Israeli General Election (2nd of March, 2020): Madness

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Bibi as President means he can't be PM.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Bibi as President means he can't be PM.

I didn't say he'd be both? The implication is that Gantz replaces him upon his ascendancy to the Presidency.

No I mean Bibi's time as PM would be over once he's President, which is a good thing. It's a good thing he'd no longer have the power of Prime Minister vested with him and all.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I still expect the Supreme Court to disqualify Netanyahu as PM, and the main parties seem to tqke that very seriously as well, so we may be going to a fourth election no matter what happens with the blocs.

I don’t see a reason for any party that’s not Likud, Shas and UTJ to be against this. If any politician isn’t then they deserve to go too tbh.

Apparently the whole unity bid has been on ice over Netanyahu's concern that the Court will indeed disqualify him. They wanted Gantz to change the basic law to prevent that, Gantz said no, but they did get him to promise an automatic new election if Bagatz does go the way I think they will.

I am not actually entirely opposed to a unity deal if KL can squeeze Likud for key ministries (like Education) and especially if Yamina is kept out of the government. I suppose it comes down to whether you beleve that Netanyahu or the Israeli right is a graver threat to our political future. Bibi is bad, but the apocalyptic ideology of the religious right, driven by an insane ethno-supremacist religious movement, has always made my skin crawl more than anything. Bennet and Shaked are just upper class Ashkenazi Likudniks, so they aren't really all that bad. Like the Rubios of the American right. But the Smotrichs and religious settler leaders are absolutely terrifying. So stealing the government out of their hands and jolting it back to the left is really tempting, especially if Netanyahu will be ensured to face a judge for his alleged crimes.

Likud as a center-right/right wing conservative party? No. Likud as a corrupt, divisive, mafia-esque Fidesz lite? 100%.

Fair point.

And it's not as though Isreali politics in general is that dissimilar from Eastern Europe's either.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I still expect the Supreme Court to disqualify Netanyahu as PM, and the main parties seem to tqke that very seriously as well, so we may be going to a fourth election no matter what happens with the blocs.

I don’t see a reason for any party that’s not Likud, Shas and UTJ to be against this. If any politician isn’t then they deserve to go too tbh.

Apparently the whole unity bid has been on ice over Netanyahu's concern that the Court will indeed disqualify him. They wanted Gantz to change the basic law to prevent that, Gantz said no, but they did get him to promise an automatic new election if Bagatz does go the way I think they will.

I am not actually entirely opposed to a unity deal if KL can squeeze Likud for key ministries (like Education) and especially if Yamina is kept out of the government. I suppose it comes down to whether you beleve that Netanyahu or the Israeli right is a graver threat to our political future. Bibi is bad, but the apocalyptic ideology of the religious right, driven by an insane ethno-supremacist religious movement, has always made my skin crawl more than anything. Bennet and Shaked are just upper class Ashkenazi Likudniks, so they aren't really all that bad. Like the Rubios of the American right. But the Smotrichs and religious settler leaders are absolutely terrifying. So stealing the government out of their hands and jolting it back to the left is really tempting, especially if Netanyahu will be ensured to face a judge for his alleged crimes.

Likud as a center-right/right wing conservative party? No. Likud as a corrupt, divisive, mafia-esque Fidesz lite? 100%.

Fair point.

And it's not as though Isreali politics in general is that dissimilar from Eastern Europe's either.

They are pretty dissimilar.

I thought they were fairly similar due to large numbers of Eastern European migration and, later, Russians? Enlighten me.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Likud/B&W talks are resuming- mandate ends shortly.

It appears to be going up in flames.

A #4 coming right up.

If election #3 was "Madness" what on earth should we call #4??

Dumpster Fire?

call it Groundhog Day.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Maybe it's time for Israel to take a page from its neighbors and have a good old fashioned military coup. Or perhaps reestablish the Davidic monarchy.

I wasn't ready to say that even a month ago, but now I honestly wish the IDF would remove Netanyahu and act as a caretaker government until new elections can be organized.

Having a secular coup in Turkey worked out so well.

Indeed it did. I can see no way Bibi would be strengthened from any sort of attempted IDF coup.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

You cannot kill what was already dead. Isreali Labor was an outfit of the past, a pensioners party, and one that was a mere skeleton of its former self.
This end was pretty much almost inevitable, it was just hastened a bit by the flow of events.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

You cannot kill what was already dead. Isreali Labor was an outfit of the past, a pensioners party, and one that was a mere skeleton of its former self.
This end was pretty much almost inevitable, it was just hastened a bit by the flow of events.

Hell, the year-long crisis may have delayed the inevitable since the party needed to keep competing to hold onto is handful of mandates. If govt was formed a year ago, Labor would have imploded into backroom infighting over the corpse.

I think Labour could have survived even long-term, provided it accepted being swallowed into an outfit that was more current. Labour as an independent actor would have been dead, but Labour as a political force still would have survived.
But it needed things to go its way. That clearly has not happened thus far.