Not an auspicious beginning.
“What sort of government are Lapid and Bennett forming?,” by Caroline B. Glick, Israel Hayom, June 6, 2021:
The storm of controversy now engulfing Israel revolves around one question. What sort of government do Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett intend to swear in?
According to Lapid, Bennett and their media chorus, Israel is about to get a “unity government.” Once it is formed, all will be sweetness and light. The political fights that have afflicted us will fade away as the nation undergoes a collective therapy session.
The other side – the political Right – insists that the two men are forming a leftist government that is willing to sacrifice Zionism to achieve their highest goal: ousting Benjamin Netanyahu from the Prime Minister’s Office.
The easiest way to figure out which side is telling the truth would be to read the coalition agreements signed by the parties set to join the Lapid-Bennett government. Those agreements would tell us what Lapid and Bennett have promised to do in their “unity” government. Unfortunately, Lapid and Bennett refuse to publish the contents of those agreements until after their government is sworn in.
Last Friday night, journalist Sharon Gal reported on Channel 13 News how the Islamist Ra’am Party is presenting the agreement they signed to its voters in Arabic. In its written statements and in television interviews on Arabic-language channels by Ra’am Knesset members, the Islamist party claims that Lapid and Bennett agreed that their “unity” government will end enforcement of building and zoning laws in Arab-Israeli villages and cities. Orders to destroy illegal structures will be frozen. Fines for illegal buildings will be canceled.
According to Ra’am, Bennett and Lapid have agreed to grant effective autonomy to the Bedouin in the Negev. Over the past 15 years, Bedouin have illegally seized massive swathes of state lands and built illegal settlements on them. Ra’am claims that Lapid and Bennett agreed to freeze the so-called “Kaminitz Law,” which empowers state authorities to reassert the Israel Land Authority’s control over seized lands, among other things, through the destruction of illegal construction.
So as far as Ra’am is concerned, the political Right’s assessment of the Lapid-Bennett government is accurate. Lapid and Bennett’s government will jettison Zionism.
Lapid and Bennett’s refusal to deny Ra’am’s claims, or reveal the actual agreements, prevents the public from checking the veracity of Ra’am’s assertions while lending them credence.
Beyond hiding information from the public about what they have agreed to do once in power, Lapid, Bennett and their friends in the media and the permanent bureaucracy are also working hard to silence their critics.
Over the weekend, in a gross overstep of his powers, Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman placed his thumb on the scales on behalf of Lapid-Bennett and their controversial government. Resonating leftist propaganda that delegitimizes all criticism of leftist policies from the Right as “incitement,” Argaman released a statement Saturday where he insisted, “the incendiary discourse [around the Lapid-Bennett governing coalition] is liable to cause physical harm.”
For more than a year, leftist activists and leaders have been calling openly for Netanyahu and his family to die. Repeated death threats against the Netanyahu family have been made publicly by leftist activists. Despite repeated pleadings from the Netanyahus and their supporters, Argaman has refused to issue a statement against the mass incitement from the Left.
Likewise, for the past decade and a half, Israeli Arab politicians and religious leaders have issued a steady stream of incendiary and often openly antisemitic statements rejecting Israel’s right to exist and demonizing its people. Ahead of the Israeli Arab pogroms against Israeli Jews in mixed Jewish-Arab cities countrywide last month, those statements escalated. But Argaman never had anything to say about any of it….
BlackSabbath says
Israel’s Joe Biden is here. Bolsanaro and Modi’s Joe Bidens are next. Watch out folks.
jule says
Just look what happened to Lebanon after they made their Unity government. Its the biggest mistake a free country can make to let in Supremacists. Don’t people know the definition of Supremacist. They cannot co-exist. There is no diversity in Supremacy.
Infidel says
Bennett ought to play it smart by warning Ra’am that if they get too difficult, he’ll have no choice but to let Netanyahu back in. And on the political front, he should start and try engineering Likud defections, so that he’s less dependent on Ra’am to stay in power
mortimer says
Let us pray Bennett’s term will be a short one and that the coalition will quickly fall apart thus denying Bennett legitimacy. Bibi did a great job, however, and after 12 years of any politician, the people usually want a change. Bibi’s scandals didn’t help him either. He has been a remarkably clear and capable spokesman for Israel.
Bennett will signal weakness to the Iranians and the mullahs will immediately start to exploit it. They must think with glee that Allah has opened up their chief targets, America and Israel. Israel will soon be under renewed attacks from Iran and Bennett will not know what to do.
LB says
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Bennett your typical leftist indoctrinated in a US college? If that’s true, then he is certainly pro-Palestine and pro-BDS, as all leftists are, so how would that reflect on his governance of the country he hates that much? Is he gonna take down Iron Dome because it’s somehow “islamophobic”? Or will he go ultra right wing and just level Hamas to the ground?
Any predictions?
Infidel says
No, from what I’ve read, Bennett is far right in the real sense of the term, which is what makes this such a strange coalition. He’s anything but pro Pali or pro BDS, but the problem he has is that the Arab party Ra’am is a part of his coalition that could bring him down. So what he should do is entice defectors from Likud if possible to save him from having to make deals that compromise Israel
gravenimage says
Bennett seems pretty sane about realizing the threat Islam presents to Israel–and he opposes the “two-state solution”. Of course, the proof is in the pudding…
Keith O says
None of this bodes well for the safety of the state of Israel and the stability of the entire region.
gravenimage says
Will Bennett government’s concessions to Arab party ‘jettison Zionism’?
…………………
Very disturbing stuff from Caroline Glick. Let’s hope not.