Israel At The Crossroads

If you believe that US President Donald Trump was robbed of the Nobel Peace Prize, stop reading. This is aimed at more measured, logical thinkers.

Of course, during these unstable times, my thinking could change tomorrow with a surprise attack of October-7 proportions from Lebanon or Gaza, an Iranian nuclear bomb, or a Turkish declaration of war. Today, I believe Israel stands at a crossroads leading down a path of blessings, or one of curses.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will take us further down the cursed path that brought us to the current Israel-Hamas War, the rise of world-wide antisemitism, and the continued flight of our best and brightest entrepreneurs. His fear mongering about nuclear armageddon and the uprising of Arab-Israelis may have won his Likud party the largest number of Knesset seats, but his haul fell short of a majority. That’s the good news.

Netanyahu’s coalition of hardliners isn’t large enough to give him the required 61-seat majority to govern. Whether he winds up in prison one day, or not, the fact is that he remains in power. That’s the bad news.

Former Israel Defense Force chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose Yashar party won the second most Knesset seats, may lead us down a less corrupt path. His non-negotiable coalition principles of acknowledging Israel as a Jewish, democratic, liberal, and egalitarian state committed to the principles embedded in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, mandatory military, national, or civilian service for every Israeli citizen, and the recognition of Hamas as a terrorist organization that must dismantle its military sound solid.

Can they hold if Eisenkot and his proposed coalition of Naftali Bennet, Yair Lapid, Yair Golan, and Avigdor Lieberman lead Israel into uncharted territory where Arab Israelis are not marginalized in the government? 

Inviting Mansour Abbas, leader of the Arab-Israeli Ra’am party, to join them would represent a step away from the cursed path of Netanyahu. There is a precedent for such a move, as Bennet and Lapid welcomed Abbas into their coalition during the year they led the country between Netanyahu’s second and third stints as prime minister. Abbas’s presence in their short-lived government showed Jewish and Arab Israelis what was possible.

Early in his career as a member of Israel’s Knesset, Abbas antagonized anti-zionist Arab members when he tried to improve relations with Netanyahu. Seen as a moderate who combined his support of a Palestinian state with a show of solidarity with the Jewish people, his presence did not compromise Israel’s security. 

No matter how Netanyahu spins it, the October 7 catastrophe came on his watch. He cannot deny that he has been Israel’s prime minister 16 out of the past 20 years. When the day finally arrives for an official inquiry, his claim as the ultimate protector of Israel’s security may not stand up to scrutiny. As for his touted leadership skills, his current coalition includes extremist anti-zionist Jews who refuse to serve in the military yet remain on the government dole.

The proposed opposition coalition with Eisenkot and Golan, two IDF generals, and Lieberman, a former defense minister who alerted Netanyahu’s government about the threat of a possible October 7 attack, promises to be a good, if not a better, protector. Are its leaders tough enough to take on the Joint List bloc, whose Knesset members resemble Likud’s ultra-orthodox anti-zionists? Can they convince the Joint List to change their platform for the benefit of all Israelis? 

Bringing all of the Arab-Israeli parties into the new coalition will lead us to a place similar to the one Nelson Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, led South Africa after he emerged from prison for his anti-apartheid activism. It will land us in the Wild West Bank where the concept of law and order is now a mirage.

John Wayne, the king of early American westerns, played characters who never shot a bad guy in the back and would have called masked men who beat non-threatening Bedouin women and peace activists cowards. They would have challenged the Israeli government’s peace keepers to do their jobs. Characters portrayed by Clint Eastwood, the prince of modern westerns, represented a darker version of American criminal justice. The heroes he played shot any which way they could; still they managed to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We need a coalition of heroes made up of people like Wayne’s Breck Coleman in The Big Trail, a frontier scout who was fluent in the language of the native people and considered them his friends. We also need those leaders to be like Eastwood’s tough hombres ready to break the rules of gentlemanly etiquette when needed.

Are Eisenkhot and his posse up to the challenge? Israel and the rest of the world are watching.