So long as the Israelis control the territories they occupy without the Palestinians having a proper say over their own destiny, Israel cannot itself claim to be a true democracy
prime minister, Binyamin Netanyanhu has once again proved himself a masterful campaigner, a wily creator of electoral alliances, and a national leader in whom a solid slice of Israeli society is still happy to put its trust. Following aon November 1st, his right-wing Likud party gained only a little ground. But thanks to his tactical acumen, Mr Netanyahu looks destined to build a coalition that will command a majority of several seats in the 120-member Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
So Mr Netanyahu may reckon he can continue, even more comfortably than before, to ignore the Arabs under Israel’s own occupation, even though their lives in the West Bank and Gaza remain wretched. Divided as ever, the Palestinians have a leader in Mahmoud Abbas, now 86, who lacks energy and legitimacy, with no credible successor in the offing. The Gaza Strip, the other chunk of a would-be Palestinian state, run by the blinkered Islamists of Hamas, is still blockaded by both Egypt and Israel.
Worse, his recent electoral success—and his ability to create a ruling coalition—has depended on a lamentable alliance with the Religious Zionism list, a horrible right-wing bloc which includes the Jewish Power party, led by, now its co-leader. Mr Ben-Gvir is ferociously hostile to Arabs and has suggested that those who have Israeli citizenship—about a fifth of the total population—should be expelled if deemed “disloyal” to the Jewish state.
It was also a shame that, for the first time since 1992, Meretz, a left-liberal party that has striven to make peace with Palestinians, narrowly failed to cross the threshold of 3.25% of the total vote, which is the minimum requirement for winning a seat in the Knesset under Israel’s system of proportional representation. The Labour party, which has reigned for longer than any other, has shrunk to only four seats.
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