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Egos prevail over responsibility in the dissolution of Israel's government.

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arely 22 months after we voted
governance, rendering the entire exercise
this bunch into office, they loathe a giant waste of time? I'd be spectacularly
and mistrust each other so much
wary of anyone who offers a confident
that they've decided to put us
answer to that question.
through it all again.
This is the volatile Israeli
All the while, Iran moves
electorate, making its leader-
serenely toward the bomb;
ship choices in the-impossible-
Hezbollah and Hamas
to-predict Middle East, where
strengthen their rocket arse-
just about anything can happen
nals; Mahmoud Abbas accuses
at just about any moment —
us of genocide, dismisses our
with the potential to reshape
the region, never mind reca-
attachment to the holiest site in
Judaism and seeks a U.N. time-
librate Israeli electoral prefer-
table for our imposed with-
ences.
avid
drawal from the West Bank;
But one thing has changed
rovitz
European parliaments chorus
since we last voted on Jan. 22,
es of
their approval for a Palestinian
2013: The electoral threshold
rael
state not at peace with Israel.
has been raised from 2 percent
And the best our politicians
to 3.25 percent. Two of the
can do in our service is get ready to bitch
current Knesset's three Arab parties and
at each other on the campaign trail, para-
Kadima would have missed out had that
lyze governance for months, and waste
been the case last time. There can no lon-
hundreds of millions of dollars by sending ger be small, two- and three-seat parties
in our 120-member parliament.
us back to the polling booths more than
two years ahead of schedule.
Happens all the time in countries like
No Large Parties
Greece, Italy and the Netherlands? As a
And since there are already no big parties
matter of fact, it doesn't. And, anyway,
— at 19 seats, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid is the
those countries aren't perpetually grap-
largest in the outgoing Knesset — Israel is
pling with existential dangers.
apparently becoming the land of multiple
The first thing you want to say to the
medium-sized parties.
All of which, in turn, means these
dysfunctional rabble who have self-evi-
dently failed to work together doggedly in newly imposed elections are likely to sig-
the wider interests of the State of Israel is:
nal not the end of the political jockeying
Grow up. There are bigger issues at stake
for a while, but just a fresh starting point
here than your egos.
in our politicians' remorseless, short-
Democracies around the world have
sighted bargaining and extortion games.
tended to provide for parliamentary terms
We may think we know where to place
of four years or so because it takes a while these numerous, likely mid-sized par-
for politicians to learn the ropes and for
ties — Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud,
policies to be formulated, fine-tuned and
Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home, Avigdor
implemented. Too long between elections, Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu, Isaac
runs the sensible thinking, and elected
Herzog's Labor, Lapid's Yesh Atid, Tzipi
Livni's Hatnua, ex-Likud minister Moshe
leadership tend to forget the voters on
whose behalf they are supposed to be
Kahlon's new party, Zahava Gal-on's
working. Too short a government's term,
Meretz, Aryeh Deri's Shas, and the sec-
and the leadership get nothing done on
ond ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah
behalf of those voters. As is emphatically
Judaism — on the political spectrum.
the case with the now-to-be truncated
But for all the partisan passion with
19th Knesset.
which their (taxpayer-funded) advertising
campaign managers will now help them
And the second thing you want to say
is: A plague on all of your houses. Rarely
expound their purportedly distinct and
has the old anarchist proverb, "Don't
incorruptible orientations, wasn't it the
vote, it only encourages them:' seemed so
dovish Livni, for instance, having spent
apposite. Except, of course, that staying
the entire election campaign last time
away from the polls would further weaken warning about the dangers of another
our precious, abused democracy.
Netanyahu government, who then signed
Are early elections going to change
the very first coalition partnership with
anything, or are we going to wind up with
the reviled Netanyahu once the votes were
much the same distribution of seats across in?
The same Livni who, on Tuesday morn-
the spectrum and, therefore, the same
apparently near-impossibility of effective
ing, asserted that the new elections will be

a choice between a Netanyahu-Bennett
"extremist, paranoid government" and
the "Zionist, self-confident government"
she would hope to lead or dominate?
Wasn't the notion that Livni
("Mahmoud Abbas is a partner") and
Bennett ("annex 60 percent of the West
Bank") could sit at the same cabinet
table thoroughly unthinkable, until
it happened? Didn't we assume that
the ultra-Orthodox parties would be
Netanyahu's natural first allies in forging
the 2013 coalition, until they weren't?
Wasn't Liberman Netanyahu's blood
brother, until he assessed that the alli-
ance between their parties was working
against him?
Wasn't Bennett a senior cabinet min-
ister bound by the norm of collective
responsibility, until he figured that loudly
denouncing and distancing himself from
his own government's policy in the midst
of a war with the Hamas terror-govern-
ment in Gaza would raise his profile and
potentially yield more votes? Principled
politics? Forget about it.

Why Elections Now?
If you think that's too bleak a summation,
too unfair, then tell me, please, over what
vital principle has the current coalition
collapsed? Which issue was so central to
Israel's well-being, so urgent, and so dis-
puted, as to necessitate turning again to
the voters for resolution? Yair Lapid's bill
to remove value added tax from some new
home purchases? I don't think so.
As the man who opted not to reconcile
with Lapid at their "last-ditch, save-the-
coalition" meeting on Monday night,
Netanyahu, highly skilled political opera-
tor that he is, clearly believes that he'll
again come out on top. But it's a gamble.
He must be calculating that Lapid will be
discredited by ostensible failures at the
treasury, that early elections will compli-
cate moves against his leadership within
Likud, that Liberman will be a reliable
post-election partner.
Netanyahu is taking the chance, too, that
terrorism and the rise of Islamic extrem-
ism all around us will not push too many
voters into Bennett's camp, or that the (less
plausible) reverse does not play out, with
an alliance on the center-left and a sense
among voters of peacemaking opportuni-
ties being missed, enabling Herzog to
mount a prime ministerial challenge.
Again, though, what happens on polling
day will likely be only part of the story.
Those unthinkable alliances will suddenly
again become possible, and earnestly

Benjamin Netanyahu casting his vote in
Jerusalem for the 2009 elections.

justified by their advocates, as the ego-
tists jostle for power. Legislation — some
planned, some already passed — will be
easily sacrificed on the altar of expedi-
ency. That "Jewish state" law Netanyahu
deemed sufficiently essential as to risk
unsettling Israel's fragile Jewish-Arab
interaction? Well, that's gone out the
window for now Evidently, not quite so
urgent, after all.
The legislation intended to increase
the quota of ultra-Orthodox recruits to
the IDF, forced through this short-lived
parliament, will be substantively amended
if the ultra-Orthodox parties join the
next coalition. Cardinal issues relating to
settlements, territorial imperatives, peace-
making, all of these can be massaged
— as they have been in the past — when
ministerial positions are up for grabs in
the immediate aftermath of elections, only
to erupt as insurmountable obstacles to
further coalition cooperation when one or
more of the players senses a new political
opportunity.
Israeli voters might be forgiven for
thinking that their leaders are more inter-
ested in power for power's sake than in
the vital, orderly, effective governance of
the State of Israel in a region fraught with
dangers. Israeli voters would be correct.
The incomparable Winston Churchill
observed, rightly of course, that "democ-
racy is the worst form of government,
except for all those other forms that have
been tried from time to time:'
Churchill is also said to have quipped
that "the best argument against democ-
racy is a five-minute talk with the average
voter:'
Actually, there's a far better argument.
He just hadn't met Israel's modern politi-
cians.

❑

JN

December 11 • 2014

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