Mondowiess – 25 September 2019

Was Israel's election last week really a hotly contested fight between two sides – an Israeli center-left and a right wing – as the Israeli and western media keep characterizing the result?

And does the narrow defeat of Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party by the Blue and White party, led by former army general Benny Gantz, indicate, as some commentators suggest, a change of ideological direction in Israel, offering a hopeful sign for the future? That deceptive narrative has only been reinforced by the coverage of the Palestinian-led Joint List party recommending Gantz as the next prime minister.

The strangest thing about the reporting of the deadlock between the Israeli right and the "center-left" is that none of Israel's parties view it that way, as we shall see. Even according to their own assessments of their ideological positions, only a tiny fraction of the new Israeli parliament consider themselves to be on the so-called center-left.