The March 2 election is a competition between two forces operating on the Israeli public: The first is fatigue, as the public and democracy are not built to weather three election campaigns in the span of one year – something that has made everyone sick of politics as a whole. The second is the lessons the public is learning about the candidate who professes to pose an alternative to Prime Minister Netanyahu – Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.
Voter fatigue should have been offset by enthusiasm over the former chief of staff storming the political arena with a fresh outlook on everything. However, the past year has taught the public much about Gantz's qualities and positions, at times, it seems, against his will.
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In a reality where the media was somewhat less hostile toward Netanyahu, Gantz's party would have never won more than 10 parliament seats, simply because his military record is, at best, mediocre. The security achievement that has given Israel relative security calm is the product of Netanyahu consistent policy, not military tactics.
But now, right now, Gantz's synthetic figure, which is supposed to represent the essence of what it means to be Israeli, is falling apart at the seams. In the diplomatic realm, he does not intend to follow through on the Trump administration's Middle East peace plan with regards to applying Israeli sovereignty in strategic territories unless the Arab lawmakers greenlight the move.
In the constitutional-democratic realm, he champions the High Court of Justice as the "supreme authority in the State of Israel. … If the political system is stronger than the legal system, it is a great danger to democracy," Gantz said this week. In other words, a Gantz government would allow the nation-state law to be repealed.
Worse, by that logic, one can expect the State Attorney's Office to decide which elected public is and is not worthy of office via the indictment method – not elections.
But Gantz is challenging Netanyahu who, despite being saddled with three substantial legal cases, still looks more dynamic and focused than Gantz. The prime minister has a clear political, security and economic agenda, which is worth fighting for. This is perhaps the real justification for giving him another term as prime minister – and 11 consecutive years as prime minister is truly unprecedented.
So far, all the projections saying that Netanyahu would throw in the towel or would lose the election if he were indicted have proven false.
He won the April 2019 vote and only two factors denied the Right its clear victory: Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman, who refused to join Netanyahu's coalition, and perhaps problems with the ballot count.
Since then, all projections have also proven wrong: No unity government was formed following the September elections, his trial has not been set for 2021, and he does not have parliamentary immunity.
So perhaps next week's elections will defy the predictions again. Either there will be a clear winner or Blue and White will decide to join a Netanyahu-led government.
