Deep Wounds and Lingering Questions After Israel’s Bitter Race
JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu was poised to return to power.
But there was a cloud over his apparent turnaround, the result of an
increasingly shrill campaign that raised questions about his ability to
heal Israel’s internal wounds or better its standing in the world.
He said there would be no Palestinian state under his watch.
He railed against Israeli Arabs — because they had gone out to vote.
From
the capitals of Europe, to Washington, to the West Bank, to the streets
of Israel, even while his critics said Mr. Netanyahu had reaffirmed his
reputation as a cynical, calculating politician, it appeared that his
approach succeeded in drawing votes from other right-leaning parties.
But
along the way he angered the president of the United States with a
speech to Congress and infuriated European leaders eager to see the
peace process move ahead to create a Palestinian state.
David
Axelrod, President Obama’s former senior adviser, said Tuesday evening
on Twitter that Mr. Netanyahu’s last-minute stand against a Palestinian
state might have helped ensure him another victory. “Tightness of exits
in Israel suggests Bibi’s shameful 11th-hour demagoguery may have swayed
enough votes to save him. But at what cost?” he wrote.
Netanyahu Sees Threat From Arab Votes
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of
Israel posted a video to social media on Tuesday urging Israelis to
vote. He said right wing rule was threatened by Arab voters.
Video by YouTube.com/BenjaminNetanyahu on
Publish Date March 17, 2015.
Photo by Sebastian Scheiner/Associated Press.
Still,
Mr. Netanyahu has a long history in power and has in the past
demonstrated that he can change positions from campaigning to governing.
His record is as a pragmatist, analysts said.
“I
am sure that Netanyahu, with his broad historical perspective, if he is
prime minister again, will be thinking long and hard about what legacy
he will want to leave behind with regard to the demographic makeup of
the country and its standing in the world,” said Gidi Grinstein, founder
of the Reut Institute, an Israeli strategy group. “In the end I would
not rule out his going back to the two-state solution,” he said,
referring to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Tzachi
Hanegbi, a Likud deputy foreign minister in the departing government,
told reporters on Tuesday night that he expected the American
administration to make an effort to renew the Israeli-Palestinian
negotiations. “We would be very delighted to renew the negotiations,”
Mr. Hanegbi said, adding that it was up to the Palestinians. “It is to
the benefit of both peoples,” he said.
The
campaign for the Parliament was divisive, exposing the fault lines in
Israeli society, between the religious and the secular, the left and the
right. It exposed a fatigue with a man who is seeking to serve a fourth
term as prime minister, and a fear over Israel’s place in the
international community. Much was driven by the tenor of the campaigns,
which became personal and bitter.
None more so than Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign.
Many
Israelis called it the “gevalt campaign,” using a Yiddish expression
for alarm. In the final days of a closely fought election race, Mr.
Netanyahu threw all political and diplomatic niceties to the wind.
He said that if his Likud Party won Tuesday’s national elections, he would never allow the creation of a Palestinian state,
a reversal of a stance he had taken six years earlier. That risked
further damaging his already frayed relations with the Obama
administration after a confrontation over Iran and increasing European
frustration with Israel.
Mr.
Netanyahu’s conflict with the White House became a campaign issue, with
critics saying that it alone undermined Israel’s security. Washington
is Israel’s most important ally, providing crucial financial and
diplomatic support.
In
interviews with the Israeli news media that Mr. Netanyahu usually
shuns, he complained of a conspiracy of left-wing organizations funded
from abroad and foreign governments out to topple him.
And
in a seemingly desperate bid to rally support halfway through the
balloting, he went on a tirade against Israel’s Arab citizens.
Israel Elections: The Vote and Results
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“Right-wing rule is in danger,” he said. “Arab voters are streaming in huge quantities to the polling stations.”
He
said they were being bused to polling stations in droves by left-wing
organizations in an effort that “distorts the true will of the Israelis
in favor of the left, and grants excessive power to the radical Arab
list,” referring to the new alliance of Arab parties. Opponents accused
him of baldfaced racism.
“More
than a gevalt campaign it was a ‘Let’s blow up the world’ campaign,”
said Gadi Wolfsfeld, a professor of political communications at the
Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. “It was a scorched-earth
policy to stay in power.”
In
Washington, lawmakers who were angered by Mr. Netanyahu’s speech to
Congress said they would be disappointed if voters in Israel rewarded
the prime minister with another term in office.
“There
were a number of us who wanted to see whether his gambit to criticize
the president, in breach of all diplomatic protocol, will be rewarded in
Israel,” said Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia.
Mr.
Connolly, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a
relatively junior member of Congress, and Mr. Netanyahu retained support
within Congress, especially in the Republican majority. But Mr.
Connolly’s views echoed those of many Democratic lawmakers who have
expressed dismay about what they said were Mr. Netanyahu’s efforts to
ally himself with Republicans in America.
“As
far as I’m concerned, Netanyahu burned his bridges with the American
government and a broad swath of the American people,” Mr. Connolly said.
“It is to me, frankly, a really sordid approach to diplomacy and
friendship and alliance. I hope that behavior is not rewarded today.”
Martin
S. Indyk, a former special envoy for Middle East peace in the Obama
administration who is now vice president of the Brookings Institution,
said that while it was still unclear what kind of government might arise
in Israel, the tenor of Mr. Netanyahu’s relationship with the Obama
administration was likely to be governed by a confrontation over Iran in
the short term, should a nuclear deal be reached. In the longer term,
Mr. Indyk said, a right-wing government led by Mr. Netanyahu was likely
to be in confrontation with the international community over the
Palestinian issue.
But
Shmuel Sandler, a professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University
near Tel Aviv, said Mr. Netanyahu had been fighting for his political
survival. “Yesterday he was prepared to do anything,” he said. But he
added that Mr. Netanyahu knew he now had to repair his relationship with
Mr. Obama.
At
the headquarters of the Joint List of Arab parties in Nazareth, in
northern Israel, people hooted and cheered as the election results came
in.
“This
is a great achievement,” hollered Ahmad Tibi, a veteran Arab
politician, referring to indications that the list had won about a dozen
seats in the 120-seat Parliament. “But we will have before us great
challenges,” he added. “We will fight racism, we will fight fascism, we
will defend our rights, regardless of the government. We are the
indigenous people of this land and we look to the future with the
optimism and realism,” he said. “Today we are stronger.”
By
the night’s end, Mr. Netanyahu seemed to realize he needed to
recalibrate his message. In a late-night speech claiming victory, he
spoke of delivering security and social welfare to “all citizens of
Israel, Jews and non-Jews alike.”
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