Benjamin Netanyahu is set to leave office today after the Knesset votes him out of office, and install Naftali Bennett in his place. The government will have three immediate tasks: reaching out to Arab Israelis, reaching out to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and repairing some of the damage globally, who are beginning to see that Israel has made the Occupied Territories a prison for the Palestinian people. Even though the new Prime Minister Neftali Bennett, heads an extremist rightwing settler party, basically campaigning on the platform that he was not Netanyahu, he will have to solve these issues.
The problem is, he might not. He was not really elected, for he has come to office at the head of an eight-party coalition, and in which he will have to give his office to another in midterm. Perhaps more pressing are what become of the corruption charges Netanyahu faces. It was to avoid being arrested for them that he had soldiered on through four elections in the last two years. Though the coalition replacing him is headed by a fellow rightwinger (in fact, Mr Bennett was his Defence Minister as recently as last year), it will have to find some way of dealing with the Palestinian Arab issue. The violence against Arabs in Israeli cities pointed up a trend dangerous for any government.
It is unfortunate that Mr Bennett will be like Mr Netanyahu in refusing to face facts, and accept that there can be no peace so long as Palestine remains occupied. However, the fact that the writing is on the wall is reflected both by the worldwide condemnation, or at least awkwardness, over the recent Israeli aggression in Gaza. That Mr Netanyahu has had to leave office also reflects the Israeli people’s realisation that they cannot crush Palestinian aspirations forever. Though perhaps not as dramatic as some dashing exploit, the steady drip-drip of electoral results provides a more durable result.
