Netanyahu’s Political Seesaw
Netanyahu is under enormous pressure; pressure that only a very small number of human beings could withstand. At the same time, he must lead the Jewish minority state in the Middle East, which faces constant existential threats. The approaching election only increases the intensity of these pressures. In addition to security and diplomatic considerations, there is another factor: Israeli domestic politics.
On the one hand, the Trump administration is pressuring Israel to stop its attacks on the Palestinian terrorist organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad; the very organizations that carried out the massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023. Palestinian rapists and murderers are being eliminated one after another by the IDF in targeted strikes. Trump will not admit it, but the pressure Israel is exerting on these Palestinian terrorist organizations is precisely what is pushing them to negotiate with Trump’s Peace Council. As things now stand, Israel has stopped these targeted eliminations, even if it has not officially announced it. There is no need to explain what leverage Trump has over Netanyahu. Netanyahu must respect the demands of Israel’s only ally and the world’s number-one superpower.
On the other hand, the right-wing parties to the right of Likud are unwilling to accept the arrangement Trump has imposed on Netanyahu. They demand that the war against Palestinian terrorism continue with full force, and certainly that Israel does not stop eliminating Palestinian rapists and murderers. These parties also have leverage over Netanyahu, and the political weight of that leverage is no less than that of the world’s number-one superpower. These parties, along with the ultra-Orthodox parties, are Netanyahu’s only and last chance of being elected prime minister of Israel again. They know this, and they are using this leverage with all their might.
Netanyahu is swaying between these two opposing forces, each of which offers him a reward alongside a threat. President Trump is demanding that Israel’s president grant Netanyahu a pardon so that he can enter the election campaign with a clean slate. The right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties are offering Netanyahu the crown of the next coalition after the election. Both forces want to keep Netanyahu in power, even though neither agrees with his policies.
It is both amusing and sad that, in this political constellation, Smotrich, the finance minister of a country that barely seems to register on the world map, is playing an arm-wrestling match with Trump, whom many regard as the king of the world. This also explains Trump’s outbursts of anger against Netanyahu. It should be noted that both Smotrich and Trump have cursed Netanyahu whenever he failed to do what they wanted. Reality is stronger than any theatre of the absurd.
I believe that cursing a sitting Israeli prime minister means cursing the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Israel’s enemies make considerable efforts to personally vilify Netanyahu, based on the assumption that this is how they can break through the wall and attack the entire Jewish people. Therefore, curses from Uncle Sam as well as curses from Israeli patriots amount to cooperation with the enemy. As far as I am concerned, it makes no difference who the prime minister is; whether he comes from the right, the center, or the left. They are all equally legitimate in my eyes.
Under these enormous political pressures, Netanyahu must also make decisions that advance the interests of the Israeli public and serve the interests of the State of Israel. These are difficult days for the Jewish minority state in the Middle East. Most of the countries belonging to the corrupt United Nations support the narrative of the Palestinian rapists, while Israel finds itself increasingly isolated. An international arrest warrant has been issued against Netanyahu by a sexual harasser who served as the court’s chief prosecutor. America is becoming less friendly and less tolerant toward Israel. Bipartisan support is now turning into bipartisan hatred. Ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Land of Israel do not accept the pluralistic Jews of America, and they too are helping the enemy. Israeli society is deeply divided, and the election campaign is intensifying the rhetoric to the point of physical violence.
The Jewish minority state in the Middle East faces existential threats both from within Israel and from outside it. In times like these, we need leadership capable of balancing political pressures with the interests of the people who live in Zion.
Let us pray that the next election will bring us the leader Israel deserves.
