April 9, 2019
Today is the day of the Knesset election. From everything I’ve read, Netanyahu will likely win with the help of right-wing, orthodox splinter parties. Benny Gantz, his opponent, a general who was once appointed by Netanyahu as military chief of staff, does not have that kind of support.
Nor does he and his Blue & White Party have the machinery of the American president at his disposal, who did everything he could to give his buddy Netanyahu a leg up in the election campaign. In fact, Gantz has been subject to character assassination and leaked claims that his phone was hacked by Iran. “How can he protect the country when he can’t protect his own phone?”
Gantz is not a progressive, and has shown no opposition to Netanyahu’s threats to annex the West bank, international law be damned. He knows full well that more than 40% of Israelis favor some form of annexation. He has also failed to provide any suggestions as to how he would approach solving the Palestinian question. In other words, since there are no left-leaning parties in the running, the choice is between right wing (G) and far right wing (N), with the latter being favored by potential coalitions.
5 million Palestinians, to be ruled by the new government, are denied the vote. In the West Bank, they will face a military closure. In Gaza, where 2 million are already segregated, crossings will shut. Jewish settlers in the West Bank will vote today while their Palestinian neighbors — whose land they are living on — can’t.
All this despite the fact that Netanyahu faces charges for bribery, fraud and more. Since I am no expert on Israeli politics and/or the implication of this election, for American Jews as well, I thought I’d compile a reading list of articles that caught my attention as pertaining to the topic. Given that we have to ration the daily amount of bad news, you might prefer to skip any one of them. No offense taken if you do.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/07/donald-trump-jewish-vote-2020-1260172
For my German readers: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/israel-knappes-rennen-zwischen-benjamin-netanyahu-und-benny-gantz-bei-der-wahl-a-1261760.html
For music I chose the Israeli Youth Philharmonic playing Schubert’s unfinished symphony. Lots of unfinished business ahead of them, regardless of the outcome of the election.
Photographs are self explanatory…
