By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — For many of us it’s a relief to know that the prime minister’s and his government’s effort to bring in cameras to the polling stations in next week’s general election in Israel will probably be aborted by the Knesset. By spreading fake news about massive fraud in the elections earlier this year, Netanyahu was looking for an excuse to intimidate Arabs from turning up to vote, thus hoping to get enough mandates for his party bloc to be able to form the next government.
He may have calculated with a negative reaction by the opposition, but probably not from his own ranks. First the president, a staunch member of Netanyahu’s Likud, declared his opposition to the move in a thinly veiled statement. Then none other than Benny Begin, the son of the late prime minister and a lifelong active Likud politician, said that he was appalled at the proposed legislation and that as a result, he wouldn’t vote for his party.
Spokespersons for parties opposing Netanyahu expressed their objections, including Avigdor Lieberman, who remains the king maker and, therefore, is described by the prime minister as an unredeemed lefty, which he is not, alas.
The attempt to intimidate voters isn’t the only sign of the prime minister losing it and of compelling evidence of the imperative to replace him. The wife of Sheldon Adelson, the American-Jewish casino mogul, at one time a devout supporter of Netanyahu, is reported to have told police, after a visit in the prime minister’s residence, that Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, is crazy and appears to rule him and thus may bring the country into ruin.
And then there’s Yair, the Netanyahu son. In addition to many other very dubious recent statements, he has also expressed hostile views about the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, whose assassination helped his father to come to power. To say something about Rabin that may be interpreted and endorsing the assassination amounts to close to sacrilege in Israel. The father distanced himself from the son’s bizarre reflections but, alas, refused to condemn them.
My fear is that Netanyahu’s desperate desire to cling to power may even make him go to war. It nearly came to that in the North a week or so ago, and it may come again now, this time perhaps in the South. Let us pray and pray hard.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Canada. Now a citizen of Israel and a resident of Jerusalem, he may be contacted via dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com