(IsraelNN.com) In light of the election results giving the nationalist camp a 65-55 Knesset majority over the left-wing/Arab camp, the religious-Zionist press is replete with calls along the lines of “Let’s not be afraid to rule.”
Emanuel Shilo, editor of the weekly B’Sheva, Israel’s largest religious-sector newspaper, writes: “Kadima’s success in overtaking the Likud by one Knesset mandate should not confuse us: The clear meaning of the election results is a victory by the Jewish-nationalist camp over the liberal-left camp… The religious-nationalist camp now has a clear chance to form a stable coalition – if Lieberman remains true to his word…”
Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu appears to have no choice but to form a nationalist government of 65 MKs, Shilo writes: “He wants a partnership with the left not only so that the Knesset will back him, but also so that the various power centers in our society and state will somehow agree to accept his regime. But Labor has been defeated and wants to remain in the opposition, and Kadima doesn’t want anything less than full partnership and rotation in the Prime Minister’s chair. Therefore, what Netanyahu did not want to do out of courageous choice, he will apparently be forced to do out of necessity.”
For instance, Shilo continues, Netanyahu will be forced to make the following changes: “Instead of merely paying lip service to the open-skies policy for radio and TV licenses, he will be forced to move quickly to open the media market to free competition... He and his government will also have to continue [outgoing Justice Minister Daniel] Friedmann’s path and make reforms in the Supreme Court’s authorities, in the system of choosing judges, and in the law enforcement network – before it begins harassing them, as it did in the past… The academic and cultural establishments, too, will have to be shaken out of their monotonous leftwing unanimity, and it must be ensured that those who constantly malign Israel no longer be the top priority for those who distribute budgets and jobs. This task is not at all simple, and we can understand why Netanyahu wants to avoid it. But as it appears now, he will have no choice.”
Dudu Elharar – musician, actor, producer and TV/radio personality – writes: “The nationalist-Zionist camp has a clear majority to form a government and lead the country in an unambiguous manner: towards a Jewish-Zionist-democratic state, in that order. The order is important, because there are occasional clashes among these values, and this order emphasizes the country’s Jewishness, which precedes its Zionism, and all the more so its democracy.”
“The nationalist camp does not need any other party [to form a government] that does not accept the State of Israel’s Jewishness as a primary fact of life. This is not a ‘state of all its citizens’… but rather the national home of the Jewish Nation. All its symbols will be Jewish, without having to apologize to anyone. Its character will be Jewish, its education and culture will be Jewish, its public expanses will be Jewish. It will be a state ‘founded on Torah, on worship, and on acts of kindness.’ This is what the voters have decided, and those they elected are obligated to this decision.”
“The Likud did not win these elections,” Elharar writes. “It simply heads the camp that won. Without this camp, the Likud has no right to tread in the corridors of governmental power… We must restore our national honor before the entire world. The time has come to stand upright, look straight at those who mock us, and rule.”
Boaz HaEtzni, a Likud candidate on behalf of Moshe Feiglin’s Jewish Leadership faction, writes that the Likud could have done much better in the polls had it concentrated on a nationalist message:
“The Likud failed to understand that the public wanted ‘right-wing.’ The attempt to garner more votes from the left by blurring its geo-political message and by adding left-wing figures to its list of candidates was like trying to draw water from a dry river bed while ignoring a brook flowing right nearby.
“Proof of this is the fact that the Likud began to climb in the polls right after it finalized its clearly right-wing list of candidates… But in the end, the Likud abandoned the right-wing playing field and gave it as a gift to Lieberman, who presented the voters with a seemingly right-wing party with a clear message…
"In addition, the Likud should have showed off its line-up of candidates, in contrast with Kadima's hiding of its own line-up. The Likud should have compared the lists, candidate by candidate, and showed the public the great qualitative differences between them. Instead, it set Netanyahu against Livni…”
Arutz Sheva / Israeli National News
Comments