Haaretz: King Bibi was not the only legend shattered in Israel this week

The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, said that the new alliance - which saw the light in Israel with the participation of parties, including the United Arab List party, which is participating for the first time, with the aim of blocking the way for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ending his 12-year rule over the political scene - has shredded illusions, myths and ideas. The easy thing American Jews have had for a long time.

Haaretz stated - in an article by the British-Israeli journalist Anshel Pfeiffer - that diplomatic protocol usually requires that no country, party or person rush to congratulate the leaders of another country on their assumption of power before it is already confirmed that this will happen.

But it was remarkable that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) - which is the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in America - called after the coalition agreement was announced to congratulate Naftali Bennett, the leader of the Yamina party, and the leader of “There is a Future” Yair Lapid.

And this position was really interesting - the writer adds - especially by a major organization well aware of the fluctuations of Israeli politics, which issued, 4 or more hours after the announcement of the agreement, a press statement ready for publication in which it congratulated the two Israeli leaders for "forming a broad and diverse coalition."

AIPAC congratulates @yairlapid and @naftalibennett for assembling a broad and diverse coalition—spanning the political spectrum of Zionist and Arab parties—to form an Israeli government pending Knesset approval.

(1/3) pic.twitter.com/KsBuhpXJ89

— AIPAC (@AIPAC) June 3, 2021

Netanyahu leaving

Pfeffer stresses that anyone who has had the opportunity to have a frank and informal conversation with the experts of this institution during the past few years will never be surprised to hear that AIPAC can no longer wait to see Netanyahu leave, and wish that he would never again attend one of its annual conferences in the United States.

Quite the opposite of what the public presentations might suggest, Netanyahu - during the period of former US President Donald Trump - spoke badly to the leaders of the organization in private, stressing that he no longer needed them, that he was strong enough in Washington and supported by Christian evangelicals, and that the only thing that AIPAC was doing well only as a counterweight to Washington's most critical liberal Jewish groups.

The leaders of the organization - the writer adds - are now hoping that the next foreign minister, Yair Lapid, "the gentle, secular and centrist", will become the new face of Israel in America and the world, to replace Netanyahu, who was once described by his supporters as "King of Israel" or "King Bibi", and certainly instead of his colleague. The hooded right-winger is the incoming prime minister, Naftali Bennett, especially with his uncomfortable quotes glorifying his murder of so many Arabs.

new existence

Speaking of the Arabs and the new faces of Israel, the writer sees that AIPAC has another new face that its leaders want to employ, as they were very happy to announce in their press release that the extensions of the new alliance are not only “broad and diverse,” but also include “the political spectrum of Zionist and Arab parties.” .

If the new government is formed, the United Arab List party, led by Mansour Abbas, could become the first Arab-Israeli party to join a ruling coalition in Israel, an interesting prize for Zionism supporters and an embarrassment for progressive Jewish groups in Washington.

Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash) - an extension of the Communist Party that was founded in Palestine in 1922 from Jews and Arabs - since he became a member of the Knesset in 2015 has been the "beloved figure" of progressive Jews in Washington, and he was presented at their conferences as a representative of all Palestinian inside.

It was supposed - according to the writer - that the return of the man who would lead the way to a "brave new coalition" and proudly defend his Palestinian identity as one of the sons of 1948, but instead of this secular lawyer from Haifa, the man who leads the first Arab party in the government is a dentist An ultra-conservative Islamist from the small town of Maghar in the Galilee, a man who has never been praised at any point in the United States.

Mansour Abbas - who separated his United Arab List from the Joint List before the last elections last March and surprised many by winning 4 seats in the Knesset - does not seem embarrassed by angering the right-wingers inside Israel, but was - and may still be - ready to enter into a coalition with Netanyahu himself provided only that his demands are met.