O pinion
Who Will Be Israel’s Next Prime
Minister After the April Elections?
BY DAVID RUBIN
EVERYONE KNOWS about
Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu,
Israel’s invincible leader, soon
to be the longest-serving prime
minister in history — except,
apparently, Benny Gantz didn’t
get that memo.

Benny is ahead of Netan-
yahu in the latest polls.

How can this be? Bibi is
a powerful international
spokesman, a skilled diplomat
and an expert economist. If
Americans were allowed to
vote, Netanyahu would likely
win in a landslide.

But in the upcoming April
9 elections, the only votes that
count are from Israeli citizens.

Israelis see a flipside to the leg-
endary Netanyahu, who some
view as indecisive in battle,
not resolute enough in meet-
ing the challenge of settlement
in the strategic, mountainous
heartland of Israel — Judea
and Samaria (the so-called
West Bank) — and they are
concerned with entrusting
him with the sovereignty of
Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capi-
tal since the days of King David
more than 3,000 years ago.

Once labeled by an
American magazine as “King
Bibi” due to his seemingly irre-
placeable status, things may be
changing for Netanyahu and
his Likud party. With the attor-
ney general having announced
bribery indictments against
him, Netanyahu seems to be
somewhat in defensive mode
as his nation enters an early
election once again.

So there is a new Benjamin
in town, or a new Benny, that is,
who seems to be taking Israel
by storm. Formerly chief of staff
of the Israel Defense Forces,
Benny Gantz has entered pol-
itics for the first time, form-
ing his own Israel Resilience
Party and seriously challeng-
ing Netanyahu’s predominant
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM right-of-center Likud.

Pundits projecting
Netanyahu’s virtually assured
victory may be irrationally
exuberant, the thinking being
that Gantz’s lead is only “tem-
porary.” The fact is that Gantz
is now the darling of the
media, which has become a
formidable foe to Netanyahu
in recent weeks. In a country
that has always been enamored
with generals and always seems
to be searching for the latest
“messiah” in the form of a new
centrist party, Gantz seems to
fit the current perceived need.

Voters are flocking in
droves to the tall and hand-
some Gantz, especially from
the establishment left-wing
Labor party, which seems to
be self-destructing more with
each passing day.

Unlike the United States,
Israel is a parliamentary
democracy in which the citi-
zens vote, not for an individ-
ual, but for a party, and the
leader of the largest party has
the challenge of forming a coa-
lition with smaller parties, the
goal being to attain a majority
of seats in the Knesset, Israel’s
parliament. Remarkably, until recently,
Gantz didn’t need to say a word
on policy to achieve his strong
standing in the polls. In fact,
from his perspective, it was
better not to say anything. But
in a tiny country like Israel,
where most issues are poten-
tially explosive, issues even-
tually need to be confronted,
and as that happens and people
see what Gantz truly stands
for, the shift in popularity may
swing back to Bibi.

In his maiden policy speech,
Gantz seemingly inexplicably
praised Israel’s now unpopular
2005 unilateral withdrawal from
Gaza, in which some 10,000
Israelis were forcibly expelled
from their homes in a bitter and
painful process that nearly tore
the fabric of the country apart.

According to Gantz: “It was
a legal move that was adopted
by the Israeli government and
carried out by the IDF and the
settlers in a painful but good
way. We have to take those
lessons and implement them in
other places.”
The statement is especially
disturbing since it is well-
known that in every armed
conflict, Hamas intentionally
hides its armed forces, its weap-
ons factories and its missile
launchers in civilian population
centers, daring Israel to attack.

With President Trump’s
peace plan still not released,
but already being publicly
debated, it behooves all Israelis,
as well as Americans who care
about Israel, to understand that
the “land for peace” formula
that has been recycled and
regurgitated by virtually every
American administration in
recent years, was proven dead
after the Gaza withdrawal,
when the Hamas terrorist
organization set up its rocket
launching pads on the ruins of
the once peaceful and thriving
Jewish communities.

Netanyahu is a some-
times flawed yet experienced
leader, one who recognizes
the existential threat from
an Iran seeking to attack
Israel from both Lebanon
and Syria, while achieving
nuclear bomb status. Clearly,
Netanyahu has the firmness
and resolve that Gantz and his
potential partners on the left
don’t possess.

As Benjamin Netanyahu
faces his most difficult chal-
lenges, the world should know
two things, that Bibi is the bet-
ter Benjamin and Benny Gantz
is not the Messiah. l
David Rubin, former mayor of
Shiloh, Israel, is the founder and
president of Shiloh Israel Children’s
Fund. JEWISH EXPONENT
KVETCH ’N KVELL
Believing in Torah, Even As a Nonbeliever
IN A MARCH 1 letter about “tikkun olamism,” Steve Mendelsohn
opines, “But for us Jews who believe that there is no creator of the
universe ... the challenge is to figure out what in Judaism is the
baby and what is the bathwater. Unfortunately … the closer we
look, the more bathwater we see.”
I respectfully suggest to Mendelsohn there is much in the Torah
to grasp onto, even for nonbelievers. The Ten Commandments
was a step into the future for humanity. Whether dictated by
God or conceived by humans, it was the first statement in history
asserting that all people should be free. It established the sanctity
of marriage and motherhood, codified civilized behavior and
also created weekends.

Consider the astonishing image of the Red Sea parting:
Whether it really happened or not, nothing else in literature
comes close to it. And the sea didn’t part so Romeo could reach
Juliet, or Odysseus could get home; this indelible image was
solely for the purpose of freeing slaves. If not God, what do we
call such inspiration?
Perhaps we Jews have been most fascinated by God because
we can never truly know God. But we do know that sometime,
between 25 and 3,500 years ago, a small tribe called Israelites
decided that idol worship is useless, human life is sacred and
people must be free. They envisioned these beliefs as a covenant
with God, and whether God really spoke to them, or they just
imagined it, as they gazed up at the billions of stars, it made them
feel like they were part of it all, special in the universe, comforted
and empowered. And we’re Jews today, because our families have
been keeping that covenant ever since.

We can all believe in that.

Rueben Gordon | Encino, California
In the Best Interest of Jews?
The treasurer and a founding member of the board of the Jewish
Democratic Council of America wrote an opinion column
(“Does Omar Understand Impact of Her Words?,” March 7)
exposing U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism. I’m 100 percent
behind the JDCA on this.

But then she writes that the Jewish community in Minnesota
“has welcomed and provided support for so many refugee groups
including the large Somali population.” Now, how does this help
Jews? How does the JDCA think that the Somali population is
going to vote? For candidates that support Israel, or for more
Ilhan Omars?
Is it too much to ask for Jewish organizations like the JDCA
to promote what’s in the best interest of Jews? l
Zachary Margolies | Philadelphia
Statement From the Publisher
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MARCH 14, 2019
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