Bye-bye Bibi?

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by nosborne48, Mar 24, 2021.

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  1. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Maybe. We won't know for a few days yet but the most recent horse race announcement suggests that Likud and its usual Right and Far Right allies won't get the 61 seats Netanyahu needs to form yet another government. So who, then? Lapid? Maybe.

    In other news, a Reform Rabbi just got elected to the Knesset. Wow.
     
  2. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Does that mean he'll finally go to prison?
     
  3. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Quite possibly. Israel is willing to prosecute and punish former high level government officials unlike some other Western democracies I can think of.

    More interesting to me is that an anti Netanyahu bloc of 61 seats or more will form a government that, at a minimum, will exclude haredi parties and end the religious monopoly over marriage and divorce. At the most, such a bloc might include one of the Arab parties in government for the first time in history.
     
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  4. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    UPDATE: Apparently one of the two Arab blocs is sniffing around joining Likud in a coalition to keep Bibi in office. That's so unlikely to work, though. Other parts of the Right Wing Netanyahu bloc would rather eat raw pork with mustard than join any coalition with Arab members. Tell you what, though; it may well be the Arab parties who hold the deciding votes however things turn out.
     
  5. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    The new Israeli Arab party ran not as Palestinian party protesting the occupation but more on addressing pressing issues of the Israeli Arab citizens.
    This is different and some are trying to learn more about Abas and the Raam party that scored 4 mandates. It's unclear who "operates" controls him. Israeli Arabs facing huge crime issues, people are gunned down, all kind of conflicts and killings.
    President of Israel usually grants the mandate to form a coalition of minimum 61 mandates. Currently the right block lead by Bibi has 59.
    They are talking to other parties and trying to get defectors. A lot of speculations going on.
    The ultra orthodox Jews some say now for 2 years that there will be no stable government as Messianic expectations are running high and Messiah will be the next leader whit God being the King of Israel.
    Following the elections there it looks really bad, every party leader states they will not seat with other party leaders, Lieberman will not seat in coalition with Orthodox, and many say will not seat with Bibi.
    Nation divided.
    As to Bibi, indeed he was indited and this is legally and also politically driven.
    So people are divided on the issue - should indited politician be in position to influence the Justice ministry and what appears to have effect on the trial.
    While some say, indited but not convicted, and as long as not convicted he is innocent.
    Likud party lead by Bibi got 30 mandates in this round of elections , all other parties scored much less, 17 is next and many got 7.
     
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  6. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    So President Rivlin gave the mandate to form a government to Netanyahu. Bibi probably won't succeed but after that maybe (?) Lapid will succeed with the support of some of the Arab MKs. When I was a kid in school, I thought that the Westminster model was superior to our own executive President system. I was wrong. We have occasional problems with political deadlock but there's always a government in place. Not so in Israel.
     
  7. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    There is a government in place, a caretaker one until there's reasonable consensus on who will run the next one. One could reasonably argue that's a feature of parliamentary systems rather than a bug.
     
  8. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    While I have to agree with you that it's a close call, to me, it seems more in the bug category. :confused:
     
  9. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Meanwhile in the U.S., the system of "Well, we have to have somebody!" regardless of even the roughest consensus is how we got four years of Trump.
     
  10. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    At some point it was mentioned or a trial ballooned that Bibi will get the Presidency and vacate the PM office to somebody else.
    The new Knesset was sworn and Avigdor Lieberman intends and maybe already submitted a law to prevent such action were indited politician can be nominated for the office of the Israeli President.
    He also tried to prevent from President Rivlin to assign to Bibi the formation of coalition. But this effort failed.
    Bibi began negotiations and round of meetings and negotiations.
     
  11. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    I haven't ever claimed that democracy in general is perfect. It is just the best style government I know of. I'm also not saying that our democracy can't be improved. For example, the electoral college should probably be replaced with a popular vote based mechanism. On the other hand, I wouldn't buy an argument that there is any democracy based system that we could define that would guarantee that some autocrat wanna-be like Trump could never be elected.
     
  12. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Well, some say that media elected our current president - indirectly.
    And played to the Russians and Chinese among others who wanted to get read of P. Trump.
    Now see what they are setting n motion.
     
  13. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Benjamin Netanyahu has reigned as prime minister of Israel for over a decade.
    Can Bibi save himself, go to elections again and win? Probably.
    Being one of the most resilient leaders of Israel, Netanyahu should not be written off.
    Can the other guys really form a government?
    But walking into the Jerusalem District Court on Monday morning, he became a man whose political fate was at the whim of others.
    Yet the incumbent should not be written off, for maybe the reports of his political demise could again have been greatly exaggerated.
     
  14. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    And some people say the Earth is flat.
     
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  15. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    My father used to say that Columbus started out with four ships...one fell off!:D
     
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  16. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    The forth ship found the New Jerusalem.
    As to Flat Earth if this name is not taken, sounds like good band name or album title.
    Flat Earth in concert.
    There used to be a band Rare Earth, one of my favored Detroit outfits.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2021
  17. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Back to the subject.
    Without supervision and orderly policies, the political crisis increases the risk of war with Iran.
    The Israeli Political-Security Cabinet has not convened for months, and decisions that could lead to escalation are made in forums that are not authorized to do so.
    The operations attributed to Israel are being conducted in a governmental vacuum, with the Prime Minister on the accused bench, and US government that wants to
    return to nuclear negotiations and distances itself from the Israeli - Iran incidents.
    Dangerous state of affairs.
     
  18. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Looney Tunes is back!
     
  19. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    You bet.

    The problems with formation of functioning government are real.
    Here is one current side effect out of many:
    According to the Jerusalem Post, a shipment of 700,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine was due to arrive in Israel last Sunday but was delayed indefinitely, pending payment.
    Pfizer staff were calling the country a "banana republic," commenting on its political instability. The media outlet also reported that senior officials at Pfizer were concerned that the Israeli government would not come through with payment.
     
  20. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    Our democracy isn't so bad!

    Look at the bright side. At least we finally replaced Donald Trump (an out of touch, uncannily dishonest, inarticulate, hypocritical, pseudopopulist, scientifically and economically illiterate dementia case with a long history of making racist and sexist comments, having been credibly accused of sexual misconduct and doesn't think twice about leveraging deep-seated social divides to shore up political power) with Joe Biden (an out of touch, uncannily dishonest, inarticulate, hypocritical, pseudopopulist, scientifically and economically illiterate dementia case with a long history of making racist and sexist comments, having been credibly accused of sexual misconduct and doesn't think twice about leveraging deep-seated social divides to shore up political power).

    Progress!!!
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
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