At least one New Havener has her eye on another election Tuesday — this one not in New Haven, but in her native land of Israel.
That New Havener, Tzipi Shmilovitz, is a foreign correspondent based here for Israel’s largest-circulation print newspaper, Yediot Ahronot.
On Tuesday Israel has a “do-over” parliamentary election, in which incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party again faces a close challenge from centrist Benny Gantz’s Blue and White coalition. Their previous election, in April, ended in a virtual tie, after which Netanyahu was unable to assembling a governing coalition.
Shmilovitz previewed the election Monday during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. She observed that Netanyahu, who faces indictment on corruption charges, “is really worried” about the possibility of a loss, as evidenced by a threat to suspend the election in order to “go to war in Gaza.” Despite his hawkish views, Netanyahu has historically not issued those kinds of threats in the past, Shmilovitz noted.
She bemoaned the way her native land has become a “divided country” between ultra-religious and secularist citizens. “There is a plausible scenario in which Netanyahu can build a coalition with extreme right-wing religious parties,” she said.
The race is predicted to be tight again, which means minor parties will play key roles in negotiating for participation in an eventual government. The “number one” person to watch in that role is right-wing secularist Avigdor Liberman, whose refusal to join a Netanyahu government in April led to the collapse of coalition talks and to this do-over election. Arab parties have united as one slate, unlike in April, and more Arab citizens are expected to vote this time. So they too may end up playing a role in the outcome and possibly enabling Gantz to form a government, especially if a center-left party led by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak performs better than expected, Shmilovitz said.
Either way, Shmilovitz fears Israel will continue a slide away from democracy and further away from any solution to its occupation of Palestinian territories, toward a “very religious repressive government” marked by “mistreatment of refugees, immigration and black people.” “I’m quite devastated. That’s not the country I grew up in,” she said.
Click on the video at the top of this story for the full interview.
This edition of WNHH’s “Dateline New Haven” was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem Moses P.C.