US midterm results may help unite Israeli coalition to unseat Netanyahu
Özet haber: Democrats’ sweep could urge Israel’s divided opposition to join forces and remove prime minister closely allied with Trump
Democrats’ sweep could urge Israel’s divided opposition to join forces and remove prime minister closely allied with Trump
The Democrats’ sweep of Congress may make it easier for Israel’s splintered opposition to overcome deep internal divisions and form a coalition government, by increasing the urgency of unseating Benjamin Netanyahu, who has associated himself so closely with Donald Trump’s Republicans.
But as Israel took stock of the results, there was also a sense that the elections marked a longer-term shift in US politics that will make the job of any new Israeli leader far more difficult.
The United States provides Israel with critical military and diplomatic support, so nurturing bipartisan ties was the cornerstone of foreign policy for decades. Netanyahu ripped up that commitment to throw his lot in with the Republicans in general and Trump in particular.
The opposition had always attacked his decision as ill-judged. By the end of the week, they were warning that it was positively dangerous.
“These people aren’t against Israel,” prominent opposition politician Yair Lapid said of incoming Democratic lawmakers, urging his country to rebuild bridges. “They’re mainly against Netanyahu – for them, anything connected to him is toxic.”
“The easiest thing is to scream that ‘America is lost,’ because if it’s lost, you don’t have to work. That’s just not true. Not at all.”
Lapid laid out a plan to “rebuild trust” in the US, but it perhaps did more to demonstrate the scale of the problem than reassure Israelis.
His proposal of a transatlantic charm offensive by officials of a prospective new government drew a swift and sharp rebuke from the New York congressman-elect Brad Lander.
Lander, a Democrat who is Jewish and describes himself as a liberal Zionist, was detained in the occupied West Bank last month while joining Palestinians trying to harvest olives.
“Minister Lapid: As someone who won a seat in Congress last night, and who cares about Israel: you’re not listening to what American voters – Jewish and non-Jewish – are saying,” Lander wrote in a direct response.
“We aren’t starving for a barnstorming tour. We’re hungry to see respect for international law and human rights.”
In his exchange with Lapid, Lander also highlighted the arrest of journalist Abed Abu Shehada, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, as an example of how Israel violates international law. He drew a direct link with the ICE “regime of detention without charges, based on secret evidence, designed to intimidate and chill speech” that he said was rejected by US voters.
Abu Shehada was reportedly taken from his home by 15 masked security officials in a night-time raid, without an arrest warrant. Interrogators have only questioned him about a podcast interview with a public figure, lawyers acting for Abu Shehada said.
On Friday, Lander and two other incoming Jewish members of Congress, Daniel Bliss and Scott Wiener, wrote to Israel’s ambassador to the US calling for the immediate release of Abu Shehada.
