Dr Hema.Venkataraman

💡MOSSADIL COMMENTARY: THE ARROGANCE OF THE ANTI-BIBI MOVEMENT There is a lesson from this election that goes far beyond Benjamin Netanyahu. For years, a large part of Israel’s opposition has built its political identity around one central objective: Bibi must go. That may be an effective slogan. It is not a governing philosophy. You cannot build an entire political movement around opposition to one man, spend an election telling voters primarily who they should reject, and then be surprised when millions of Israelis ask a very basic question: What exactly are you offering instead? That is where I believe the arrogance of the anti-Bibi movement became its greatest political weakness. It operated as though opposition to Netanyahu was itself enough to create a majority. As though the public’s concerns about security, Jewish identity, Iran, Judea & Samaria, the Palestinians and the future character of the state were secondary to the question of Netanyahu’s personality. But elections have a way of exposing political echo chambers. The counting is still underway, and the final coalition picture remains unresolved. Early results and exit polls have shown neither major bloc comfortably reaching the 61 seats required to govern on its own. Whatever the final numbers are, the political choices made after this election may matter almost as much as the results themselves. Because Netanyahu’s opponents now face a decision that voters will remember. Do they attempt to build a broad Zionist government with people they profoundly disagree with politically? Or does removing Netanyahu remain such an overriding objective that they would rather depend on parties outside the Zionist political consensus? That question became impossible to ignore last night. At Joint List headquarters, supporters were filmed singing “Biladi, Biladi,” the Palestinian national anthem. People can interpret that scene however they choose. But politically, opposition leaders should understand exactly how it will be viewed by a very large portion of the Israeli public. These are Israelis who serve in the IDF, send their children to reserve duty, bury friends and relatives, live through rockets and wars, and may disagree fiercely with Netanyahu. Many of them are not ideological Likud voters. Some are centrists. Some are traditional Labor voters. Some desperately want new leadership. But asking those voters to accept a government whose survival depends on parties whose supporters celebrate an election result by singing the Palestinian national anthem is not a minor political detail. It is a decision that will have to be defended. And there is now another issue hanging over the election. Police arrested three suspects in the Negev on suspicion of attempting to bribe voters to support Ra’am. Investigators say they discovered envelopes containing tens of thousands of shekels in cash and Ra’am ballot slips. That does not prove that Arab turnout was fraudulent. It does not prove a nationwide conspiracy. It certainly does not justify declaring the election stolen before investigators establish the facts. But it is serious. And every credible allegation should be investigated completely, wherever it leads. What opposition leaders do now will therefore be watched extremely closely. This is where political wisdom matters. There are enormous disagreements inside Israel’s Zionist majority. There are people on the center, right and left who disagree about Netanyahu, judicial reform, settlements, religion and state, the war and almost everything else. But they also share something fundamental: they see the continued existence and security of a Jewish and democratic State of Israel as the starting point of the political conversation. A responsible political system should be capable of finding cooperation somewhere inside that enormous spectrum.