There was a time when Benjamin Netanyahu knew how to exit the stage in style. On the election night of 1999, Netanyahu congratulated the winner, Ehud Barak, and called on his Likud supporters for calm and unity. He then resigned as the leader of Likud, and shortly afterwards as a lawmaker too.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is in his final moments – unless history should put him back there.”, a reporter said at the time. And history did put him back on the pedestal for 12 more years, and he came to be known as the most shrewd, long-standing Prime Minister the country has seen. Netanyahu fashioned himself as an American-style politician. With flawless English, he was a modern, business-forward leader who helped his small country punch above its weight in the global economy.
21 years since, Israeli politics is now entering a new chapter. After inconclusive elections in March, a politically diverse coalition was formed and ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12 years as prime minister. The eight-party coalition is led by right-winger Naftali Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid. The two will alternate as prime ministers, with Bennett taking the first period of two years. For the first time, an Arab party will be in the government, with Mansour Abbas’s Ra'am party joining the coalition. [1]
The Bennett-Lapid government could potentially redefine Israeli politics. However, Netanyahu has indicated his plans to continue leading the Likud party that controls a quarter of parliamentary seats. Being the masterful political strategist in opposition, he will look to exploit the weaknesses of the governing coalition.
Even though Netanhyu has left the national stage as Prime Minister, his 12 years of leadership and legacy will endure, during which many believe Netanyahu re-made the country.
An overview of Netanyahu’s leadership
It was a quarter of a century ago when Netanyahu became Israel's youngest-ever prime minister.
The election came just months after the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had signed the breakthrough peace deal, the Oslo Accords, with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu had appealed to voters by strongly opposing the peace talks, which he viewed as jeopardising Israel's security.
However, once in power, he gave in to pressure from Washington to sign further deals with Palestinian leaders, which eventually led to the collapse of his first right-wing government.
He remained a popular figure in the Likud party and served as a minister during the uprising against the Israeli occupation. He burnished his security credentials, criticising concessions to the Palestinians, including Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and several West Bank settlements.
Stalling of Peace-Making Procedures
After returning to power in 2009, Netanyahu expressed his support for an independent Palestinian state, with the condition that it would have to be demilitarised and formally recognise Israel as a Jewish state. [2]
Palestinian leaders rejected these terms, and on Netanyahu's watch, Israel's presence continued to grow in the occupied West Bank.
In the meantime, talks with the Palestinians were on the back-burner as Netanyahu believed the unsolved conflict could be managed as a security issue. Deadly fighting continued to break out between Israel and militants in Gaza. In 2014, there was international criticism of the high number of Palestinians killed in a large-scale military operation to stop rocket fire into southern Israel.
The incident also raised tensions with the Obama administration. Things hit rock bottom when Netanyahu addressed Congress directly in March 2015, warning against a "bad deal" arising out of the US negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme. The Obama administration condemned the visit as interfering and damaging and withdrew all support.
Ties with Donald Trump
The advent of Donald Trump's presidency in 2017 led to a closer alignment between the US and Israeli government policies. Within a year, Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
The move sparked fury across the Arab world - which supported the Palestinians' claim to the eastern half of Jerusalem occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East war - but it handed Netanyahu a major political and diplomatic coup. [3]
Netanyahu took all the credit for the diplomatic developments in this time, along with historic deals brokered by the US, to normalise Israeli relations with Arab League countries. What seemed like the first amongst a series of grand slams in the world of politics for Netanyahu would be his last before things went south.
Claims of Corruption
Despite his success on the global stage, Netanyahu had growing problems back home.
Netanyahu is alleged to have accepted gifts from wealthy businessmen and dispensed favours to try to get more positive press coverage.
He remains on trial to this day, denying the charges against him and calling them a political witch-hunt. "He's doing everything he can to escape justice and he will take 9 million citizens down the drain only to escape justice," said Nurit Gil in the anti-Netanyahu camp.[4]
United opposition and Current state of matter
Parties from across the political spectrum have come together to cast off Netanyahu's divisive shadow.
However, with their intense ideological differences, there are many sensitive policies they will want to kick into the long grass. It remains to be seen whether the new, fragile unity government will put Israel back on track.
Challenges in store for the new government
The eight parties forming the government had only one thing in common— the motivation to oust Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. The coalition’s political diversity will pose a challenge for working together. With Labor and Meretz on the left and Yamina, New Hope and Yisrael Beiteinu on the right, the largest segment will be the centrist forces of Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Defense Minister Benny Ganz’s Blue and White party. Although famous for his political wizardry and clever coalition manoeuvres, Netanhayu ended up losing the trust of almost everyone in the political arena. Many of his former allies were among those who ousted him.[5]
The ideologically diverse new government will now need to deliver change and fast. Another flare-up of tensions with Hamas, designated a terrorist organisation by many nations, looks like it's around the corner. A budget must be approved as soon as possible, after having gone two years without one. Netanyahu cannot be blamed if the government fails to deliver henceforth.
The complex set of coalition agreements between the parties means the government will most probably focus on domestic matters and avoid major initiatives on divisive topics, such as the Palestinian issue. Another key task will be to heal the social tensions that have resurfaced in Israel in recent years, dividing Arabs and Jews, left and right and such communities.
The coalition needs to find a way to work together efficiently or it could face a rapid collapse.
Conclusion
Netanyahu’s overall legacy will be marked by unequivocal diplomatic, economic and political achievements. Under his leadership, Israel became a world leader in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Through his ties with the CEO of Pfizer, Netanyahu mobilised the health system to inoculate almost the entire adult population of Israel in record time.
Netanyahu maintained an uncompromising position against Iran’s aspirations to develop a nuclear weapon, which helped Israel secure the Abraham accords, peace treaties with four Muslim countries. Netanyahu’s reign ends with Israel enjoying an emboldened status in the region and a strong economy, but with a new seemingly unstable coalition that will have to work its way around its differences.
Article by -
Anupama
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