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| Amichai Chikli (VIN) |
On the political side is a Religious Zionist party that believes that taking back all the land of biblical Israel is the most important Mitzvah in the Torah. A party that idealizes Baruch Goldstein who massacred innocent Arabs praying at Maaras HaMachpela. A party that defends the Hilltop youth that set up makeshift settlements in the heart of the Palestinians enclaves in the West Bank. A party that defends settlers that take revenge against innocent Palestinian families for terrorism they had absolutely nothing to do with.
On the religious side there are the Charedi parties. Many secular Israelis fear being forced to live religious lives they have no interest in living. They also fear the removal of rights won by certain minorities in recent years will being taken away by the religious parties.
I therefore assume that a collapse of this government sooner rather than later would be a blessing to those who fear this kind of government takeover.
The one thing Israel has sorely been lacking in recent years is a stable government. Israel now has a chance to see a stable government. Something I would like very much to see happen.
This does not mean I support everything the government does – or wants to do. That I do not is an understatement. I am still very much opposed to the kind of extremes described above - whether political or religious.
How can I reconcile my strong opposition to the extremes of right with my view that a stable government is an imperative?
My hope is that cooler heads will prevail and when push comes to shove the extremists will forgo their more extreme demands in order to retain whatever power they have. Which they will certainly lose if a new election were held today, I think.
Hopefully the right wing government understands the world in which Israel exists and will eventually act accordingly. Which is why I have been saying that all of the angst about judicial reform is premature. I do not think it is the ‘done deal’ a lot of people think it is. Common sense demands it. As does political astuteness.
That said I admit being dismayed at the reaction Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli had to America’s ambassador to Israel Tom Nides. Nides urged Israel to go slow on judicial reform. Which I think is good advice. As much as reform is needed, the drastic changes the new government seeks is the wrong way to go. Be that as it may Minister Chikli’s response was insulting. He ought to know better than to insult the Ambassador of the most powerful nation in the world and the most friendly to Israel. He ought to instead take Nides’ advice instead of telling him to mind his own business.
If this is going to the way the government of Israel
operates, thumbing their nose at even their best friends, then the
government should fall and probably will.
Despite Netanyahu’s popularity at the polls,(His party, Likud, received the more votes by far than any other party) I know a lot of people viscerally hate the man. Now more than ever. Believing that everything he does now is in in service to himself. Not his country. I don’t know how true that is. But whether one likes him or hates him, I think everyone would agree that he is one of the most skillful politicians in Israel’s history. My hope is that this skill will enable him to control the far right extremist members of his coalition without losing them. And that he will be able to govern Israel from the right effectively - without alienating its closest ally, the US.
I don’t know how he will do that. Or if it is even possible. But if anyone can, Netanyahu can. Because if he can’t, I do not see Israel getting a stable government any time soon. As long as the nation keeps increasingly polarizing I see no way that anyone can form a government that will last more than a New York minute. Which could put Israel’s security at risk. Hard to be strong when you’re unstable
