Did Israelis Prove the World Wrong About Their Politics?
“The people of Israel are more moderate than people around the world give them credit for,” political correspondent GilHoffman told TML
By Maayan Hoffman / The Media Line
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has passed the baton to Yashar party leader Gadi Eisenkot, tasking him with forming Israel’s next government.
Over the next few weeks until the December 6 deadline, Eisenkot will negotiate to become prime minister while working to secure the support of at least 61 members of Knesset needed to form a governing coalition.
Meanwhile, last Tuesday, the newly elected 120-member Knesset was sworn in without incident. Leaks and speculation had suggested the worst, including that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might attack Iran to delay the swearing-in ceremony. But the day passed quietly.
Of course, negotiations are already underway, and there will be plenty more leaks. Parties such as Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beitenu have already suggested that they are open to sitting with the ultra-Orthodox parties, despite campaign promises to the contrary.
At the same time, Netanyahu called for a meeting with Eisenkot and a unity government, only to deliver a speech in the Knesset that alienated the Arab parties, which won 19 seats, as well as some of the parties considering joining a coalition led by Eisenkot’s Yashar. Negotiations with Likud were subsequently postponed, but it was later announced they would take place on November 15.
There is little reason to follow every twist and turn until December 6, or even the additional 14 days that President Herzog could grant Eisenkot if he requests an extension. Much of what appears in public statements and the media is likely to be political theater, if not outright misleading. What happens behind closed doors will ultimately matter far more.
But while the politicians negotiate, a bigger story is worth paying attention to: the statement Israelis made to themselves and the world in this election.
With nearly 78% voter turnout, a decisive shift toward the center-right and a clear desire for a return to normalcy, Israelis sent a message that should not be lost amid the coalition negotiations. That message was reinforced when parties met with Herzog and recommended Eisenkot to form the next government.
It is a message that deserves particular attention at a time when Israel is increasingly accused of being a far-right apartheid state. The election results tell a different story. At the very least, the numbers challenge the perception of an Israeli electorate moving overwhelmingly toward the political extremes.
“There is an increased demand for unity,” said Dr. Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. “The Jewish world, meaning the Jewish state and the Jewish people, must unite and fight today to survive and thrive.”
Consider the makeup of the Knesset that was sworn in on Tuesday.
For starters, 48 seats went to the so-called “Change bloc,” led by Eisenkot’s Yashar with 21 seats. B’Yachad, the party of former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, won 12 seats, followed by the left-leaning Democrats with eight and right-leaning Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beitenu with seven.
But to understand the broader political picture, Likud must also be included in the center-right camp, even if a unity government never materializes.
Although Netanyahu has often governed alongside far-right parties, Likud itself has traditionally been a center-right party, and Netanyahu’s own political positions are not necessarily as far to the right as those of some of his coalition partners. That ideological overlap is one reason negotiations between Likud and the change bloc make sense, even if political differences ultimately prevent an agreement.
Netanyahu’s Likud won another 27 seats, bringing the combined total of these center-right parties to 75 seats, a clear majority of the Knesset.
“I think it’s important to say that Netanyahu’s perceived image abroad is more right-wing than it is here,” said Gil Hoffman, political correspondent for i24NEWS and author of the new book “The Blood Libel Machine,” referring to how Netanyahu is viewed in Israel. “I’ve been saying for years that while he’s seen as extreme right in America, in Israel he’s perceived as neither right nor left. He’s self-centered.”
The results for the far-right parties offer another indication that Israeli voters may be more moderate than many observers abroad assume.
In the months leading up to the election, some polls predicted that Itamar Ben-Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party could win double-digit seats, particularly after three years of the Iron Swords war and widespread assumptions that Israeli society had shifted further to the right.
Instead, Ben-Gvir won just seven seats. That was only a modest increase from the six seats his faction held following the previous election, when Otzma Yehudit ran on a joint list with Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist Party, which won 14 seats together.
“This indicates that the people of Israel are more moderate than people around the world give them credit for,” Hoffman said.
The composition of the new Knesset offers further insight into the direction Israeli society may be heading.
According to a recent analysis by the Israel Democracy Institute following the swearing-in ceremony, 47 members of the Knesset are newcomers, bringing fresh faces and potentially new perspectives to the legislature.
The new Knesset also includes 33 women, more than any previous Knesset. In Eisenkot’s Yashar party, 11 of the 21 members are women, while Bennett’s B’Yachad includes six women among its 12 representatives.
The nearly 78% voter turnout further indicates Israelis’ continued commitment to the democratic process.
As Hoffman put it, Israelis “care that Israel is a strong, healthy democracy” and care “deeply about the future of the country.”
Another significant development was the high turnout among Arab voters, which helped Ra’am and the Joint List secure 19 seats combined.
Diker said the strong Arab turnout suggests that Arab citizens of Israel want “integration, not separation.”
“This is positive for democracy,” Diker said. “One of the main issues for Arab voters was crime in the Arab sector, and a demand that it be confronted much more aggressively.”
The Arab parties also did not shy away from participating in the process of recommending a candidate to form the next government. Rather than abstaining, as they have often done in the past, they recommended Eisenkot to Herzog.
“They generally abstain from recommending candidates,” Diker said. “Here they joined the Knesset opposition recommending Eisenkot.”
Diker also pointed to the diminished presence of the traditional left. In previous Knessets, parties such as Labor and Meretz represented a more pronounced left-wing political camp. Today, the Democrats, led by Yair Golan, are the main representatives of that political tradition, and they won just eight seats.
Taken together, the results suggest an electorate that has not embraced either the far right or the far left to the extent that some might have expected.
Of course, none of this guarantees that Eisenkot will succeed in forming a government, much less one that can bridge Israel’s deep political divisions. The coming weeks will likely bring more negotiations, political maneuvering, accusations and surprises.
But the political drama should not obscure what has already happened. Nearly four out of five eligible voters went to the polls. They elected a Knesset with new faces, record female representation and a significant Arab presence. A substantial majority also voted for parties that can broadly be described as belonging to the political center or center-right.
Whether those parties can find enough common ground to govern together remains to be seen. But Israelis have already made one thing clear: They care about their democracy, they want a functioning government, and after three years of war and political upheaval, they are ready for the country to move forward.
That may ultimately be the most important message of this election, regardless of who becomes Israel’s next prime minister.
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