- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/54117530
-Former military chief has a few pathways to power
-Eisenkot has 28 days to try to form government with potential for 14-day extension
-He is son of Moroccan immigrants
Nov 7 (Reuters) - Israel’s president on Saturday chose Gadi Eisenkot, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest rival, to try to form a new government following a deadlocked election that left neither man with a clear path to power.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is fighting to stay in office after his religious-nationalist coalition lost its majority in an October 27 election but still emerged as the largest bloc in parliament.
Eisenkot, a former military chief, has declined to join forces with Arab parties, with whose support he would have a majority of seats in parliament. But Arab leaders, incensed by what they view as the racist policies of Netanyahu and his far-right allies, still nominated Eisenkot to try to form a government first — giving him the most endorsements.
“President Herzog has invited Gadi Eisenkot to the President’s Residence, where he will be tasked with forming the government tomorrow,” said the spokesperson of President Isaac Herzog, whose largely ceremonial role involves nominating a candidate to form a coalition after elections.
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Eisenkot? If one literally translates his name to German, he’d be called iron feces. Hilarious.
Eisenkot had a big role in the war crime of attacking civilian infrastructure in order to terrorize the Lebanese into compliance. He’s almost as much of a fascistic ethno-nationalist as Netanyahu.
With who? They’ve sworn not to work with the Arab parties, and they’re in opposition to Netanyahu’s coalition. Which parties could actually join them to form a government?
Pure guessing here - but I think it takes a majority of the parliament to decide to dissolve?
So even if Eisenkot doesn’t create a coalition with the Palestinian parties (using “Arab” is Israel’s way of denying Palestinian identity), my guess is that the Palestinian parties would still vote against dissolving parliament, and Eisenkot can carry on.
I’d be careful referring to the Arab parties as Palestinian. You’re assumption is correct, but backwards. Bibi uses that term to disenfranchise them, saying “they don’t believe in Israel, so they shouldn’t count”. Most of the Arab parties get a lot of support from non-Palestinian Arab Israelis. Eroding that identity is a great way to silence their votes, especially at a time when they could make the difference between continued genocide and progress towards coexistence. Netanhayu would like nothing more than to convince the world that the Arab parties are “just Palestinian”. Of note is that Ra’am doesn’t even support the dissolution of the state of Israel, but instead formalization of a two-state solution.
My understanding is that what constitutes “Arab” in Israel are Palestinians (of varying beliefs i.e. Christian, Druze, Muslim) and Armenians. There might be some Lebanese that live in northern Israel but they try not to identify as Arab. Maybe I’m wrong though?
Armenians? That’s bizarre.
The only Lebanese who don’t identify as Arabs are the Maronites, despite their speaking Arabic, eating the same food as everyone else in Lebanon, and having few other cultural signifiers that differ. That’s a legacy of the times when they were given a privileged position over other Lebanese by the French. I find it highly improbable that there are many of those who are Israeli citizens.
The Lebanese identifying as non-Arab is not too dissimilar from the founding myth of Israel. It was an idea that the French historians espoused to give Lebanese a founding identity that would allow the French empire to maintain a loyal foothold on the Eastern Mediterranean. Same with the British and Israel.
Armenians? That’s bizarre.
That Israelis label them as Arab? Israel is an ethno-supremacist apartheid state. Clumping up minorities is part and parcel.
Yeah, that’s mostly what the population was before the formation of the modern state. Now there are a few other key groups. One massive one is the ~40% of the Israeli population that are Jewish Arabs (who Israel classifies as non-Arab, despite being clearly an Arabic people [many speak Arabic as native language, and most are from MENA]). Another group are the sizeable group of Arab Muslims that identify as Israeli rather than Palestinian. Then of course there are the Christian/Druze/Bedouin groups that identify with the varying states to varying degrees. The thing that makes it tough as that both states (whether legitimate or not, I think its fair to say that both Israel and Palestine are de facto states) refuse to release demographics for people who would identify as a certain ethnicity and a certain nationality (Israel treats all Jews as a single ethnic block, Palestine doesn’t count [most] Jews as citizens, both groups are sizeable). Part of the confusion does come from the fact that the Palestinian government (in the West Bank, not Hamas, they’re stricter) claims that any non-Jew living in Israel is actually a Palestinian; but that simply is not the case (any more than every Han person in Taiwan being part of the PRC).
In the recent election, Ra’am got a lot of votes from Arabic Jews who would certainly disagree with the idea of being Palestinian. The Joint List has a more Palestinian core voter base, but still attracts support from non-Palestinian groups. Netanyahu would love if everyone would spread the idea that both groups are Palestinians and thus don’t have “skin in the game” when it comes to Israeli politics. Thus his constant rhetoric these days that they are.
I was more focusing on what “Arab” means to Israel and that the use of the terminology by Israel is to delete Palestinian identity.
And Israelis definitely don’t consider Mizrahi Jews as Arabs, or that Mizrahis consider themselves as Arab. If anything, the most right-wing in Israel have been Mizrahim (Ben Gvir). They definitely didn’t vote for Raam.
While there may have been non-Palestinians to vote for Palestinian parties, it doesn’t stop the parties from being representative of the Palestinian demographic and therefore a “Palestinian party” versus a generalized "Arab party’.
The issue here is treating Israelis as a monolith. Yes the religious nutbags (or Haredi if you want to be technical) maintain that Mizrathi aren’t arab. So do many of the conservative older people. Many of the younger more urban Israelis are much more open minded. I have some Mizrathi family where the parents refuse to admit that they are Arabs (despite the fact that if they put on traditional Arabic clothes they’d look like the complete Arab stereotype), but their kids are proud to be Arab Jews. As is often the case, its the next generation where hope lives. The crotchety old folks are unlikely to change their minds.
Maybe I need to clarify. I’m discussing the Israeli state. The Israeli state distinguishes between a Jewish Israeli and an Arab Israeli because it practices apartheid. So to the Israeli state, Mizrahim are Israeli Jews and not Israeli Arabs. This is not my definition. This is the Israeli state’s definition.
It is the state and it’s supporters that enact colonial apartheid.
So using the terminology of a colonial apartheid state like “Arab parties” is to normalize the erasure of Palestinians who live within the borders of the colonial state, because that’s the intent of the label. And while it is nice that younger Mizrahi are wanting to get in touch with their true cultural roots, it does not mean that it should occur at the cost of Palestinians losing their identity. Arab is still a very general term of referring to a wide swath of cultures.
I don’t know if you the below is relevant in Israel’s case because the younger generation in Israel are identifying more with the rightwing as seen with polls related to this election.
As is often the case, it’s the next generation where hope lives.
Another group are the sizeable group of Arab Muslims that identify as Israeli rather than Palestinian.
They might do so publicly, in order to avoid persecution, but that should be taken with appropriate skepticism. My wife’s Palestinian, and in her lifetime, she has known only a very small number of Palestinians with Israeli passports who privately identify as anything but Palestinian. That divide-and-rule tactic by the Israelis has not worked.
And for the Druze, their belief system requires them to comply with whoever happens to be in charge. That’s the result of their having a long history of persecution in places they live. So they keep their heads down : better second-class citizens than dead.
And how many of the Arabic Jews vote for the “Arab” parties? Any?
I know of at least 10 Arabic Jews that voted Ra’am. I also know of at least 50 or so Muslim Arab Israelis that definitely do not identify as Palestinian. In the urban centres deeper in Israel (around Tel Aviv) its a bit more common. I also know some Ashkenazi Jews who identify as Palestinian, though most of them were forced to leave (despite one family having lived near Ramallah since at least the 1850s).
As for the Druze I tend to agree with your sentiment… Its still that way for Jews in many countries too unfortunately. Personally I dont think religion should play any part in politics (up to religions effecting other people). Too bad it so often does.
non-Palestinian Arab Israelis
Who are those?
I think it takes a majority of the parliament to decide to dissolve?
I thought the President could dissolve, based on nobody being able to construct a majority coalition in a given time period. That’s how most parliamentary systems work.
You need to have a government to dissolve it. Usually in a parliamentary system, if there is a failure to form a government, there’s another election (and part of the existing government continues as a caretaker government to perform essential duties).
IG he could try to broker a deal or to convince some poeple to switch sides… Or this is a trap
Ooh the politicians have sworn something, let me grab my wallet then.
This is probably just a cope from the Israeli president who doesn’t want to be stuck with Netanyahu even longer, but the reality is as you said. If this Knesset is going to be salvageable at all the only one that can do it is Netanyahu, because it’s more likely he can get seven members of Eisenkot’s rightwing coalition to work with him than Eisenkot is to be able to get fascists to work with Democrats.
“try to form government” is like euphemism for coup d’état.
this is what coalition govt do, several european country have this type, and india too.
What do you mean by that? This sounds like a by-the-books procedural step
“President Herzog has invited Gadi Eisenkot to the President’s Residence, where he will be tasked with forming the government tomorrow,” said the spokesperson of President Isaac Herzog, whose largely ceremonial role involves nominating a candidate to form a coalition after elections.
