the past two or three years, Analysis Aluf Benn VIEWS Israel Hayom has been joined by the Walla website, owned by Bezeq’s controlling share- Continued from page 1 holder, Shaul Elovitch, who is dependent on the regulatory and Bitan the media. Shaked environment that Netanyahu Netanyahu’s revolution: and Levin are managing the controls. Ministerial Committee for Then there are the right- Legislation. wing think tanks and lobby Silence dissenting views As they see it, democracy groups such as Im Tirtzu, the means majority rule while Institute for Zionist Strate- those in the minority should gies, the Mida website and On May 14, 2015, exactly wing politicians to win the resonate in the West and fuel shut up. The liberal stance My Israel, which are leading 67 years after the Decla- adoration of the media and the BDS movement, which in espoused by Supreme Court the fight to cleanse the public ration of Independence, a top legal and military offi- turn is portrayed as a stra- President Miriam Naor - debate, academia and the me- revolution began in Israel. cials who allegedly remained tegic threat to the country. that democracy is distin- dia of “the left” and promote Few people noticed the under the left’s control. Defending Israel against it guished by its protection legislation that would narrow change at first. Benjamin This time there was a rare requires a thorough cleans- of the minority - is seen by freedom of expression, sup- Netanyahu remained prime opportunity to lift the re- ing of the left-wing “elites.” the government as the unac- press the Israeli-Arab com- minister, as he had been for straints and set up a real right- That means replacing the ceptable talk of a left-winger munity and, following the six years. He used the same wing government that would heads of cultural institu- making trouble for the Jews. U.S. election result, take steps manner of speaking and work for deep change in the tions and threatening a halt While his aides lift the to annex West Bank territory. had the same hairstyle, but social order and public de- to government funding for restraints, the prime minis- Netanyahu’s model was a sue- he was different. bate. Bennett crafted the po- those who don’t go with the ter has been biding his time cess just as he had expected. The conservative Netan- litical goal: the gradual Israeli flow. That comes on top of with empty talk about bring- Less than two years after yahu who had shunned adven- annexation of the West Bank promoting army officers ing Zionist Union into the co- Israel Hayom hit the streets, tures and risks ceded office while erasing the distinction and lawyers identifying with alition and making Herzog Netanyahu was back in pow- to the right-wing radical Ne- between Jewish towns and religious Zionism, rewriting foreign minister. Netanyahu er, and he hasn’t lost an elec- tanyahu seeking to fulfill his villages in Israel proper and the school curriculum with has neutralized the opposi- tion since. old dream of “replacing the Jewish settlements east of a religious-Zionist tinge and tion with baseless promises The current government is elites.” Butinsteadof forming the Green Line. Meanwhile, portraying rights groups as that led Herzog to adjust his promoting censorship in edu- a national-unity government the West Bank Palestinians collaborators with BDS. It policies to the right (“no Pal- cation and academia in the with his rival, Zionist Union would be kept under Israeli also means denying the le- estinian state at this time” spirit of Im Tirtzu. The mass leader Isaac Herzog, after the control with the assistance gitimacy of Supreme Court and “people say we’re Arab media outlets - Channel 2 and election that year and sleep- of the PA, but without civil rulings on the argument that lovers”). And that’s with- the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, ily settling back into “stabil- rights. “the judges represent a mi- out him getting anything which Netanyahu portrays ity,” Netanyahu established a As the right-wing’s lead- nority that votes for the left in return other than vague as his bitter enemies - may at right-wing coalition with his ers see it, such a situation and loves Arabs more than messages in private easily times criticize him, but they former assistant and current requires the suppression of Jews settling the land.” denied. enthusiastically promote bitter enemy, Habayit Haye- criticism and the elimination Initially Netanyahu didn’t The second opposition his government’s narrative hudi chief Naftali Bennett. of words such as “occupation” speak out directly against leader, Yair Lapid, is now (that Arabs and left-wingers It was Bennett who crafted from the political and media his rivals. He let other poli- convinced that the people are traitors, the world is anti- the new government’s mes- lexicon. Hatred of Arabs, ticians lead the revolution: love Netanyahu’s narrative Semitic and the occupation sage during the election which once was disguised Education Minister Bennett, and have embraced a slight- doesn’t exist). campaign: Stop apologizing. under the guise of “security Culture Minister Miri Re- ly refined version of vague Netanyahu continues to The message expressed an considerations,” was now to gev, Justice Minister Ayelet promises for “change.” The rail against the media that old argument: The right-wing be openly presented as the Shaked, Tourism Minister political opposition has been is allegedly so hostile to him parties had been winning right-wing government’s po- Yariv Levin and coalition easily eliminated, but in the in order to impress his sup- elections for nearly 40 years, sition, in keeping with the chief David Bitan. Each re- media, independent voices porters and force his critics but when they came to power tone on Election Day when ceived a sector. Regev got remain. Criticism of Ne- to justify themselves (“we’re they restrained their ideology Netanyahu warned of Arabs the arts, Bennett academia tanyahu has pulled him out not leftists”). and shifted toward the po- going to the polls in droves. and the school curriculum, of hiding; he has attacked The distinction between litical center. That was either The silencing of criticism Shaked the Supreme Court journalists personally using settlers and mere Israelis out of concerns of “American was justified by the argument the language that his cabi- is disappearing, along with pressure” or a desire by right- that disagreements in Israel See VIEWS, Page 4 net colleagues have used the remnants of talk about a against cultural figures and two-state solution, which Ne- judges, but harsher. tanyahu actually raises from Netanyahu is developing time to time in interviews the direction and methods of with the foreign media. the right-wing revolution 20 His Likud party is remi- years ago, when he was first niscent of the former ruling elected prime minister. In Institutional Revolutionary conversations with Haaretz’s Party in Mexico. Even after Ari Shavit, he spoke of the so many years steering Israel need to replace the rhetoric and the disappearance of the that had taken over academia counter-narrative, Netan- and the media and supported yahu and his partners depict a partition of the land with the themselves as a radical oppo- Palestinians. sition to rule by “the left,” and Netanyahu claimed that the public is enthusiastic. the media had been re- But the real revolution cruited to delegitimize his is just beginning. Its major government and the prime challenges remain. Will it get minister himself. “The intel- conservative justices onto the lectual structure of Israeli Supreme Court, shifting its society is not balanced,” he role from restraining govern- said. “There is an ideologi- ment to protecting it, just as cal monolith here, and maybe Netanyahu and Shaked have even ideological tyranny ... smashed the institution of the the conformism of a cult that attorney general? writes the Torah, interprets Will the top brass and the it and expects everyone to intelligence services be re- obey.” placed with loyal officers Netanyahu suggested that who view the occupation and intellectual “hostels” be es- settlements as longed-for tablished “that wouldn’t be aims and not necessary evils? under government control Will the incitement against but would generate ideo- artists and political rivals be logical competition in the translated into indictments, country.” imprisonment and dismiss- Such rhetoric remained in als of academics rather than the air during Netanyahu’s simply curses and threats on first term, which ended in Facebook and administrative 1999 after he ran into trouble legislative steps? Will the civ- with both the left and right. il service be replaced by the His ideas became reality dur- appointment of politicians’ ing his years out of office. The associates, as Netanyahu is most important and largest suggesting? “intellectual hostel” remains In the absence of an opposi- the daily Israel Hayom, which tion or alternative public dis- plays the role Pravda did in course, it’s hard to see what the Soviet Union, reporting and who will halt these steps the daily messages from the as long as the current govern- prime minister’s circle. Over ment remains in office.