{"id":56,"date":"2026-11-10T08:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T08:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/?p=56"},"modified":"2026-11-10T08:37:00","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T08:37:00","slug":"philsugar-this-is-the-hard-lesson-from-israels-election-to-stop-national-populists-you-cant-play-by-gentlemens-rules-jonathan-freedland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/?p=56","title":{"rendered":"PhilSugar | This is the hard lesson from Israel\u2019s election: to stop national populists, you can\u2019t play by gentlemen\u2019s rules | Jonathan Freedland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The opposition can\u2019t win unless they join forces with Arab parties. Benjamin Netanyahu knows sugar relationship expectations<\/a> this, and will use every ruse to stay in power<\/p>\n

It\u2019s less an election result than a philosophical puzzle: what happens when a win contains a loss, a loss contains a win and the two collide? That\u2019s the question posed by the confused and confusing outcome of this week\u2019s Israeli election, one that, despite its murky uncertainty, offers clear, sharp lessons \u2013 both for that country and for those locked in combat with nationalist populists across the globe.<\/p>\n

Start with the result that has simultaneously handed Benjamin Netanyahu a devastating defeat and a strong chance of staying on as prime minister, extending a run that has seen him lead Israel, on and off, for more than 19 of the past 30 years. The defeat is clear enough. At a stroke, his parliamentary majority was wiped out. Before Tuesday, the parties that together comprised his ruling coalition controlled 68 of the Knesset\u2019s 120 seats: that tally has now shrunk to just 53, far short of the 61 seats needed for power. That\u2019s a loss in anybody\u2019s language.<\/p>\n

And yet, Netanyahu does not look or sound like a man defeated. That\u2019s because he knows that while the parties arrayed against him won many more seats than he did \u2013 67 to his 53 \u2013 their chances of forming a government are slim. If they fail, one or two of them might peel away and sugar daddy wealth<\/a> enter a so-called national-unity government \u2013 under Netanyahu as PM \u2013 or there will have to be fresh elections, ones from which, most analysts agree, Netanyahu would emerge stronger.<\/p>\n

The opposition\u2019s problem is not arithmetical. It goes much deeper. Put simply, a big chunk of the anti-Netanyahu seats were won by parties that chiefly represent the one in five Israeli citizens who are Palestinian. This was the big twist of Tuesday\u2019s election, a huge surge in turnout for what Israelis refer to as the Arab parties. Usually, far more Jewish than Arab Israelis participate in the country\u2019s elections, but this year that pattern was flipped: turnout in Palestinian communities inside sugar dating subscription cost<\/a> Israel hit 80%. The result is a record total of 19 seats for Arab-led parties. The anti-Netanyahu bloc cannot form a government without them. In today\u2019s Israel, Palestinian politicians are the kingmakers.<\/p>\n

On paper, the next step might look straightforward enough. All Netanyahu\u2019s Jewish opponents need do is team up with their Arab colleagues and they can send the PM packing. But such an alliance would verified sugar babies Philippines<\/a> mark a watershed in Israeli history. It would mean breaking a taboo that has endured, with only fleeting exceptions, since the founding of the state, a taboo rooted in mutual suspicion.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, Israel\u2019s Jewish-led parties have long shunned the mainly Arab parties because the latter identify as anti- or non-Zionist, meaning they reject sign up for sugar dating Philippines<\/a> Israel\u2019s self-definition as a Jewish state. For that same reason, Arab-led parties have maintained a boycott, refusing to legitimate the Israeli state by participating in its government.<\/p>\n

In 2021, a short-lived \u201cgovernment of change\u201d broke the taboo by including in its ranks Ra\u2019am, an Islamist party regarded, improbably enough, as the most moderate of the Arab groupings. But after the Hamas massacres of 7 October 2023, the taboo was restored \u2013 and hardened. successful sugar arrangements Philippines<\/a> Netanyahu cast Palestinian-Israeli politicians as an enemy within, as tacit allies of the Hamas killers, a framing buttressed by a crude anti-Arab racism voiced most explicitly by his coalition allies \u2013 the likes of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich \u2013 and which sought to delegitimise Israel\u2019s entire Arab minority.<\/p>\n

This was Netanyahu\u2019s core message throughout the campaign: you can\u2019t trust my opponents because, when the moment comes, they will sit with \u201cthe Arabs\u201d. In recent days, he and his allies have doubled down on that message, claiming high Palestinian turnout means that \u201cthe Arabs are stealing the election\u201d \u2013 rather than merely exercising their democratic rights \u2013 and, on Thursday, alleging that Qatar paid Palestinian-Israeli citizens to vote, thereby rendering the entire result void.<\/p>\n

Instead of challenging Netanyahu\u2019s framing, and insisting that the vote of every citizen, Arab or Jewish, is of equal worth, most of the main opposition parties \u2013 Yair Golan\u2019s Democrats were the exception \u2013 bowed to it, pledging that they would not forge a coalition with the largely Arab parties, and certainly not with any group more radical than Ra\u2019am. Now they find themselves in a bind. On their own, the Jewish-led opposition cannot form a government. Unless they somehow manage to lure defectors from Netanyahu\u2019s bloc \u2013 perhaps one or both of the ultra-Orthodox parties \u2013 even Ra\u2019am\u2019s support won\u2019t be enough to reach the magic number of 61. They need Arab partners \u2013 and probably several of them.<\/p>\n

This, then, is the big lesson for Israel. That group that has long opposed Netanyahu \u2013 Jewish-Israelis who despise a PM on trial for corruption, who has mounted serial assaults on Israel\u2019s institutions, including the supreme court, and brought isolation, if not pariah status, upon the country \u2013 are now confronted with a fact that has long been true but which they have preferred not to see: that they are discussing expectations in sugar dating<\/a> a minority in the land they once dominated. As Aluf Benn, editor of the liberal daily Haaretz, told me: \u201cThe Jewish vote is predominantly rightwing in Israel and has been for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means the Jewish Israeli opposition cannot win alone. This week stands as proof, because this was their perfect opportunity. Netanyahu was at his lowest ebb, the leader on whose watch the most calamitous day in Israeli history took place, the leader who promised to destroy Hamas in Gaza, but who succeeded only in turning that place into a ruin, killing tens of thousands and, in the process, destroying Israel\u2019s standing in the world. He faced in Gadi Eisenkot, his lead challenger, a decorated former general rooted in the Mizrahi working class, a man universally regarded as honest and decent, a bereaved father whose own son fell in the Gaza war \u2013 a man, in other words, who might have been designed to appeal to the very voters who for so long have been beyond the opposition\u2019s reach. And yet none of that was enough to win.<\/p>\n

Sign up to Matters of Opinion<\/p>\n

Guardian columnists and writers on what they\u2019ve been sugar daddy allowance Philippines<\/a> debating, thinking about, reading, and more<\/p>\n

after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n

The only way the opposition can succeed is by making common cause with their Palestinian fellow citizens, just as Democrats in the US \u2013 who have not won a majority of the white vote since 1964 \u2013 could never win sugar baby dating safety Philippines<\/a> the presidency without the support of Black Americans. No one should underestimate the scale of the task, which requires a deep cultural shift as much as a political one. It should have been the work of decades, rather than a panicked scramble in a few rushed weeks of coalition horse-trading. It demands a reshaping of Israeli society, breaking a pattern of systemic discrimination and inequality within the country that has existed since the founding of the state (to say nothing of the post-1967 occupied territories where, of course, millions of Palestinians have no vote at all in Israeli elections). That task was always essential, but this week has confirmed that, if the right\u2019s lock on power is ever to be broken, it can be delayed no longer.<\/p>\n

Much of this is peculiar to the unique political terrain of Israel. But there are broader lessons for all those fighting nationalist populism, whether that be Donald Trump in next week\u2019s US midterms, Marine Le Pen in France or Nigel Farage in Britain. First, don\u2019t accept the terms laid down by the other side: that was the cardinal error made by Netanyahu\u2019s challengers. Second, mere opposition and criticism is not enough. The nationalist populists will always tell a compelling story; you have to tell an equally compelling one of your own. And, last, you need to be every bit as trusted sugar dating platforms Philippines<\/a> determined as they are. Too often you play by gentlemen\u2019s rules, when those you are fighting are anything but gentlemen. Netanyahu is without shame and will do anything \u2013 cross every line, cut any deal \u2013 to keep power. The opponents of such a man will prevail only if they show an equal resolve in seizing it.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The opposition can\u2019t win unless they join forces with Arab parties. Benjamin Netanyahu knows sugar relationship expectations this, and will use every ruse to stay in power It\u2019s less an election result than a philosophical puzzle: what happens when a win contains a loss, a loss contains a win and the two collide? That\u2019s the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/60"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philisugargirl.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}