On September 10, Benjamin Netanyahu pulled off one of his famous political masterstrokes when he made a dramatic announcement one week before a contentious national election in which it looked far from certain that he would hold onto his record-breaking office as Israel’s prime minister.
The polls were showing a tight race between his Likud Party and the Blue & White Party, with neither showing the electoral ability to form a coalition government.
The master tactician had to find a way to break the Gordian knot by applying his version of Dale Carnegie’s famous book. How to win voters and influence people.
With the aid of maps to highlight his statement, Netanyahu told the Israeli public if you want Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea you have to vote for me and give me a mandate big enough to form a coalition government to immediately carry out this commission.
In one fell swoop, he looked into the television camera and tested every voter, “It’s up to you!”
The second election in 2019, and possibly not the last in a long chain of elections, became one in which the elector, every Israeli citizen, was given the choice of having a sovereign Israel paced in their hand.
And how did Israelis react?
From the response I have received, very cynically.
There are those who have told me that they don’t trust him, that he could have made this commitment and taken steps to enact sovereignty during his many years in office, but he didn’t. That is was just an election ploy to get people to vote for him but then he would make excuses to delay his plan to annex important parts of Israel into full sovereignty. That was the level if disenchantment being felt in Israel heading to the polling stations.
A number of people reminded me that Benny Ganz, head of Blue & White, had also pledged to include the Jordan Valley in any peace deal, so what was different with Bibi’s promise, they insisted, rather than asked.
Some on the left said it was a typical Bibi move to win over voters from the far right party, but was it a right wing tactic?
Benjamin Netanyahu was simply echoing a left wing prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who declared, in his final speech in the Knesset on 5 October 1995, that “The borders of the State of Israel…will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines.” Rabin was not called a “right wing hawk.” At this moment in history he was being hailed as Israel’s greatest peacemaker. He went on the make this declaration, “The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley in the broadest sense of that term.”
In essence, Netanyahu was saying nothing new. It was already out there stated, noted, and agree by everyone in the international community, except the Palestinian leadership.
A lot of people abroad were perplexed when Bibi spoke about the Dead Sea area. They included many who have stayed at the Dead Sea during their visits to Israel. Almost all of them have driven from Jerusalem down to the Dead Sea resorts. They had all assumed that the Dead Sea was an integral part of Israel. They were shocked to discover that it is still considered as “disputed territory,” or as Israel’s opponents would say, “occupied Palestinian land.”
The Israel deniers are ignorant or ignore the history of Qumran where the Jewish Essenes from the Second Temple period lived and wrote the famous Dead Sea Scrolls about the battle between the Sons of Light over the Sons of Darkness, an enigma for today’s battles.
Such a battle was brutally, tragically, heroically, symbolically, played out on the heights of Masada, a once magnificent desert palace and fortress built by the Jewish King Herod, at which the last Jewish resistance to Roman conquest and destruction was played out until its dramatic conclusion.
In the year 73 CE, when all hope was lost, the last surviving Jews, just under a thousands in number, pledged and carried out a communal mass suicide rather than be slaughtered or carried into slavery by the foreign invaders.
The historical shock of this epic event left its impact in the soul of the Jewish people. “Masada Shall Not Fall Again!” has become the battle cry for the Sons of Light.
Thus has been the fate of the Jewish Sons of Light at the hands of the Sons of Darkness for the two millennium of Jewish history since the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and the fall of Masada in Israel’s Dead Sea region.
This is the way that Israeli Jews, and the majority of Jews globally, see the world today. Too many Sons of Darkness desire nothing more than extinguish the Jewish Sons of Light.
It cannot be denied that it is Israel, and only Israel, in a very dark Middle East that shines the light of freedom, democracy, progress, human rights, and Tikun Olam – Heal the World- and none does that better than Israel.
Yet sadly, tragically, as predicted in the Dead Sea Scrolls, we too often have to fight to prevent that light from being extinguished, surrounded as we are by Sons of Darkness.
Hence the importance of the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea to the people of Israel.
In a few days, Israelis have the opportunity to declare “Masada Will Not Fall Again!” as they head out to vote.
It remains to be seen if Israelis are ready to take up that challenge by taking the fate of our country into our own hands at the ballet box.
As usual before the election Bibi is dominating the news coverage in Israel. He is a brilliant politician whether one likes him or not.
I think my guess forecast shown above and below actually may more or less by a couple seats come to fruition. We will know later this week.
NOAM which is new far right wing party with maybe 70K voters just pulled out of the election race.
I believe their voters will go primarily to Otzma or Yamina. If Otzma gets the bulk of the voters they will pass the thresh hold. 70K votes is worth about two seats.
This is a truly shocking report from Maariv, translated into English by Arutz Sheva. It suggests that my dark suspicions back in April that that election may have been stolen with the complicity of the Central Election Commission. The article accuses the Commission chairman of participation in election fraud by the Arab parties.
Final 22nd Knesset Elections: Knesset Jeremy’s Weekly Average
The Israeli Poll of Polls:
Likud 33,
Blue & White 32,
Joint List 11,
Yamina 8,
Yisrael Beitenu 8,
UTJ 8
Labor, Democratic Union & Otzma either will barely pass thresh hold or not pass. Otzma has been trending up and Labor & Dem Union trending down.
Right Wing trending up closer to 61 (average 59).
Might just happen on election day the poll that really matters.
Full Poll and averages shown at: https://knessetjeremy.com/2019/09/15/final-22nd-knesset-elections-knesset-jeremys-weekly-average-the-israeli-poll-of-polls-likud-33-blue-white-32-joint-list-11-yamina-8-yisrael-beitenu-8-utj-8/
See Full Polls average
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
Go to the Jewish Press for one more poll which is showing the trend of the right getting stronger. If this continues and Otzma does cross the finish line plus Likud keeps gaining we may just have another right/religious government sans Liberman.
The trend is good and that is what is important in polls plus enthusiasm of certain parties.
Latest poll, said to be the last one permitted before the election (Arutz Sheva):
Polls are now over in Israel before the election.
What we know is that we do not know what will happen. There appears to be a great deal of apathy. So who is likely to turn out in greater numbers. I am going to make some GUESSES for fun based on what I perceive the greatest enthusiasm to be at. Do NOT TAKE THIS TO VEGAS.
Likud – 36 Blue/White 33
Yamina 8 Labor/Gesher 6
UTJ 8 Yisrael Betenyu 6
Shas 7 Democrats (Barkak, Mertez) 0
Otzma 4 Joint (Arab parties) 12
________________________________________________
Right Wing/Religious get 63
Center/Left 45
Arabs 12
Latest poll by Israel Hayom (Hebrew edition) today shows 58 for Right bloc, 50 for Jewish Left bloc (including Leiberman) and 12 for the pro-Palestine Arab parties.
Post Bibi Jordan Valley sovereignty announcement Polls show Likud getting a few more seats and the right climbing a few seats up to 60.