Israel’s national election did not produce decisive results. Tired of being beholden to small special interest groups, the Labor government of Yitzak Rabin had backed a change to the electoral process designed to solve that problem. As a result of the changes, voters were given separate ballots for the office of Prime Minister and members of Parliament. The hope was that a strong, directly elected Prime Minister would be able to resist the special interest groups. Instead, the changes not only helped defeat Labor Prime Minister Shimon Peres but they also increased the power of the special interest groups. While Labor received more votes and more seats in Parliament than the right wing Likud party led by Binyamin Netanyahu, it was Mr. Netanyahu who became Prime Minister.
If he thought winning the election was tough, Mr. Netanyahu now faces his real political test: building a government. Last month’s election gave more political power to special interest parties than ever before. These are parties that historically have been at each others’ throats — and Mr. Netanyahu must choose among them. He must appease enough of them to form a government while attempting to maintain the peace initiative.
Balance of power
Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party controls only 25% of the votes in Parliament, thus a coalition government must be formed. The combinations possible in this final government are myriad.
While Labor controls 25% of the seats, religious parties won 20%. Ten seats went to Shas, nine to the National Religious Party and four to United Torah Judaism. Arab parties control 7.5% of the parliamentary seats and a total of 10% were won by newly formed parties, including a political immigrant party led by a former Soviet emigrant.
Whatever form the final government takes, Mr. Netanyahu will have to guarantee his coalition partners a legislative compromise. This compromise could jeopardize the peace process.
Calls for peace
In his first speech as Prime Minister-elect, Mr. Netanyahu emphasized that the most important peace must be made at home. He told the Likud-Gesher-Tsomet celebration at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center that the last few years have deepened the polarization within Israeli society and increased tensions between different public sectors. “I view my first mission as Prime Minister to mend the rifts, to decrease the gaps and to lessen the tensions,” Netanyahu said.
The Prime Minister-elect noted that while peace begins at home, Israel must continue the task abroad. “We intend to continue the process of rapprochement with all four neighbors in order to achieve a stable peace, a true peace and a peace with security…. The government we will form will move in the coming days to strengthen the peaceful relations already established with Jordan and Egypt, and will continue negotiations with the Palestinians.” He called on other Arab countries to join the circle of peace.
Committed to peace?
The fundamental question asked of Mr. Netanyahu is whether this is sincere talk or just political posturing. It seems that Netanyahu’s opinions regarding Arab peace were formed on a warm night in June, 1976 when, in Entebbe, Uganda, his brother became one of three persons killed by Arab terrorists during the hijacking of an El-Al airplane.
An indication of his basic attitude came through in a 1995 expression of disgust at the peace initiative. On July 6, 1995 Israel Radio reported that: “Likud leader Netanyahu said that a number of Labor Cabinet Ministers are taking a second look at this week’s partial Israel-PLO agreement before ‘the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister take a deep plunge into the abyss.’ He said that the Israeli government ‘appears to be the driving force…to create a Palestinian state on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.’ He said that such a state would be a ‘PLO-Hamas enclave from which we would have terrorism and a variety of other threats to the very life of the nation.”
Attacks against the peace plans reached a climax on July 12, 1995. On that date, The Washington Post reported that: “Nonstop faxes from Jerusalem to Capitol Hill, telling pro-Israel congressional hard-liners how to undermine the Mideast peace plan have been sent by Benjamin Netanyahu, head of Israel’s opposition Likud party. Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin’s implacable foe ‘should be more careful’ Senator Joy Kyl of Arizona told us. That is noteworthy because Kyl happens to be a leading Republican skeptic of the peace process. Thus Kyl opposes not Netanyahu’s goals but his methods.”
Whatever the final makeup of the government, Mr. Netanyahu will undoubtedly put his personal mark on its path — a path which may deviate away from the peace plan. The evidence is clear that while today Mr. Netanyahu claims to support the peace initiative, he has opposed the process from its inception.
One way or another, Israel’s immediate neighbors will not be part of the invading Gogian coalition of Ezekiel 38-39. This requires they either be conquered by Israel and become subject to her, or form a circle of peaceful neighbors on Israel’s borders by means of a peace plan.
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