President Herzog’s announcement on who’s getting the mandate to form a new government will be announced tomorrow (Sunday, November 8), and the new elected Knesset is due to be sworn in on next Tuesday (November 10) Four scenarios stand out.
An Eisenkot-led government. The Zionist “Change Bloc” parties have stated they will recommend Gadi Eisenkot. With the 19 seats on the Joint List and Ra’am Islamic party, he has 67 recommendations and would almost certainly receive the first mandate: 28 days to form a coalition, with a possible 14-day extension.
Without the parties representing the Arab-Palestinian citizens and the Jewish democratic forces, his bloc cannot reach 61. Eisenkot said he seeks the broadest possible “Zionist government”, which sits uneasily with this arithmetic.
A unity government with Netanyahu. Eisenkot has so far rejected serving under Netanyahu, including in a rotation arrangement. A reversal would entrench the very policies that brought the country to crisis and would entirely discredit the anti-Netanyahu camp in the next elections, whether in a year or more.
A Netanyahu-led government. His bloc is eight seats short, and its cohesion, especially with the ultra-Orthodox parties, is no longer certain. This scenario is possible only if there will be defection from the counter bloc. This is the least likely path, but it cannot be ruled out.
New elections. If no coalition forms within the constitutional deadlines of 90-days, Israel returns to the polls. This is what Netanyahu desires and is aiming at. The Communist Party of Israel (CPI) and Hadash will do everything within their power to prevent this and to translate the electoral results into the removal of the current government, while remaining ready for every eventuality – new elections included.
The position of the Joint List
These are times that call for a stand to oust Netanyahu and his fascist allies. Therefore, despite the incitement and the racism, the Joint List recommended Eisenkot to the Israeli president for the latter do not have any excuse of calling for a unity government, and as a fulfillment of the will of over 500,000 Arab Palestinian and Jewish voters who wish to see Netanyahu ousted.
According to CPI and Hadash, toppling this government is a historic task. The danger posed by the Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir-Smotrich government goes beyond discrimination, home demolitions and the spread of crime and racism afflicting our communities. It is a government of war, extermination and displacement in Gaza, of deepening occupation and settlement, of unchecked settler terror in the West Bank, and of a drive to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
Its continuation threatens the whole region, and the presence of President Trump in the White House raises the danger further by offering cover for war, annexation and displacement. Hence, the results of the midterm elections in the US could hold positive prospectives regarding an alternation in US foreign policy especially in matters of supporting Israel’s continuous violations of international law in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and the region.
No illusions about the alternative
The CPI do not sow illusions about the forces presenting themselves as the alternative, Eisenkot first among them, the father of the “Dahiyya Doctrine”. Another government will not automatically end the occupation, abandon military solutions, or recognize the Palestinian people’s right to an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Yet this does not weaken the need to remove the current government, whose continuation risks completing its judicial coup and entrenching mechanisms of repression and exclusion that would be hard to reverse. Its fall could break the fascist trajectory and open wider space for Arab-Jewish political and mass struggle toward equality, social justice, an end to the occupation and peace between the two peoples, as well as stability in the region. “We expect that a different government could bring political dynamics and struggle opportunities. That outcome will not come from a change of government alone. It requires our own independent, organized struggle.”
A safety net for the Arab-Palestinian national minority in Israel
The CPI affirm the position put forward by the Joint List: a safety net for Arab citizens and for all vulnerable and all exploited classes, in exchange for any parliamentary action that could longer the days of an alternative government. “In current circumstances we see no possibility of joining a government and bearing collective responsibility for policies we oppose. That is our independent choice, made on principle. It is fundamentally different from an attempt to impose our exclusion on national and racist grounds. The right of Arab citizens and their representatives to influence political decisions is full and equal, and it cannot be conditioned on surrendering their national identity or their democratic, anti-occupation positions.”
Defending the integrity of the vote
Challenges to the integrity of voting in Arab towns, attacks on the high turnout, and intimidation of activists form a political campaign to delegitimize both our public and the outcome of its participation. “We warn of Netanyahu and the extreme right’s attempts to reject the results as they are leading to their removal, and to inflame fascist incitement, including the use of the Shin Bet, as the head of this organ was personally appointed by Netanyahu, to persecute Arab political leaders, especially if an alternative government relies on the votes of Arab members of Knesset. This is an attempt to annul the voters’ will,” the CPI said.
From In Defense of Communism via This RSS Feed.