Israel’s New Government Could Cause a Rift With the US. Political Analysts Are Divided.
Raft of new legislation proposed by the incoming coalition could also lead to turbulence with Jewish diaspora
Israel could be on a collision course with the United States as well the Jewish diaspora over a series of laws proposed by Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu’s new government.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, announced last week that he had managed to form a majority coalition, establishing the country’s most right-wing government ever. The incoming government is set to be sworn in Thursday morning.
Political analysts are divided over where they see the American-Israeli alliance headed as a result of expected policy changes.
Citing US officials, a recent Politico report stated that President Joe Biden plans to hold Netanyahu wholly responsible for the actions of his more extreme coalition partners.
“That is a kind of threat because basically it means: ‘Netanyahu, we’re watching your government,’” Professer Gayil Talshir, an author and a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The Media Line. “I think it’s a way to say that ‘we see that you have an extremist government, we see that you have partners that are nationalists, racist and anti-Arab in a way that Israel has never had. We are going to hold you accountable because you are the prime minister.’”
Talshir believes that the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government are headed for an unavoidable clash over policies that Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, and Bezalel Smotrich, who heads the Religious Zionist party, hope to implement in the West Bank.
“They want an annexation of the Jewish settlements to Israel and this means that it will be unavoidable, the clash between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government,” she said. “The US will have to take a stand vis-à-vis that.”
Others, however, remain optimistic that Netanyahu will prioritize Israel’s longstanding relationship with the US.
“Netanyahu has actually taken the lead and said that he would be responsible for decisions made by his coalition government and I think that Biden is very familiar with Mr. Netanyahu,” Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), told The Media Line. “They’ve been personal and professional friends for four decades.”
My expectation is that Mr. Netanyahu – who is not only the most seasoned politician in Israel but the only prime minister in the democratic world to come back from a political graveyard twice in order to lead a democratic country – will be very sure about maintaining the strongest possible alliance with the United States
Diker, who also heads the JCPA’s Counter Political Warfare Project, believes that Netanyahu will be able to navigate the complex political arena brought about by his emerging coalition.
“My expectation is that Mr. Netanyahu – who is not only the most seasoned politician in Israel but the only prime minister in the democratic world to come back from a political graveyard twice in order to lead a democratic country – will be very sure about maintaining the strongest possible alliance with the United States,” he asserted.
Another major point of contention is the incoming government’s plans to overhaul the justice system, pass a mechanism for lawmakers to override Supreme Court decisions and put some judicial appointments under political control.
Talshir, who is an expert on democracies in crisis, warned that Israel’s democracy could be at risk as a result of such changes and that Netanyahu is principally concerned with attempting to stop his ongoing corruption trial.
“This Netanyahu government is aiming to change the checks and balances in a way that they want to forbid judicial review,” Talshir cautioned. “If Israel does not have judicial review, then it is no longer a democracy.”
On the opposite end, Diker said that the issues surrounding the Supreme Court had been widely distorted in international discourse and there is a need to find a balance between a “very activist Supreme Court” and the democratically-elected Knesset.
“I would be really stunned if Israel would veer so far out of that lane that it would defy, undermine, uproot and otherwise ignore the democratic bedrock substructure of its society,” he stressed. “Israel has gone through too much in order to do that.”
Another hot topic on the agenda for the new government is the Law of Return, which guarantees anyone with a Jewish grandparent the right to immigrate to Israel. Netanyahu and his coalition partners are set to debate reforming the law, as well as barring egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.
This Netanyahu government is aiming to change the checks and balances in a way that they want to forbid judicial review. If Israel does not have judicial review, then it is no longer a democracy.
These changes could upend Israel’s relationship with the Jewish diaspora, especially in the US, where the two largest denominations are the more liberal Reform and Conservative movements.
“I think it’s very important that the government in Israel embrace the diaspora Jewry and engage in a very strong engagement connection with American Jewish leadership,” Diker said.
US Jewish leaders reportedly met with senior Israeli officials in Washington earlier this month in order to express alarm over the incoming government, according to a report published by the Axios news website on Tuesday.
“This ultra-Orthodox, radical, nationalist, racist [government] sees their main enemy as Reform, secular and Conservative Jews so it’s definitely going to be very difficult to maintain the relationship between American Jewry and Israel,” Talshir said.
