Netanyahu victory would increase Israel’s worries

By Rabbi Dow Marmur

JERUSALEM — I’ve tried to understand why Netanyahu does so well in the most recent polls despite (inter alia) his entanglement with the United States administration because of his scheduled address to Congress two weeks before the elections in Israel, and despite the brouhaha in the Israeli media over his wife’s entanglement with the law because she allegedly pocketed deposits on empty bottles of liquor paid for by the state.

The only suggestion I’ve heard that seems to make sense is that the Israeli public isn’t interested in social justice, which is the mainstay of the platform of the Zionist Union (the English version of the Zionist Camp) led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni. The public doesn’t even seem to be concerned with the many cases of corruption that both the Herzog-Livni duo and Yair Lapid, the leader of Yesh Atid, promise to eradicate once in power. None of them, alas, has much to say about the danger from without.

The public at large does. Therefore, Netanyahu may remain the majority’s leader of choice, even though after all his years in office one would have thought that people would realize that the country is ready for a change. His alleged obsession with Iran, last summer’s Gaza war that stopped the barrage of rockets on southern Israel (at least for the time being), and his firm stance against possible Hezbollah attacks in the North, initiated  and directed by Iran, may give him enough seats in the next Knesset to be able to form the next government. And that won’t be just more of the same but added intransigence.

He already has a number of potential allies lined up. Both Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu (or what’ll be left of it, if the many scandals involving people close to him will become public before the elections) and the ultra-Orthodox have already said that they wouldn’t join Herzog and Livni. Bennett’s Habayit Hayehudi, which seems to be gaining support beyond its strong base in the settlements and among the so-called modern Orthodox, most certainly won’t. A few others might, but it’s not likely to be enough.

That defense is in the forefront of the mind of Israelis shouldn’t surprise anybody. The presence of both “the Islamic State” and Iran de facto on Israel’s borders (the former in Syria, the latter in Lebanon and in Gaza) makes Israel vulnerable and Israelis worried.

The question is whether the answer is more belligerence, more settlement expansion, more military action and more confrontation with both Europe and the president of the United States, or if a different approach is called for.

There’re those who argue that the present situation requires not more arms but more statecraft, not the customary rigidity but unprecedented diplomatic flexibility which Netanyahu and Bennett aren’t capable of but Herzog and Livni are. The latter lead the Liberal-Zionist camp, but there doesn’t seem to be enough of us. Hence the polls.

As much as I think the majority (according to this week’s poll) is ominously wrong, I can live with Israeli hardliners, for they’ll have to live with the consequences of their actions. That’s the price of parliamentary democracy that liberals must pay.

It’s much more difficult to fathom the hard line support for Netanyahu and his band among Jews in the Diaspora, including North America. They’re protected from the consequences of their rhetorical intransigence; their stance seems, therefore, shallow.

It’s still some 40 days before we’ll know the outcome of the elections, but that needn’t prevent anybody from starting to worry now. I do.

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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto.  Your comment may be posted in the space provided below or sent to dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com