Revolution or foam soon to evaporate

Anti „Bibi“(Netanyahu) demonstrations having been gathering pace recently.  We are still only talking thousands and not hundreds of thousands, but there seems to be stamina and perseverance.  How will this all end?

 

The ugly and sad fact is that neither the occupation of Palestinian territories nor the illegal settlement of these territories with more than 600,000 Israeli Jews are causing Israelis to demand Netanyahu’s departure. The ugly and sad fact is that the majority of Israel’s population has been voting for politicians and politics that enable and enforce the occupation.

 

Even Netanyahu’s personal corruption (he is awaiting a whole case load of personal corruption trials), does not prevent his supporters from voting for him. The man is a master of political marketing. His personal charisma has produced one election result after another that have kept him in power.

 

And then came Corona. It seems that Corona, and Netanyahu’s management or rather mismanagement of the crisis, are the energiser of this latest bout of unrest. There is growing frustration with a man who quite evidently has taken advantage of Corona to further his personal needs, at the top of which stands his attempt to flee justice.  

 

What will make Netanyahu go? Old-school politicians knew when to go. Almost always too late, but at some point, they would bow out. Doing the honourable thing can be ruled out in Netanyahu’s case. There never was anything honourable about that man. Moreover, the one thing he is frightened to death by are his court cases (the next hearing has been set for December) and possible jail terms. There are precedents: Ehud Olmert, a predecessor of Netanyahu's was for corruption. At some point Netanyahu might go for some plea-bargain deal, that would remove him from his office, whilst keeping him out of jail. Such a deal would be a catastrophe for democracy. The man needs to stand trial. Justice must be done and must be seen to be done.

 

A terrible alternative would be mob justice. Nobody can wish for Ceausescu-like solutions and this is unlikely to happen in Israel. The Israeli right-wing produced Rabin’s murderer; those calling for democracy will not succumb to similar acts of violence. 

 

There are countries in which the senior members of a ruling party would make it clear to their leader that the time has come and he or she must go. This, for instance, was the case with Margaret Thatcher. Up to now, nothing of the sort has happened in Netanyahu’s Likkud party. Netanyahu has surrounded himself with a junta of enablers, whom he manages to bribe and cajole to keep him in office.

 

One can but hope that the anti-Bibi demonstrators will persevere until the internal supporting walls in his party will crumble and thereby bring about his downfall.