Netanyahu's Grip on Israel Ending?

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

Coalitions run Israel, never a single party throughout Jewish state history.

Most often, majority right-wing hardliners ran things since Israel's 1948 creation, Netanyahu exceeding the worst of his predecessors.

Replacing him with Benny Gantz as prime minister won't change a thing for Palestinians, neighboring Syria and Lebanon — other than ending his toxic leadership presence.

For the first time since 1992, Israeli Arab politicians endorsed a Jewish state party leader for prime minister.

Joint (Arab) List members won 13 Knesset seats in the September 17 rerun election, finishing third behind Gantz/Lapid's Blue and White party and Netanyahu's Likud, both hard-right opponents of Palestinian rights.

On Sunday, Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh said the party acted "to put an end to the Netanyahu era," adding:

"We want to live in a peaceful place based on ending the occupation, the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel, true equality, on the civil and national level, social justice and certainly democracy for all."

Fact: No Israeli "democracy" exists, ruling authorities serving privileged Jewish interests exclusively — replicating how the US and other Western states are governed.

Fact: Apartheid is official Israeli policy, Arab citizens treated like fifth column threats, Occupied Palestinians considered nonpersons.

Fact: Arabs in Israel and the Territories are denied their fundamental rights, affirmed under international law — no matter what coalition runs the Jewish state, how it's been throughout Israeli history.

In a Sunday NYT op-ed, Odeh said "(w)e are ending Netanyahu's grip on Israel," adding:

"…Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel have chosen to reject Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his politics of fear and hate, the inequality and division he advanced for the past decade."

Last summer, Netanyahu said "Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people — and only it."

Israel's Nation-State Law is affirmation of Jewish state apartheid viciousness — expanding on institutionalized racism supported by the vast majority of Jewish Knesset members no matter what coalition runs things.

The law is all about institutionalizing Israel as "the national home of the Jewish people," codifying discrimination against Arab citizens, denying them rights afforded to Jews exclusively.

Nation-state legislation is part of Israeli Basic Law, substituting for constitutional law.

When enacted in July 2018, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said the following:

The Basic Law "falls within the bounds of absolute prohibitions under international law and is therefore illegitimate as a colonial law with characteristics of apartheid."

Adalah's general director Hassan Jabareen said:

"The Nation-State Basic Law is illegitimate, as it establishes a colonial regime with distinct apartheid characteristics in that it seeks to maintain a regime in which one ethnic-national group controls an indigenous-national group living in the same territory while advancing ethnic superiority by promoting racist policies in the most basic aspects of life."

Gantz, Netanyahu, or any other Jewish prime minister won't change a thing.

Odeh deluded himself to believe Arab Knesset members can make a difference, saying:

"We will decide who will be the next prime minister of Israel."

"I have argued earlier that if the center-left parties of Israel believe that Arab Palestinian citizens have a place in this country, they must accept that we have a place in its politics."

So-called "center-left" politicians are militantly hostile to peace, equity, and justice. They scorn Palestinian rights in Israel and the Territories.

Joint List's rejection of Netanyahu for Gantz leaves him short of a 61-seat majority.

Support from Joint List's 13 seats, Labor-Gesher's six and Democratic Union's five elected MKs gives Gantz 57-seat backing to Netanyahu's 55 — from Likud, religious fundamentalist Shas and United Torah Judaism, along with hard-right Yamina.

President Rivlin will likely give Gantz first nod to try forming a ruling coalition - possible only with unlikely support from Avigdor Lieberman's far-right Yisrael Beiteinu or one of the extremist religious parties shifting to him.

The outcome of Israeli elections remains uncertain. Most likely possibilities include unity B & W/Likud rule, Gantz becoming prime minister, Netanyahu's status uncertain, facing an early October pre-indictment hearing, or a third election next year.

Odeh stressed that endorsing Gantz for prime minister comes with knowing he "refused to commit to our legitimate political demands for a shared future" afforded Arab Israeli citizens.

Whenever farcical elections are held in the West and Israel, names and faces change, but unacceptable policies continue like always before.

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