In a recent significant article in the US journal, Foreign Policy, David E Rosenberg, the economics editor of Haaretz, clarifies how a minority of religious extremists have come to wield so much power in Israel today. It is a chilling, informative read.
Rosenberg adeptly summarises how Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has sold his soul (if he has one) to a coterie of extreme right wing, Arab-loathing powerbrokers (and their parties) in order to retain office. And to stave off the active prosecution of a set of serious corruption charges he faces.
Netanyahu has helped organise these parties (that attract about 11% support) to maximise their electoral success. That they wield so much power is measurably explained, too, by the complex, stalemate-tilted, Israeli electoral system. At a stroke they can bring down the government — and Netanyahu — and they never let the prime minister forget this.
According to Rosenberg, Netanyahu has handed over control of: the police (now actively being turned into a political-police force); the state budget; and the West Bank to exceptionally fevered leaders drawn from these Jewish-supremacist parties:
Everyone from the attorney-general and army generals to officials in the Finance Ministry are seen as ideological enemies, perhaps even traitors. Thus, it’s no surprise that when the army, which is ordinarily regarded in Israel as sacrosanct, finds itself in conflict with extremist settlers in the West Bank or rioters at Sde Teiman, the far right sides with the latter.
Meanwhile, Branko Marcetic robustly explains in another recent report how the leader of what the New York Times calls a government of political gangsters is continuously amplifying the Gaza hellscape to save his own political skin:
“One answer is to listen to sources high up in government or involved in the talks [over Gaza] from mediating countries like Egypt, the United States, and even Israel itself. For months, those voices have constantly told the media — often Israeli news outlets and establishment US newspapers exceedingly friendly to Israel — that the main obstacle to a ceasefire deal is Netanyahu himself, and that he has continuously inserted roadblocks and poison pills to sabotage negotiations as a way of staying in power.
“This is not just one, or two, or even three reports. It is more than two dozen of them, over the past six months, across a variety of both Israeli and US establishment outlets, all saying the same thing: that Netanyahu is the primary obstacle to a ceasefire deal, has been systematically sabotaging any prospect of peace, and cares far more about keeping his governing coalition together — and, therefore, clinging to political power — than he does about getting the hostages back home, confident that he can simply hang on until the Democrats lose to Trump in November.
“It’s hard to say what’s more absurd: that there’s any doubt remaining about why a Gaza ceasefire deal that the Biden administration is reportedly desperate for can’t be struck, or that the Biden administration continues to willingly prop up and arm the man everyone involved knows is its leading saboteur.”
For more on this topic P&I recommends:
Richard Cullen is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He was previously a Professor in the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
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