Yair Lapid Must Win
Not only must Netanyahu lose, but the liberal prime minister deserves a second, better coalition.
I took the above photograph in 2019. It’s on the coast of beautiful Akko (Acre), taken from its destroyed castle walls. Today, the population of Akko is mixed between Jews and Arabs, living, working together for a better tomorrow.
Israel is in crisis.
The formation of the most recent Israeli government – a coalition of parties representing leftists, Orthodox settlers, liberals, secular conservatives and Islamists – was an unlikely outcome itself; how could a motley crew defined by deep divisions and conflicting interests come together? And yet, they did, but the cracks within deepened and a year later, the coalition came apart. Tomorrow, Israelis are going to the polls for the fifth time since April 2019.
That elections are so frequent alone is a failure of Israeli governance, a failure so severe that it too borders on crisis. To paraphrase Canadian constitutional expert Eugene Forsey when he advised prime minister John Diefenbaker against calling a snap election in 1957, excessive elections distract from the government’s task of governing, whether it be the orderly management of the economy, education, or foreign affairs. Soon enough, perpetual elections will erode the public’s faith in the state, as they make it obvious that politicians are focused on winning and holding power, rather than using their vested power to govern in the public’s interest. This is especially troubling in a country like Israel, where the existential question of survival weighs more heavily on their conscience than, barring Ukraine, any other country in the world.
The reason behind Israel’s perpetual elections is one man; Binyamin Netanyahu. At 73 years of age, a former Captain in the Israeli Defence Forces – though this has come under greater scrutiny lately – and a career of public service dating back to 1984, including over cumulative fifteen years as the prime minister, his time has come and passed. Had he retired in, say, 2017, he wouldn’t have been universally loved, but his patriotism would likely have been questioned only by those on the fringe. Now, his sole motivation to become prime minister again is to subvert the criminal proceedings against him for his alleged corruption.
Despite repeated assurances that the Blue White electoral alliance from the 2019 and 2020 elections were willing to serve in a national unity government so long as Netanyahu stepped down as leader of the Likud, he has continually refused to do so. His political career is now nakedly one of self-interest, rather than national interest, and the longer he is leader of Likud, the more damage is done to Israeli democracy. True patriotism would have meant stepping aside to let new blood in and fight the allegations through the judicial system as it exists. True patriotism would have meant putting the security of Israel, both domestically and abroad, first. Netanyahu is not a true patriot, as he has done neither, undermining Israeli democracy in the process.
It is bad enough that Netanyahu desires to bend the rule of law for his own benefit; it is worse who he aligns with for this task. Opinion polling indicates the Religious Zionist Party, an alliance of settler ultranationalist parties, will come in third place with somewhere between 10-14 seats in the Knesset. Their leader, Bezalel Smotrich, is a theocratically-minded bigot, bigotry aimed at Arabs, gays and other Jews who reject his medievalism. The man second on the Religious Zionist Party’s list and the leader of Otzma Yehudit, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is even more extreme. He is a disciple of Kach, the far-right political party created by now-deceased terrorist rabbi Meir Kahane. Ben-Gvir favours the annexation of the West Bank and the deportation of many of its Palestinian residents; he disguises his support for ethnic cleasning an innocuous “Ministry for Encouraging Migration.”
Beyond the Religious Zionists’ hilariously transparent promise to twist Israeli law to cancel Netanyahu’s trial, Likud and the Religious Zionists share a broad goal of subverting Israeli democracy, albeit for different reasons. Hence, they have a de facto marriage of convenience. Otzma Yehudit regularly displays pictures of Netanyahu alongside Ben-Gvir in their advertising, practically saying that a vote for us is a vote to make Netanyahu prime minister again. Netanyahu and Likud are hesitant to appear openly friendly with the far-right, but there is little doubt that when given the chance, Netanyahu will attempt to form a government that includes Smotrich, Ben-Gvir, and their ilk.
Clearly, with the barbarians of fascism at Israel’s gates, Netanyahu must not win. However, it is not enough that Benjamin Netanyahu loses; the current prime minister of Israel, Yair Lapid and the Yesh Atid party, must win.
Leading Israel’s second-largest party after the 2021 round of elections, when Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a viable coalition, the task of putting together a working government fell to Yair Lapid. Though he undoubtedly wanted Israel’s premiership for himself, he temporarily sacrificed his own ambition to accomplish his primary goal; removing Bibi Netanyahu from power. As such, he put together that awkward coalition with right-wing figure Naftali Bennett at its head despite the 2021 Gaza War threatening to blow the negotiations apart. Though Israel is back to elections a year later, this personal sacrifice demonstrates the character of Yair Lapid, who is now prime minister himself upon Bennett’s resignation and the Knesset’s dissolution.
When it comes to policy, Lapid could hardly be further from the theocrats looking to dismantle Israel. Unlike Benny Gantz, who naïvely signed onto a coalition agreement with Netanyahu amid the beginning of the pandemic, Lapid refused to work with Netanyahu since it became clear his continued time as prime minister was threatening Israeli democracy. Lapid opposed the humiliating and discriminatory Nation-State Law and favours restoring Arabic’s status as an official language, and critically, is open in supporting a two-state settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. By including Ra’am in the governing coalition, he demonstrated the ability to work with Israeli Arabs politically in good faith, something unseen by Israeli politicians in decades. One in five Israelis are Arabs. They deserve the simple dignity of being represented not only in the Knesset, but also in the governance of the country, a basic task which many, including Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, fervently oppose. He also supports conscripting the Haredim; why should those who take so much not give back to their country?
Make no mistake, like all politicians, Yair Lapid is flawed. Despite condemning the Russian war against Ukraine during his recent stint as foreign minister, as prime minister Israel has still refused to materially back Ukraine with the weapons they desperately need, and as far as the peace process goes, Lapid maintains that the settlements will stay a part of Israel. If he continues as prime minister, he will inevitably make errors, and some of them could be significant. But unlike Netanyahu and his theocratic-fascist allies, who will subvert Israeli democracy and will work to glacially push the Palestinians out altogether, Lapid believes in Israel’s liberal nature and at least has the capacity to continue the peace process. Under Lapid, Israel has a future, a future where they can continue their pursuit of the Zionist dream, one of democratic self-determination for the Jewish people. At the fundamental level, not only must Netanyahu lose, but Lapid must win even if he is no messiah.
Despite the resolute convictions presented above, it is very likely Lapid will not form a workable coalition this election cycle. Indeed, most polls show the pro-Netanyahu bloc (Likud, the Religious Zionists, and the Haredi parties) getting 60 of the 120 Knesset seats. To get 60 seats, Lapid would need to bring together the same parties who formed the most recent coalition, barring Yamina, who likely will not pass the electoral threshold to enter the Knesset, plus earn the support of Hadash-Ta’al, two Arab parties who are far less conciliatory than current coalition partners Ra’am, without alienating the support of any right-wing parties. Even if he were to accomplish this herculean task, 60 seats are not enough to form a government.
The flipside of this is that Netanyahu seems unlikely to get 61 or more seats, though if Yamina does enter the Knesset, that would likely give him the mandates he needs. Nevertheless, by endorsing Yesh Atid and Yair Lapid, it’s an indictment on the state of Israel that such an endorsement will likely amount to endorsing continued deadlock, further elections, and greater instability. Perhaps the polls are wrong and Lapid will be able to form a viable government, but his leadership is the only way to preserve Israeli democracy.