By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — An opinion poll published last Tuesday has it that 66 percent of Israelis want a government that includes the two largest parties, Likud and Blue and White. Without the benefit of research I wrote on April 16 along similar lines. Even though both parties will have the same number of seats in the next Knesset (35 each out of 120, i.e., between them a solid majority), and despite the fact that Netanyahu has been too long in office as prime minister, if the price is to put him at the head again, because of his alleged ambition and obvious experience, I’m among those who think that it’s worth it.
The poll was conducted by a reputable polling firm on behalf of Hiddush, an organization advocating religious pluralism in Israel. Its main concern is to keep the two Orthodox political parties out of the government. But our concern should also be to keep away the smaller right-wing parties whose presence in the government may have terrible consequences for the country. They are reported to be making extortionist demands for staying in the coalition. It will take the country further to the right.
Not that religious freedom, currently heavily curtailed by the clout of the Orthodox political parties, is unimportant. Those polled also want the Knesset to promote it believing that the presence of Blue and White in the government would do so.
Despite the election campaign rhetoric of Netanyahu and his crew – it falsely labelled Blue and White as left-wing – he must know what’s obvious to everybody: there isn’t that much ideological difference between him and them. And he must also know that Blue and White has outstanding leaders – including three former chiefs of staff – who would serve the country well and help to keep it on an even keel. That cannot be said of the leaders of the rabidly right-wing and Orthodox groups.
Without Blue and White in the government the situation in the country will be very precarious. Netanyahu’s heavy dependence on US President Trump is problematic: Trump may change direction or not be re-elected; in either case, the relationship with the United States – so vital for the security, indeed the survival, of the State of Israel – would deteriorate dramatically with disastrous consequences.
Netanyahu’s Republicanism that made him neglect American Jewry, which is largely Democrat, is promoting the potential disaster. A more balanced Israeli government of the kind suggested here would help mend the vitally needed bond between Israel’s over six million Jews and America’s some five million. Blue and White could restore much of that balance by making it a condition for joining a Netanyahu-led government.
No less important are Jewish-Arab relations, both within Israel and with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Trump’s affirmation of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his endorsement of the formal annexation of the Golan Heights have been very good news for Jews, but they’ve angered the PA. The covert installation of cameras at Arab voting stations in the recent elections are one of several signs of heightened hostility toward Israel’s Arab citizens, a step that prompted the Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to describe Israel as racist. Israel needs a government that will restore its good name. There’s much to suggest that the presence of Blue and White and the absence of others would do it.
Even if Netanyahu is most unlikely to take the first step, the leaders of Blue and White should be sufficiently perspicacious to call him to make him an offer he can’t refuse.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Canada. Now a resident of Israel, he may be contacted via dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com