The 'national emergency' behind coalition isn't coronavirus - opinion

The only national emergency that this government will effectively address is the need to provide cushy jobs for useless politicians.

By GERSHON BASKIN
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) sit in an empty hall in front of President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein at the swearing in of the 23rd Knesset, March 16, 2020 (photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)
Blue and White leader Benny Gantz (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) sit in an empty hall in front of President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein at the swearing in of the 23rd Knesset, March 16, 2020
(photo credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO)
Thirty-six ministers and eight to 16 deputy ministers in the new “national emergency government” to tackle the health and economic crisis caused by the corona pandemic. Wow! That is at least three times more than necessary to actually run this country.
The only national emergency that this government will effectively address is the need to provide cushy jobs for useless politicians.
This new government’s main function is to allow an indicted and allegedly corrupt prime minister to continue to hold on to power, which he has already manipulated to remain in control of for more than a year without being elected to rule and without the confidence of the parliament.
There is not a single issue related to the corona pandemic that required the head of the political party entrusted by the president to form a coalition government to renege on every single promise that he made to his supporters and voters.
Even more appalling in my mind is the behavior of the heads of the Labor Party and their short-term ally Gesher, who, like Blue White, cheated their voters and supporters outright.
Political prostitution is the concept that comes to mind. Whatever happened to integrity?
In order for a complex government with 36 ministers and eight to 16 deputy ministers to function, it will be necessary to empower only a small number of them, who will actually be in the decision-making circle.
Most Western countries the size of Israel have governments with less than half the number of ministers, and we all know that the job of deputy minister is a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.
Nonetheless, with a very experienced prime minister who is completely used to making decisions by himself, and a very unexperienced, amateur sidekick with almost zero ability to leverage power, it is most likely that the Netanyahu Balfour Street power base will remain intact as the center of power and decision-making. Benjamin Netanyahu will be backed by more than 70 members of Knesset, and the Israeli charade of democracy will continue for the time being.
THERE IS a small chance that the Supreme Court, which has been petitioned to rule that an indicted member of Knesset cannot legally form and head a new government, may rule against Netanyahu – but not very likely.
There is a lacuna in Israeli law, which did not foresee a situation such as we have today, where Netanyahu has not been an elected prime minister with the confidence of the Knesset for much more than a full year.
How is it not obvious that an indicted citizen should not even be allowed to run for public office, let alone form and head a government?
How is it not obvious that when the alleged crime is public corruption and taking and granting bribes, such a person should be excluded from being a representative of the people?
How is it not obvious that Netanyahu should be investigated for additional alleged crimes, which are much more serious than the ones he is already indicted for – such as the shares of stock from his relative from which he profited NIS 16 million, or the even more serious alleged crime dealing with the unnecessary purchases of submarines and other navy vessels, or for granting approval for a German conglomerate to sell submarines to Egypt without the knowledge of the most senior members of the government or the military, including the defense minister, a former IDF chief of staff?
THE MOST dangerous element of the new coalition agreement, far more serious than the joke of 36 ministers who will contribute nothing to the country in dealing with the emergency situation, is the open door for annexation of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and other large tracts of land there.
Focused on exploiting the immoral criminal in the White House who has sunk the United States into the most serious loss of control of the coronavirus in the world, Netanyahu seeks to gain the approval, with Gantz’s blindness and ignorance, to lead Israel over the cliff into the abyss of the end of a possible two-state solution.
Annexation of the West Bank or large parts of the occupied territory is the act of leading Israel to become a formal inheritor of the legacy of an apartheid type regime. The annexation of the West Bank, or large parts of it, would not, of course, include the granting of citizenship and equal rights to the indigenous Palestinian people there.
Even if blessed by the person occupying the White House, this step by the emergency government of Israel would undoubtedly be an act in contravention of international law and a dangerous detriment to the future of the State of Israel.
The only positive thoughts that come to mind as I read the coalition agreement is based on Netanyahu’s record of not honoring a single agreement that he has ever made as a politician.
Netanyahu’s politician wizardry has destroyed Blue and White as a political force. He has also caused the Labor Party and Gesher to commit political suicide. He has brought the quality and integrity of Likud politicians to the lowest levels in its history. He has now 36 poodles wagging their tails at his command, indebted to his mercy.
He has brought shame to us all and has distorted our democracy beyond recognition.
The writer is a political and social entrepreneur whose latest book, In Pursuit of Peace in Israel and Palestine, was published by Vanderbilt University Press.