2021 Israeli Elections IV: Now Without Netanyahu

[Shrillland]

Remove Netanhyahu!

He might get arrested later this year if things get worse, but that's not a given.

[Yusseria]

Hope Likud wins again.

[Angleter]

The leader of Israel's largest trade union has joined the Gantz party. This is turning into quite a big tent, which will either sweep Gantz to power, or lead to the party disintegrating in a hilarious and catastrophic fashion in a couple of years' time. Or both.

[Shrillland]

The leader of Israel's largest trade union has joined the Gantz party. This is turning into quite a big tent, which will either sweep Gantz to power, or lead to the party disintegrating in a hilarious and catastrophic fashion in a couple of years' time. Or both.

Israel being what it is, I can see both happening. I mean, when was the last time anybody heard of Kadima winning anything?

[United Muscovite Nations]

So you can't vote for Hamas?
Either the joint list or united torah judaism.

Surprisingly woke take from Dio.

[Hatterleigh]

Hmm? An election for a country that doesn't exist?

[Kowani]

Then they'll just be like all their neighbors...

and why should i care?

Letting dictatorships and autocracies gain ground is generally a bad idea...

[Shrillland]

Well, in a bid to make himself appear cleaner, Netanyahu has dropped his position as Foreign Secretary, handing that over to Intelligence Minister Israel Katz: https://www.yahoo.com/news/netanyahu-gives-role-israels-foreign-minister-135020777.html

This is just window dressing to keep him looking good and Likud up in the polls. Do you guys think it'll work?

[Angleter]

Tzipi Livni has quit politics and Hatnua will not be running in the elections.

[Angleter]

A few updates:

Yair Lapid has unveiled his list of candidates, and so has Benny Gantz, but they are still open to the idea of running together. Gantz is also in talks with Orly Levy's Gesher, but they have released a campaign song, which suggests they might be inclined to run alone.

Meanwhile, disgraced MK Oren Hazan, who suffered a humiliating defeat in the Likud primaries, has decided to resurrect the Tzomet (or Crossroads) party, a small right-wing outfit from the 1980s. Not sure if this is going to be their campaign song.

With Gesher, Telem, and now Tzomet, this election is full of small, unsuccessful parties from decades ago being revived for no good reason.

Also Ayoub Kara, a Likud minister who lost out in the primaries after some weird comments about killer robots, has called his own party 'Germans and Nazis' after his petition to be promoted to a realistic place on the party list was rejected. As you do.

---

Probably more importantly, Netanyahu, who started his campaign by touting his diplomatic prowess with a visit to Chad, is now in the middle of a massive diplomatic row with Poland. The Visegrad Four group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) were due to hold a summit in Israel, but Poland got upset after Netanyahu was reported as saying "the Poles" collaborated with Hitler in the Holocaust (in fairness to Netanyahu, it appears he actually said "Poles," not "the Poles"). Poland passed a law last year banning statements that blame the Polish nation as a whole for Holocaust crimes, although relations between Netanyahu and the Polish government had remained more or less friendly until now.

New interim foreign minister Yisrael Katz (also Likud) then poured jet fuel on the fire by saying that "Poles imbibe anti-Semitism with their mother's milk," which was a quote from Yitzhak Shamir, a former Israeli PM who grew up in interwar Poland. At any rate, it went down about as well with the Poles as you'd expect, and Poland has now pulled out of the summit altogether.

It remains to be seen whether Netanyahu and Katz will be lauded for standing up to a Polish government that many see as eager to whitewash its country's history of anti-Semitism; or whether they'll be blamed for either screwing up the summit, or trying to align Israel with the Polish government in the first place.

[Len Hyet]

A few updates:

Yair Lapid has unveiled his list of candidates, and so has Benny Gantz, but they are still open to the idea of running together. Gantz is also in talks with Orly Levy's Gesher, but they have released a campaign song, which suggests they might be inclined to run alone.

Meanwhile, disgraced MK Oren Hazan, who suffered a humiliating defeat in the Likud primaries, has decided to resurrect the Tzomet (or Crossroads) party, a small right-wing outfit from the 1980s. Not sure if this is going to be their campaign song.

With Gesher, Telem, and now Tzomet, this election is full of small, unsuccessful parties from decades ago being revived for no good reason.

---

Probably more importantly, Netanyahu, who started his campaign by touting his diplomatic prowess with a visit to Chad, is now in the middle of a massive diplomatic row with Poland. The Visegrad Four group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) were due to hold a summit in Israel, but Poland got upset after Netanyahu was reported as saying "the Poles" collaborated with Hitler in the Holocaust (in fairness to Netanyahu, it appears he actually said "Poles," not "the Poles"). Poland passed a law last year banning statements that blame the Polish nation as a whole for Holocaust crimes, although relations between Netanyahu and the Polish government had remained more or less friendly until now.

New interim foreign minister Yisrael Katz (also Likud) then poured jet fuel on the fire by saying that "Poles imbibe anti-Semitism with their mother's milk," which was a quote from Yitzhak Shamir, a former Israeli PM who grew up in interwar Poland. At any rate, it went down about as well with the Poles as you'd expect, and Poland has now pulled out of the summit altogether.

It remains to be seen whether Netanyahu and Katz will be lauded for standing up to a Polish government that many see as eager to whitewash its country's history of anti-Semitism; or whether they'll be blamed for either screwing up the summit, or trying to align Israel with the Polish government in the first place.

I see this playing fairly well. I can't imagine there are many Israelis more interested in a friendly relationship with Poland than they are in calling out Holocaust revisionism.

[Angleter]

More controversy:

Netanyahu has orchestrated a deal between Bayit Yehudi and the extremist Otzma Yehudit, whereby Otzma would get a couple of seats on the Bayit Yehudi list, but split off immediately after the election. The deal still has to be agreed by a Bayit Yehudi committee, and a lot of the party's members are sceptical, to say the least (which is a testament to just how 'out there' Otzma are), but Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to organise this. He's even delayed a meeting with Putin in order to meet with Bayit Yehudi leaders.

Netanyahu has apparently offered Bayit Yehudi two ministerial posts in the next coalition, a non-aggression pact for the election, and 28th place on the Likud list - so Bayit Yehudi would effectively get an extra MK for themselves elected on the Likud list. But only if they accept the deal with Otzma.

The goal for Netanyahu is to get Otzma votes to contribute to Bayit Yehudi's seat haul, so Bayit Yehudi a) gets into the Knesset, and b) gets as many seats as possible. If one of those seats is for an Otzma MK who then breaks off and doesn't join the coalition (which is almost certainly what would happen), then that's a price that Netanyahu views as being worth paying. The nightmare scenario for Netanyahu is that Bayit Yehudi and various other small right-wing parties (Kulanu, Yisrael Beiteinu, &c.) just fall short of the threshold, meaning the right-wing coalition gets loads of votes but not enough seats to stay in office.

But the fact that Netanyahu has been so openly willing to lobby for, essentially, a free ticket into the Knesset for a racist, extremist party like Otzma is very controversial.

EDIT: Likud has now secured a surplus vote-sharing agreement with Bayit Yehudi, so any vote for Likud could now help Otzma get a seat in the Knesset.

[Eglaecia]

Kulanu seem fairly decent. In a country where big issues such as Palestine and terrorism are looming over constantly, it's good to see people still caring for normal Israelis.

[Trumptonium1]

Yisrael Katz seems to be fucking up, this is the first time I've seen the United States telling Israel to apologise to a non-Arab country.

[Novus America]

A few updates:

Yair Lapid has unveiled his list of candidates, and so has Benny Gantz, but they are still open to the idea of running together. Gantz is also in talks with Orly Levy's Gesher, but they have released a campaign song, which suggests they might be inclined to run alone.

Meanwhile, disgraced MK Oren Hazan, who suffered a humiliating defeat in the Likud primaries, has decided to resurrect the Tzomet (or Crossroads) party, a small right-wing outfit from the 1980s. Not sure if this is going to be their campaign song.

With Gesher, Telem, and now Tzomet, this election is full of small, unsuccessful parties from decades ago being revived for no good reason.

---

Probably more importantly, Netanyahu, who started his campaign by touting his diplomatic prowess with a visit to Chad, is now in the middle of a massive diplomatic row with Poland. The Visegrad Four group (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary) were due to hold a summit in Israel, but Poland got upset after Netanyahu was reported as saying "the Poles" collaborated with Hitler in the Holocaust (in fairness to Netanyahu, it appears he actually said "Poles," not "the Poles"). Poland passed a law last year banning statements that blame the Polish nation as a whole for Holocaust crimes, although relations between Netanyahu and the Polish government had remained more or less friendly until now.

New interim foreign minister Yisrael Katz (also Likud) then poured jet fuel on the fire by saying that "Poles imbibe anti-Semitism with their mother's milk," which was a quote from Yitzhak Shamir, a former Israeli PM who grew up in interwar Poland. At any rate, it went down about as well with the Poles as you'd expect, and Poland has now pulled out of the summit altogether.

It remains to be seen whether Netanyahu and Katz will be lauded for standing up to a Polish government that many see as eager to whitewash its country's history of anti-Semitism; or whether they'll be blamed for either screwing up the summit, or trying to align Israel with the Polish government in the first place.

I see this playing fairly well. I can't imagine there are many Israelis more interested in a friendly relationship with Poland than they are in calling out Holocaust revisionism.

Poland has a legitimate point though. Poland was a victim of the Holicaust, not a major perpetrator.
Unlike other Nazi occupied territories Poland never had a collaborationist government.
Also Nazi attempts to recruit Poles to its cause were a failure.
After volunteer attempts produceded only a handful of willing recruits, the Naxis resorted to conscription but the units proved too prone to mutiny and desertion to be much use.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzm ... talion_202
When the Nazis recruited for their Polish unit, only TWO Poles volunteered.

That is not to say no Poles willingly collaborated, but relatively few did, especially compared to places like France. Poland is justly pissed at being accused of collaboration more than places who did actually collaborate far more.

Also while certainly there was and is anti Semitism in Poland, Poland historically was a refuge for Jews, far better than most other European countries.

Much of the Holocaust occurred in Poland because Poland had such a large Jewish population, thanks to Poland being more tolerant than most.

So Israel is actually the one more guilty of revisionism here, for being overly critical of Poles and failing to recognize Polish contributions, while giving France less criticism, despite France being far worse.

Sure the Polish are getting very touchy and pissed about the Holocaust, but given their complicity is grossly exaggerated and their resistance downplayed compared to other FAR worse places, can you blame them?

[Novus America]

Yisrael Katz seems to be fucking up, this is the first time I've seen the United States telling Israel to apologise to a non-Arab country.

Besides in ripping only on Ploand, which was again much less complicit in the Holocaust, and much less anti Semitic than most most, he is trying to accomplish what exactly?
Piss of one Israel’s closest allies in Europe at a time where anti Israel sentiment is growing in many other parts of Europe?
Really?

This is why Netanyahu should go. Especially if he refuses to sack Katz.
The economy is doing well, but a country in Israel’s position going around using its Foreign Minister to outright troll one of its closest allies, basically saying all Poles are anti Semitic, (he literally said it is in their mother’s milk) and then implying Poles were the the primary perpetrator of the Holocaust

“The Poles collaborated with the Nazis. Poland is the largest cemetery of the Jewish people.”
Yes most Holocaust deaths did occur in occupied Poland, but absolutely not because Poland was more collaborationist or more anti Semitic than most other places (it was not).

Poles naturally gets VERY pissed when you try to blame them for the German death camps built in Poland. Because these camps were not built by, or with the permission of any Polish government, even a collaborationist one (as there was none).
The camps were German not Polish. And built to kill Poles, (amongst others) both Jewish and none Jewish.

Poles resent when people forget that.

[Angleter]

BIG NEWS

Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid have agreed to merge their parties to run on a single list, called 'Blue and White' or 'Kachol Lavan' (which other than being Israel's national colours, has a colloquial meaning of 'authentically Israeli' or 'made in Israel'). This final boss level new centrist party will be joined by another former IDF chief, Gabi Ashkenazi.

Under the merger agreement, Gantz and Lapid will rotate as Prime Minister, with Gantz as PM for the first couple of years, then Lapid.

Obviously two centre-left parties merging before an election to dethrone Netanyahu has been tried before and not gone quite as planned, but this looks like the most serious challenge to Netanyahu since he returned to power in 2009. A Gantz/Lapid/Ashkenazi party has polled as high as 42 seats.

---

On a less interesting note, Hadash, one of the factions of the Joint List, led by Joint List leader Ayman Odeh, has decided to leave the Joint List and form an alliance with Ahmad Tibi's Ta'al. This leaves just two factions, Ra'am and Balad, in the Joint List.

[Shrillland]

BIG NEWS

Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid have agreed to merge their parties to run on a single list, called 'Blue and White' or 'Kachol Lavan' (which other than being Israel's national colours, has a colloquial meaning of 'authentically Israeli' or 'made in Israel'). This final boss level new centrist party will be joined by another former IDF chief, Gabi Ashkenazi.

Under the merger agreement, Gantz and Lapid will rotate as Prime Minister, with Gantz as PM for the first couple of years, then Lapid.

Obviously two centre-left parties merging before an election to dethrone Netanyahu has been tried before and not gone quite as planned, but this looks like the most serious challenge to Netanyahu since he returned to power in 2009. A Gantz/Lapid/Ashkenazi party has polled as high as 42 seats.

---

On a less interesting note, Hadash, one of the factions of the Joint List, led by Joint List leader Ayman Odeh, has decided to leave the Joint List and form an alliance with Ahmad Tibi's Ta'al. This leaves just two factions, Ra'am and Balad, in the Joint List.

At 42 seats, they could actually unseat Netanyahu, which is what Israel needs at this juncture.

[Novus America]

BIG NEWS

Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid have agreed to merge their parties to run on a single list, called 'Blue and White' or 'Kachol Lavan' (which other than being Israel's national colours, has a colloquial meaning of 'authentically Israeli' or 'made in Israel'). This final boss level new centrist party will be joined by another former IDF chief, Gabi Ashkenazi.

Under the merger agreement, Gantz and Lapid will rotate as Prime Minister, with Gantz as PM for the first couple of years, then Lapid.

Obviously two centre-left parties merging before an election to dethrone Netanyahu has been tried before and not gone quite as planned, but this looks like the most serious challenge to Netanyahu since he returned to power in 2009. A Gantz/Lapid/Ashkenazi party has polled as high as 42 seats.

---

On a less interesting note, Hadash, one of the factions of the Joint List, led by Joint List leader Ayman Odeh, has decided to leave the Joint List and form an alliance with Ahmad Tibi's Ta'al. This leaves just two factions, Ra'am and Balad, in the Joint List.

At 42 seats, they could actually unseat Netanyahu, which is what Israel needs at this juncture.

Hopefully, Netanyahu has been pushing an increasingly arrogant and over confident foreign policy, which is extremely dangerous.
Israel should stand up for its interests but also keep good relations with its allies.
This delicate balance is clearly beyond Netanyahu’s abilities.

[Bear Stearns]

Who is the most anti-American faction in Israel? I would love for a US-hating person to get elected in Israel and just talk a bunch of shit about Americans and denigrate the US at every turn.

Maybe neoconservatives would snap out of their lulled state. It'd be hilarious.

[Shrillland]

Who is the most anti-American faction in Israel? I would love for a US-hating person to get elected in Israel and just talk a bunch of shit about Americans and denigrate the US at every turn.

Maybe neoconservatives would snap out of their lulled state. It'd be hilarious.

That would probably be the Joint List, and there's no chance of them ever being part of the government.

[Angleter]

All parties have now submitted their final lists for the elections. 47 parties are running, which is a new record.

Bayit Yehudi, Tkuma, and Otzma will run under the catchy banner of 'United Right-Wing Parties', albeit without Bayit Yehudi candidate Yifat Erlich, who is (understandably) upset about the alliance with Otzma. Efforts to get Eli Yishai's Yachad on the list have failed, so he'll run alone and sink without trace.

Also, to continue the trend of small, unsuccessful parties from past decades being revived for no good reason, Ahi, a minuscule right-wing faction from the mid-2000s, has been dug up to serve as a legal fiction by which a Bayit Yehudi candidate (Eli Ben Dahan) will run in 28th place on the Likud list.

Anyway, now the lists are finalised, I'll update the OP and refresh the poll.

[Angleter]

Who is the most anti-American faction in Israel? I would love for a US-hating person to get elected in Israel and just talk a bunch of shit about Americans and denigrate the US at every turn.

Maybe neoconservatives would snap out of their lulled state. It'd be hilarious.

The Arab-interest parties and (on the other end of the spectrum) Otzma Yehudit would probably be your best bets there.

Although in the last few days Benny Gantz has launched a bizarre attack on Netanyahu for allegedly spending too much of his life in America.

[Rezmaeristan]

I like this New Right party. They seem to be inspired by paleoconservatives in other countries, riding the wave we saw in Italy, Brazil, Quebec, and Ontario.

[Len Hyet]

Who is the most anti-American faction in Israel? I would love for a US-hating person to get elected in Israel and just talk a bunch of shit about Americans and denigrate the US at every turn.

Maybe neoconservatives would snap out of their lulled state. It'd be hilarious.

The Arab-interest parties and (on the other end of the spectrum) Otzma Yehudit would probably be your best bets there.

Although in the last few days Benny Gantz has launched a bizarre attack on Netanyahu for allegedly spending too much of his life in America.

Ever voting for one of the Arab-interest parties

Literally throwing your vote away.