JERUSALEM — This hasn’t been a good week for Prime Minister Netanyahu. At home, the Knesset defeated his attempt to bring cameras into voting stations on election day next Tuesday, probably intended to scare away Arab voters. His unsubstantiated argument that all Arabs want to kill us doesn’t seem to be shared by the Knesset.
Also at home, another prominent member of Likud, declared – as did earlier Benny Begin, the son of the late prime minister Menachem Begin – that, for the first time in his life, he will not vote for Likud in protest against the antics of its leader Binyamin Netanyahu. If leading members of the party say it openly, it’s likely that others will follow them in the ballot box.
And the news from the United States isn’t good either for the prime minister of Israel. President Trump’s seeming determination to meet with the president of Iran in order to strike a deal is alarming for Netanyahu who has staked his international reputation on opposing Iran. The fact that Trump has parted company with John Bolton, Israel’s great friend and supporter, suggests that Trump is seriously imitating Barack Obama, his predecessor in office and the man he reviled for making a deal with Iran.
The resignation of Jason Greenblatt, probably the most important architect of the long- heralded US peace plan for the Middle East, may be an earlier sign that the plan was still born.
The rest of the world is incensed by Netanyahu’s election ploy – it’s probably not a serious plan, just a way to lure voters away from the extreme right wing Otzma Yehudit party– that Israel will take control (under whatever name) of parts of the West Bank. Settlers may now be more prepared to support Likud and not Otzma Yehudit the presence of which around a cabinet table in Israel would really compromise the Jewish state.
Nevertheless, the current prime minister of Israel is doing his utmost to show himself to the electorate as a statesman with an international profile. That’s why he went to see the British prime minister Boris Johnson, who could only give the visitor half-an-hour of his time. This doesn’t seem to have been enough for Netanyahu to remember his host’s name. I saw him refer on television to his visit to Prime Minister Boris Yeltsin….
Today, Netanyahu is seeing Russia’s Vladimir Putin who may want Netanyahu re-elected. There’s much to suggest that Putin secretly approves of Israel pounding Iranian positions in Syria because he doesn’t want anybody else than himself to breathe down the neck of President Assad.
One of the Likud election posters shows Netanyahu shaking hands with “Israel’s best friend ever in the White House” Donald Trump. As recent events make Israelis question Trump’s friendship, their prime minister is trying to involve other foreign statesmen in his campaign. Whether or not this will cut ice with the voters remains to be seen.
There’re many reasons for all Israelis to hold their breaths about the outcome of next week’s elections. The fact that, according to some polls, many don’t know for whom to vote and – therefore may stay at home or enjoy the day off, which is election day – is very alarming. In fact, holding one’s breath may not be enough; praying loudly and fervently for sanity to triumph over misguided expediency will be much more effective.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, Canada. He may be contacted via dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com