”. Swearing the new government into office, which only requires only a relative majority, will take place within the next 11 days. Yamina’s Naftali Bennett will serve as Prime Minister for the first two years, followed by Lapid. Maariv 1 June, Bennett and Lapid stare lovingly at eachother as the sun – with the face of Netan- yahu sets The Change Government How did we get here? The elections for the 24th Knesset which took place on 23 March 2021 gave neither the pro-Netanyahu bloc nor the anti-Netanyahu bloc a clear majority of 61 seats. Following the results, two parties who defined themselves as unaligned were considered to be key to both sides - Naftali Bennett of Yamina (7 seats) and Mansour Abbas of Raam (4 seats). Bennett emphasised his preference for a right-wing and ultra- Orthodox coalition. When Likud sources sent out feelers to Raam to support the government from outside 2 the coalition, that move was opposed by Bezalel Smotrich and his Religious Zionist party. With Saar unwilling to sit with Netanyahu, and Smotrich unwilling to countenance outside support from Raam, the pro-Netanyahu right-wing/ultra-Orthodox coalition could only muster 59 seats.
    [Show full text]
  • Netanyahu Formally Denies Charges in Court
    WWW.JPOST.COM THE Volume LXXXIX, Number 26922 JERUSALEFOUNDED IN 1932 M POSTNIS 13.00 (EILAT NIS 11.00) TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021 27 SHVAT, 5781 Eye in the sky A joint goal Feminist religious art IAI unveils aerial Amos Yadlin on the need to When God, Jesus surveillance system 6 work with Biden to stop Iran and Allah were women Page 6 Page 9 Page 16 How did we miss Netanyahu formally denies charges in court Judges hint witnesses to be called only after election • PM leaves hearing early the exit • By YONAH JEREMY BOB two to three weeks to review these documents before wit- Prime Minister Benjamin nesses are called, that would ramp? Netanyahu’s defense team easily move the first witness fought with the prosecution beyond March 23. ANALYSIS on Monday at the Jerusalem Judge Rivkah Friedman Feld- • By YONAH JEREMY BOB District Court over calling man echoed the prosecution’s witnesses in his public cor- arguments that the defense A lifetime ago when living ruption trial before the March had between one to two years in northern New Jersey, I 23 election. to prepare for witnesses. But often drove further north for It seemed that the judges ultimately the judges did not work. were leaning toward calling seem anxious to call the first Sometimes the correct exit the first witness in late March witness before March 23. was small and easy to miss. or early April, which they A parallel fight between the But there were around five would present as a compro- sides was the prosecution’s or so exits I could use to avoid mise between the sides.
    [Show full text]
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Speech at the Jewish Federations
    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Speech at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly Thank you all. My dear friends, leaders of the Jewish communities of North America, The history of the Jewish people has been marked by a paradox. We are at once both small and great. We are few in number but luminous in achievement. In the ancient world, the Jews were a small people on the foothills of Asia touching the Mediterranean. But in Alexandria some 2200 years ago, the Bible was translated into Greek, and the world has never been the same since. The Jews brought to civilization at least three big ideas: the idea of monotheism, the belief that all people have innate rights that transcend the power of kings, and a prophetic vision of universal peace. It is impossible to fully describe the revolutionary impact of these ideas throughout history, nor the poetic power of the Biblical stories that overshadowed much of the literature of the ancient world. As in antiquity so in modernity. Israel is one of the world’s smallest countries. But our success in science and technology, agriculture, medicine, and the arts belies our size. And on this continent, the Jewish community accounts for less than 2% of the population, yet its creative accomplishments in every field are legend and legendary. In modern times, Jews everywhere have made extraordinary contributions to humanity. So, smallness and greatness have thus accompanied our people throughout nearly 4,000 years of our history. But our conspicuous achievements often masked our small size and the vulnerability that comes with being small.
    [Show full text]
  • The Israeli Elections: Kadima Has Carried the Day (For the Time Being) but Likud Is Winning the Election
    ANALYSIS 11/02/2009 THE ISRAELI ELECTIONS: KADIMA HAS CARRIED THE DAY (FOR THE TIME BEING) BUT LIKUD IS WINNING THE ELECTION By Dimitri DOMBRET ESISC Research Associate By way of introduction Concerned as they are about the security situation, the Israelis were not very interested in these elections, which they would have certainly preferred not holding. At the end of a campaign that was lifeless and dominated these past several weeks by the war on Hamas in Gaza, it was finally Kadima, the centrist party, which, provisionally, may be said to have won at the ballot box, taking one more seat than Likud. But while Tzipi Livni should logically be charged by Shimon Peres with the task of forming a government, it is Benjamin Netanyahu, seemingly defeated, who is better situated to put together a government coalition of the Right, mainly with the nationalist party Israel Beitenu of Avigdor Liberman. At a time when the challenges facing Israel are considerable, the first task of the future Prime Minister will be to ensure that his or her coalition – whatever it may be – is sufficiently strong and consistent for the long term. The Israeli electoral system Although no democracy is perfect, electoral systems are even less so. The Israeli system is a proportional system. Put another way, the various parties in contention receive a number of seats calculated prorata to the number of votes that they collect. And if this system has the merit of giving small (even micro) parties) the opportunity to participate in the political process, it has the enormous disadvantage of fragmenting the political scene and complicating the already difficult task of forming a government coalition.
    [Show full text]
  • NAFTALI BENNETT INAUGURATION SPEECH at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel by Luis B
    NAFTALI BENNETT INAUGURATION SPEECH At the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel by Luis B. Vega [email protected] www.PostScritpts.org ‘When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our Enemies heard that I had rebuilt the Wall and not a gap was left, though to that time I had not yet installed the Doors in the Gates, Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono. But they were planning to harm me.’ -Nehemiah 6:1-2 The purpose of this study is to 1st provide the official released Inauguration Speech of Israel’s new Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett. The 2nd purposed is to analyze key prophetic inferences related to the Last Days that are pertinent from the speech in light of a Christian perspective and interpretation of world event and Israel’s coming 70th Week for Years. It is very interesting how when such national events occur and the occasion is for a Transition of Government, for example, that such People invoke the Name of GOD, in this case, the GOD of Israel, YHVH. Bennett ended his speech with a prayer to ‘Our Heavenly Father, the Rock and Redeemer of Israel’. It is very interesting as it echoes the Triune Nature of YHVH being, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. If one knows and has read the Gospel accounts of Jesus, it is striking how at the account of the Resurrection of Jesus, Mary Magdalene sought to locate the body of Jesus. Why? She came to the Garden Tomb and found that the Stone that had sealed the Tomb was rolled away.
    [Show full text]