{"id":143412,"date":"2019-09-23T12:00:57","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T11:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=143412"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:42:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:42:01","slug":"netanyahu-lost-israeli-vote-but-palestinians-were-bound-to-lose-whoever-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/09\/netanyahu-lost-israeli-vote-but-palestinians-were-bound-to-lose-whoever-won\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu Lost Israeli Vote, but Palestinians Were Bound to Lose Whoever Won"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A woman places electoral banners for the Likud party showing chairman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the southern Israeli city of Beersheva on September 15, 2019.
\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0 AFP \/ HAZEM BADER<\/p><\/div>\n

18 Sep, 2019<\/em> – Vladimir Lenin is said to have opined that the only thing certain about British elections is who is going to lose. He meant the British working class, at a time when they were effectively unrepresented in the political system.<\/p>\n

Equally, whatever the outcome of the Israeli elections, the Palestinians will be the big losers. According to preliminary results, Netanyahu has lost his majority of course \u2013 having failing to reach the magic number of 61 seats in the Knesset.<\/p>\n

But his opponents \u2013 the Palestinians living under siege in Gaza, under occupation in the West Bank, or under annexation in East Jerusalem, an annexation Netanyahu threatened to visit upon the whole of the Jordan Valley \u2013 are no better off.<\/p>\n

Neither, for that matter, are the so-called \u201cArab-Israelis\u201d who increasingly identify as Palestinian citizens of Israel and whose treatment as the \u2018enemy within\u2019 reached its apogee in Likud hate-speech about them. This saw them briefly banned<\/a> from Facebook last week.<\/p>\n

Neither is an election the final say on the matter \u2013 this is the second in five months \u2013 and the fact that no-one seems likely to gain a majority will see the attention swiftly turn to horse-trading. And that, for the Palestinians, is the danger.<\/p>\n

The most obvious kingmaker in the negotiations is Netanyahu\u2019s former defense minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose furious fall-out and departure from the coalition with Bibi arguably led to this second election. No-one really knows what the beef between the two men really was, but the stated proximate cause was the government\u2019s dependence on the Ultra-Orthodox communities and their Knesset members.<\/p>\n

Lieberman, so far as the world is concerned, is a dangerous, even rabid, extremist. But his Yisrael Beiteinu party is vigorously secular and secures its votes from secular hardline nationalists, many from the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

Also: \u2018Tremendous concern\u2019: Jordan\u2019s King Abdullah says Israel annexing settlements would be \u2018disaster\u2019 <\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If it is possible to imagine anyone being less interested in peace \u2013 paid for by justice – for the Palestinians than Netanyahu, then Lieberman is that man. With almost all the votes counted, his party has gained new seats.<\/p>\n

Lieberman claimed that he was held back by the \u201cmoderate\u201d Netanyahu from incinerating the whole of Gaza which he clearly \u2013 and not just privately \u2013 wishes to wipe off the map.<\/p>\n

Mind you, so does the likely king, the main opposition leader Benny Gantz, whose Blue and White Party seems to have gained seats. He, too, is avowedly secular so the basis of a deal with Lieberman is obvious.<\/p>\n

A muscularly secular hardline nationalist coalition which is pledged to hardline punitive policies towards the Palestinians, or… Benjamin Netanyahu. Take your pick.
\nGantz\u2019s campaign focused on the need to prosecute the outgoing prime minister for bribery and corruption, crimes of which Mrs Netanyahu is already convicted.<\/p>\n

More: Netanyahu says he will annex Jewish settlements in Hebron if re-elected <\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hence a Grand National Coalition \u2013 which would enjoy a comfortable majority in the Knesset and, relatively speaking, a fair international wind \u2013 between Blue and White and the Likud would only be possible if the Likud ditched Netanyahu. My money is on that outcome, and on Washington so advising round about now.<\/p>\n

Unprotected by prime ministerial office, like other Israeli prime ministers and presidents before him, Netanyahu would likely be headed for prison. Or asylum in Moscow!<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

George Galloway was a member of the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. He presents TV and radio shows and is a film-maker, writer and a renowned orator.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 rt.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18 Sep, 2019 – Vladimir Lenin is said to have opined that the only thing certain about British elections is who is going to lose. He meant the British working class, at a time when they were effectively unrepresented in the political system. Equally, whatever the outcome of the Israeli elections, the Palestinians will be the big losers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":111456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[772,120,1030,87,267,1029,260,487,866,504,88,263,234,767,291,771,444,86,1027,427,85,109,287,103,107,985,572,292,126,1026,118,172,1025,75,886],"class_list":["post-143412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-apartheid","tag-conflict","tag-fatah","tag-gaza","tag-geopolitics","tag-hamas","tag-history","tag-human-rights","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-international-relations","tag-israel","tag-matw","tag-media","tag-middle-east","tag-military","tag-nakba","tag-nonviolence","tag-occupation","tag-oslo-accords","tag-palestine","tag-palestine-israel","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-racism","tag-religion","tag-social-justice","tag-torture","tag-un","tag-violence","tag-wall","tag-war","tag-west","tag-west-bank","tag-world","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275189,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143412\/revisions\/275189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}