NETANYAHU PROVOKES ISRAELI POLITICAL AND ETHICAL TURMOIL

While the United States media is solely focussed on the  Presidential elections soap opera it is ignoring all else that is going on the rest of the world. Under other circumstances the turmoil that is reverberating around and through Israel would have been followed with gusto by a public that has strong emotional and political ties to what is generally accepted as America’s only real ally in the Middle East . But on the world stage the Israeli and Palestinian conflict is far from forgotten. The French have persisted with an initiative to go ahead with multinational talks to process a Palestinian Israeli two state solution. US Secretary of State John Kerry has stated he will be there together with eighteen other interested countries, mainly from the Middle East. Netanyahu is not interested and has told the French as much. He would be well served to go as that is what Egypt's Sissi and his other newest best Arab friends would like - but that issue will have to wait for another day......

More significantly in Israel there have been seismographic internal political convulsions. So as a public service and as a diversion from the campaign trail here goes: 

INTERNAL  WRANGLES GO TO THE HEART OF ISRAEL’S CULTURE OF DEMOCRACY

The international pressures are a backdrop to feverish maneuvering that is rocking Israel. There are two key inter related issues that are at the center of the Israeli internal political storm. The contretemps, as will be seen, are at the very heart of the ethical foundations of the Jewish State and the role the Israeli Defense Force, (IDF), plays in Israeli society. The sequela of these cause celebes resulted in Prime Minister Netanyahu having to battle to put together a governing coalition. In the upheaval he has had a fall out with his well respected Minister of Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who he forced to resign. Ya’ alon’s involuntary exit from Netanyahu’s government and his defiant statement that he is not abdicating public life and will be returning as a candidate for national leadership ensures that there will be a shake up in the brittle labyrinthine political structure of government in Israel. This whole turn of events may result in another alignment in the Knesset where parties come and go in the space of an election cycle. 

Ya’alon’s resignation just does not only signal a change in personnel but a change by Netanyahu in direction and policy as well. Ya’alon’s replacement is Avigdor Lieberman who is an extreme right wing populist who has been likened in the Israeli Press to Donald Trump. To add insult to injury his Defense Ministry credentials are on a par with The Donald’s foreign policy know how. The comparison with Trump is real and Lieberman is responsible for such irresponsible statements as that Arab Knesset Members are traitors and he would assassinate Hamas leaders. 

Netanyahu to shore up his rule had been having negotiations with the left of center Labor Party. These broke down and instead he courted Lieberman’s tiny far right party which merely gives him six votes, but enough to govern. The Israeli press’s almost unanimous interpretation of all this supports Ya’alon and others’ observation that Netanyahu has made a conscious decision to move to the right and abandon Israel’s traditional liberal societal values.  

THE YA’ ALAON AFFAIR AND DEMOCRACY AND MORALITY IN ISRAEL

Firstly, in a country that has been in constant war ever since it’s establishment nearly seventy years ago, Moshe Ya’ alon follows in the long tradition of warrior statesmen and politicians that have occupied key positions in Israeli politics either in the central portfolio of Ministry of Defense or as Premier or even President. Before going any further it is important to point out that in Israel the armed forces assume such an importance that their right to intervention in political discourse is fiercely defended. 

Ya’ alon, a combat hero dating from the Yom Kippur war and a former Chief of Staff of the IDF, was a member of the Netanyahu’s right wing Likud party and cannot by the furtherest stretch of the imagination be labelled a “bleeding liberal”. Besides other considerations his recent dispute with Netanyahu is focussed on two issues: The first relates to Ya’alon’s vigorous support and encouragement of the Armed Forces brass to speak their minds and “ignore political winds”. The Minister of Defense had already backed the IDF Deputy Chief of Staff, Yair Golan another battle scared heavyweight, who had likened certain trends in Israeli society to those in Germany pre holocaust. Following upon Netanyahu’s attack of Golan, Ya’alon addressed the IDF leaders and opined that they had a duty not only to be brave on the battlefield but also in the briefing room when they believed ethics were not being taken into account. 

The other flare up that involved Netanyahu and Ya’alon related to the prosecution of an IDF soldier for manslaughter for shooting an unarmed Palestinian. Once again military authorities, the Israeli justice system and the besieged Defense Minister were ad idem believing that the alleged criminal behavior of the soldier, who had received widespread support, was totally contrary to the values of Israel’s society. Netanyahu’s position against prosecution evoked a sharp response from former Prime Minister and yet another war hero, Ehud Barak, who had also served in Netanyahu’s cabinet in the past. Barak, who besides registering his general disgust with the turn Netanyahu has taken also supported the societal values behind the prosecution. 

YA’ ALON  THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET

The former Minister of Defense signaled the tectonic shift that had taken place in Israeli politics by claiming that, “Extremist and dangerous forces have taken over Israel and the Likud movement and are destabilizing our home and threatening to harm its inhabitants”. This is heavy stuff from the former number two of the Likud Party and his statement was front page news in all Israeli media including the internationally syndicated Times of Israel. He elaborated further on the key legal and moral issues that he believed were at stake, “But to my great regret, I have found myself lately in deep disagreement over professional and ethical issues with the Prime Minister, a number of ministers and a few members of Knesset. I have fought with all my strength against radicalization, violence and racism in Israeli society, which threatens its resilience and percolates also into the IDF”. He further argued, “I have fought with all my strength against attempts to harm the Supreme Court and Israel’s judges, processes whose result will cause grave damage to the rule of law and could be disastrous for our country”

Ya’alon then outlined the Israeli society that he supported, “In general, Israeli society is a healthy society, and the majority here is sane and seeks a Jewish, democratic and liberal state, a state that accepts each person as a person, without distinction of religion, race, gender, ethnic origin or sexual orientation, a tolerant and accepting country for the weakest and the minorities, who we have a duty to embrace and not to incite against, a country that fights unequivocally against the marginalization of women, sexual harassment toward them, or turning the woman who comes forward into the accused,” he proclaimed. “But to my great regret, extremist and dangerous forces have taken over Israel and the Likud movement and are destabilizing our home and threatening to harm its inhabitants”.

The former Defense Minister harkened back to some of the founding fathers of Israel’s Likud Party, Jabotinsky and Begin who mainly differed from Weizmann and Ben Gurion’s Labour Party in defining what constituted the boundaries that would make up the fledgeling Jewish State that had been founded amongst the ashes of the holocaust. These divergences did not extend to fundamental human rights. 

WHAT NOW

Jay H. Ell has criticized Bibi in the past. Besides his provocative settlement behavior and irrascibility, he appears directionless in solving Israel’s key problems. (BLOG: Rabin Twenty Years Later: So What is Netanyahu’s End Game?”). Bibi has been at odds off and on with his security and armed forces establishments, especially over the danger of the Iran nuclear deal, but never has the cleavage been so fundamental. It is fair to say that a large section of the Israeli society are disillusioned and are shattered at the direction that Netanyahu has taken. For the Deputy Chief of Staff of the armed forces to make Nazi allusions about the government’s direction and then be supported by the Minister of Defense is earth shattering  in itself. 

Much comment has also centered around long time Military Correspondent Rori Daniel who on Israel’s most well watched TV Channel openly verbalized what has been discussed increasingly, in private, in many Israeli households. Commenting on the Netanyahu machinations he uttered, “I am not so sure  I want my children to remain here”. 

Ya’ alon has spelt it out that he is not going to stand by and has the potential to gain a strong foothold on the political scene especially bearing in mind the current ineptitude of the Israeli opposition. The position is fluid except for Netanyahu who is bereft of any ideas and has chosen a path that if successful would negate the very moral and ethical basis that Israel was founded on. He has endlessly, on the international stage, used in argument and as a justification for support that Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East, that it has an impartial Judiciary and that all its citizens are equal and can participate, Ya ‘alon is now leading the movement that says that isn’t so. 

Notwithstanding the importance of the US elections Jay H. Ell believes that the media need to inform its following that America’s greatest ally in the Middle East, that purports to represent the American value system, is going through an existential crisis. Also to let the supporters of BIbi know that a large section of Israeli society maintain he has finally jumped ship. He will face his sternest challenge to date as forces martial against him to attempt to put Israel back on course. Also he has weakened Israel on the International scene. Presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders, who is critical of the 
U. S. Administration's partiality towards Israel, will certainly argue that these events have bolstered his case for "evenhandedness" in the Middle East.