Sunday was the ‘D’ day of politics and power play in Israel. Confidence vote in the Israel parliament Knesset will be put to motion, late Sunday evening, which will be discussed and voted, and there is every possibility that the vote of confidence will go through with support from the Arab Party.
Despite concerns – some expressed in jest, some very serious – that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will try to cling to authority after his ouster, the fact remains that an outgoing Prime Minister cannot remain in power after a new government has been sworn in.
Israel, unlike many countries, lacks a detailed protocol for the transfer of power, but the ‘Basic Law on the Government’, explicitly states that “the new government shall be established once the Knesset has expressed confidence in it, and the ministers shall thereupon assume office.”
The recent Israel – Hamas conflict thrust India’s “strategic ambiguity” towards Israel and Palestine into sharp, uncomfortable relief – and may have helped trigger its imminent demise.
Despite his Hindu nationalist base’s fervor for Israel, Modi has been hesitant to upset India’s strategic balancing act between Israel and Palestine, and feared backlash from Iran. But the recent Gaza conflict forced his hand to move forward and supported Israel.
Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public embrace of the Jewish state, and the country’s rapturous following in right – wing and grassroots Hindu nationalist circles, India’s foreign policy apparatus, left-wing parties and even parts of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are unwilling to nail India’s colours to the Israel’s mast at the expense of Palestine, to whom New Delhi has a long
standing commitment, and risking relations with states hostile to Israel, not least Iran.
The date for the confidence vote that will allow the Bennett-Lapid coalition to swear in their new government has finally been set for Sunday. That’s 11 days after Yair Lapid notified both President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, that the new government was ready and waiting with a confirmed majority. It’s a week too much.
There is lot of action and drama around the al Asqa mosque, with extreme right MP asking the citizens to come to the mosque for demonstration as Israel defence forces gun down two intelligence officers of Palestine Authority in the Gaza region ahead of the Knesset vote to dethrone the current government, which turned out to be fake news. The news channel was awarded by Hamas for its support in the current conflict.
The situation in Israel at present is similar to India, where Israel will see a government similar to the 1989 V P Singh government, where a radicalised Muslim MP, that too from the state of Jammu and Kashmir, became the Home Minister of the country, which played havoc in the nation by releasing a large number of dreaded militants from the jails of Srinagar and Jammu. This damaged and nullified the hard work of the Indian security establishments in India, who sacrificed many of their brave man to neutralise them.
Are Naftali Bennett and some of his colleagues getting cold feet ahead of Sunday’s vote of confidence in their potential new government – or is it all the culmination of a cunning plan to finally oust Benjamin Netanyahu?
Already moves are afoot to ban products made in Israel but made available in the major and minor Departmental stores in the Gaza strip, where Hizab clad TV journalists of the Al Jazira and young kids holding placards to boycott Israeli goods and stories are woven that profit earned by sale in Gaza fund around 16% of the IDF.
As Americans watch what appear to be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s final days in office, many are wondering how his expected successors, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, will prioritise restoring bipartisan US support for Israel in Washington DC.
Their preexisting contacts and personal backgrounds, as well as a shared desire to improve and build upon ties, help provide insight into how the incoming Israeli government will approach the so-called “special relationship” with its most important strategic ally.
Since the latest bout of fighting between Israel and Hamas, which ended last month, the country has become a hot destination for high-profile Republicans who launched White House bids in the past or are considering them in the future.
Within days of the Gaza ceasefire, Mike Pompeo, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham flew to Israel and Nikki Haley is about to arrive, all vying to show solidarity and throw mud at the Democrats’ policy in the Middle East. The imminent arrival of Nikki Haley this weekend is just the latest evidence of what has become a trend: prominent Republicans, particularly those eyeing the 2024 GOP Presidential nomination, suddenly deciding to pay a visit to Israel. But this is not a face wash, the support given by the GOP under the tutelage of President Donald Trump is worth mentioning and will be remembered for long, which will be critically analysed and what can I say tempered at any cost!
Let us recall the famous The Camp David Summit. The Camp David Summit between Chairperson of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Yasser Arafat, American President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak ended on July 25th, 2000. Barak had offered Arafat about 90% of the West Bank, the entire Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem as the capital of a new Palestinian state, which was captured on 12th June 1967.
In addition, a new international fund would have been established to compensate Palestinians for the property that had been taken away from them. This “land for peace” offer represented a historic opportunity for the long-suffering Palestinian people, something few Palestinians would have dared imagine possible. But even so, it was not enough for Arafat.
Yasser Arafat had grown extraordinarily wealthy as the international symbol of victimhood. He wasn’t about to surrender that status easily and take on the responsibility of actually building a functioning society. Smartly he insisted that all the refugees be permitted to return to the lands they had owned prior to 1967 – A condition he was confident Israel would not accept.
Though Arafat’s rejection of Barak’s kind offer constituted a historic catastrophe for his people, the Palestinian leader returned to his hardline supporters as a hero who had thumbed his nose at the President of the United States, as someone who had not backed down and settled for less, and as a leader who stood tough against the entire world.
Arafat went on television, and the world watched as he talked about his love for the Palestinian people and his grief over millions of families living in the squalor of the refugee camps.
Now that I was traveling with my father (Sheikh Hasan Yousef) and attending meetings with Arafat, I began to see for myself how much the man loved the media attention. He seemed to relish being portrayed as some kind of Palestinian Che Guevara and a peer of kings, presidents, and prime ministers. Yasser Arafat made it clear that he wanted to be a hero who was written about in the history books. But as I watched him, I often thought, Yes, let him be remembered in our history books, not as a hero, but as a traitor who sold out his people for a ride on their shoulders. As a reverse Robin Hood, who plundered the poor and made himself rich. As a cheap ham, who bought his place in the limelight with Palestinian blood? – Mosab Hasan Yousef, Son of Hamas. (Chapter 16, Second Intifada).
Had this deal been signed, the Middle East would have been a peaceful region of the world, but it has become a tenterhook and ready to explode any time and any date.
US President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Naftali Bennett only two hours after he was sworn in on Sunday, a timeframe orders of magnitude shorter than the near month-long wait between Biden’s own swearing in and his first call to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in February.
The delayed call was seen by many in Israel as a snub, although many believe that it instead reflected the low priority that the Biden administration initially placed on Israel as it grappled with the rollout of its coronavirus vaccination effort and attempts to rebuild ties with European allies estranged by the Trump administration.
Bennet, the 49 year old leader of the ultra-right wing Yamina party, who on Sunday became the new 13th Premier ending Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12 year hold on power, said while responding to Prime Minister Modi’s congratulatory tweet, Looking forward to working with PM Modi to further develop ‘unique and warm relations’, and alternate PM and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also said that Israel’s new government will work to ‘advance strategic relations’ with India.
Netanyahu is ousted by 60 votes in favour to 59 against. Many do not realise, but the last remnants of non – Muslim strongholds in the Middle East are being ethnically cleansed as we speak. First Armenia was forced to give up all its gains in the Artsakh region. Hamas was successful in putting Israel to strain and ceasefire was actually victory for the terrorists in the region. Entire Middle East and many adjacent areas in the region will be converted to Dar-ul-Islam.
Efforts to rebuild the Gaza has brought in new commitment from EU and many nations of the world. They are having the highest population growth of the world around 3% and it is a very small region of the world.
A friend of mine had sent me the below picture with caption, weather forecast till Sunday with photo of Bibi disappearing.
A very close friend of mine in Tel Aviv, when asked he replied. It is the end of an era. Netanyahu supporters will need a recovery time. It looks like after funeral for them. I again enquired again, how will you say that in Hebrew? He replied Simha = happiness.
I disagree with him. I feel Bibi like a cat has 9 lives. He will come back. He will bounce back like a phoenix. Amen.
