Early elections in Israel are needed

The present war between Hamas and Israel must have clear, limited, and tangible achievable objectives, and should be short, decisive, and end in a few weeks-time. How can this be achieved is detailed in a previous article [1].

Much has changed since October 7^th. Many Israelis are still in shock and in pain, but the world will not sit idle waiting for Israel to recover its composure. Once the tens of thousands of displaced Israelis in the south, near the Gaza border, and in the north, in the border with Lebanon, will return safely to their homes, Israelis will have to quickly go through a process of introspection, analyze why so many things went so wrong, and make the needed corrections to avoid a repetition of these failures.

I am not talking about calling for the establishment of Commissions of Enquiry to analyze what went wrong and who should be held responsible. In the highly politicized environment in Israel today, any actual composition of these Commissions of Enquiry will be seen as political in nature. In addition, these Commissions would take much time and will not help much: most of the Israelis have already made up their minds about what went wrong and who is to blame, and no Commission of Enquiry will change their opinions.

In a democracy the tool to correct wrongs – real or perceived – is elections. Elections will enable a healthy discussion about what kind of society Israelis want for themselves and what political solutions they prefer in relation to their Arab neighbors. [2]

These elections should be called as soon as possible: Spring 2024 would be desirable.

Hopefully, this time the Israelis will prefer a unity government based at its core on the largest secular Zionist parties, and avoid being held hostage again to small extremist factions.

Notice that in the last elections, held a year ago, in November 2022, the three major secular Zionist parties (the Likud, Yesh Atid, and the National Unity party) got a clear majority of 68 seats in the Knesset (out of 120 seats). The latest polls held just two weeks ago by the Israeli newspaper Maariv, on November 15-16, 2023, gave these three parties again an ample majority of 74 seats.

But first things first: It is good to begin thinking on the political horizon, the day after. However, concentrate now on finishing the war in Gaza: The sooner the war is finished – the better will be for Israel and for the Jewish people in the Diaspora.

References

[1] Jaime Kardontchik, “Let the Palestinians themselves end Hamas’ rule in Gaza”, published in the “Times of Israel”, November 13, 2023:

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/let-the-palestinians-themselves-end-hamas-rule-in-gaza/

[2] As per my preferred political solution in relation to the West Bank, see chapter 6 of my book “The root of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the path to peace”, November 2023 edition. The book can be downloaded for free at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364057784_The_root_of_the_Arab-Israeli_conflict_and_the_path_to_peace