Israel election results: Letting Gantz form Israel's next government would be poetic justice

Salman Masalha ||

A government of poetic justice

As a state and as a society, Israel is a sick creature. Even the  coronavirus vaccine airlift failed to get it back on its feet. The election maelstrom into which Benjamin Netanyahu dragged the country is proof of the disorders and the social divisions that this bad guy fosters to feed his goal of remaining in power, like some Ottoman caliph who cannot be deposed.

If Israel is divided into two camps, “Only Bibi” and “Anyone But Bibi,” the latter already won the election, and not for the first time. The only thing left to do is put the slogan into action and effect regime change. Doing this requires imagination and making use of the majority vote to replace Netanyahu – a majority that is being ignored.

During his campaign, Naftali Bennett declared more than once that he sought to replace the government and the prime minister: “I intend to replace (Netanyahu) on March 23,” the Yamina party chairman said at a Ynet-Yedioth Ahronoth conference. His party colleague Ayelet Shaked told journalist Nissim Mishal that Yamina would not support immunity from prosecution for Netanyahu and passage of the so-called French Law prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting prime minister.

Bennett took care to emphasize: “I am saying here, in the clearest way possible, I will not let Bibi, Evet (Avigdor Lieberman), (Yair) Lapid, Gideon (Sa’ar) or anyone else drag us into another election.” Bennett declared that he would not join a government led by Lapid, but also noted, “Netanyahu can only be replaced from the right, and I don’t exclude anyone.”

Lapid, who has said more than once that he isn’t ruling out any options for replacing the current deranged government with a sane one, is a standard bearer of the opposite side of the regime-change camp. The other parties in the bloc that seeks to remove Netanyahu from the prime minister’s residence have also said they are willing to do anything for that cause.

If that is indeed the case, all that’s left is to act on the pro-change majority vote. And to reassure all of the vile racists who are part of this camp, we’ll remind them that this majority was even a “Jewish majority.” It would be easy to form a stable, functioning government that is not dependent on the Arab parties, heaven forbid.

This is the way to solve the political predicament: Since everyone has declared that ego must be put aside for a higher purpose, all the parties that want to replace the government, from Meretz on the left to Yamina on the right, must recommend to President Reuven Rivlin that he ask Benny Gantz to form the new government.

It will be a majority government even without the recommendations of the two Arab parties. Given the current political situation, it’s unreasonable to think the Joint List and the United Arab List would vote with Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu. Thus, the new government’s majority will be even greater.

Furthermore, there is some poetic justice in the establishment of such a government, headed by Gantz. Netanyahu, who dragged us all into last week’s election because he refused to honor their rotation agreement in November, will get Gantz not as an “alternative” prime minister but rather as a “full” premier, as he wished for himself in the wake of the election.

In this manner the Netanyahu government shall end, the incitement index shall decline steeply and perhaps the way shall be cleared for a more meaningful discussion of ways to solve the national conflict, which meanwhile hasn’t gone anywhere.

Haaretz

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