Netanyahu represents survivalist determination, not Israel’s interests
http://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2015/may/08/netanyahu-israel-bibi
Few of his colleagues really believe they understand what Netanyahu is hoping to achieve. In the last two elections, his Likud party did not even publish a manifesto outlining its key policies. But Netanyahu’s failure over the last month and a half to establish a stable coalition, the way he scrambled with an hour to spare before the deadline to conduct a fire-sale of ministries and committees in order to finalise the last coalition agreement, does offer something of a guide.
After his surprisingly strong victory on 17 March, Netanyahu had two options. He could form a rightwing religious coalition with parties aligned with Likud, which would have given his new government a support base of 67 members in the 120-strong Knesset. Or he could have tried to engage with the Labour party and form a more centrist national-unity government. In public he embarked on the first course of action and attempted the second through back channels.
From members of the different parties’ negotiating teams, it emerges that Netanyahu’s representatives were uninterested in talking about policies. The main issues that came up were laws to limit the powers of the supreme court and a commitment to support Netanyahu’s plans for restructuring the media landscape. He was prepared to discuss each party’s special interests and the powers each minister was to receive, but there was little if any debate on the government’s key defence and diplomatic policies, crucial issues for an Israeli administration, or on social policy. Above all, Netanyahu was insistent on the safeguards that would minimise outside criticism and judicial oversight.
Talks with Labour foundered over his unwillingness to seriously share power with the second-largest party, nearly as large as Likud. At the last moment, the cynical foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman pulled out, realising he had lost his influence with the prime minister. Netanyahu remained with just the bare bones of a coalition and what is almost inevitably going to be a dysfunctional government.
In his most vivid dreams Nixon never got this far. Democracy took care of Nixon.
Who can really proclaim that Israel is a democracy to anyone but a narrow few?