Sputnik: Benjamin Netanyahu has become Israel's longest-serving PM. He is making history, surpassing the country’s first leader, David Ben-Gurion. What do his supporters credit him with?
Ksenia Svetlova: I can say that, first of all, his supporters mostly value the stability that Israel has achieved under his rule. So, after very turbulent years of Palestinian Intifada and also the wave of terror that Israel experienced beforehand, as well as the economic crisis that also shook the whole world in 2008, under the reign of Netanyahu during the last 10 years, Israel didn’t experience any of that. We were stable on the domestic economic front and also if we are talking about the major shake off of the Arab Spring; I believe that also people who criticise him do believe that he was good to Israel in this regard. It was important that his policies brought stabilisation of the situation in the international arena, and also, of course, the international relations dimension is very important to those who credit Netanyahu with promoting Israel’s relations vis-à-vis the US, and also vis-à-vis Russia, because the relations with Moscow became much better during the last few years; and yes, many credit him for that.
Sputnik: Netanyahu is head of a transitional government because he failed to form a coalition following the 9 April Knesset vote. He also faces corruption charges, with a hearing scheduled for early October. How do you assess the political challenge Netanyahu faces now? What are his chances of surviving again?
Ksenia Svetlova: They do call Netanyahu “The Magician”, his opponents and his critics often call him “The Magician”, because in very difficult situations he is able to just pull out of his sleeves some kind of trick or magic, and to change a situation that seems to be very problematic for him. So, of course, there is a chance that he will pull off some of the tricks that he has, again, and will increase significantly the base of his supporters before the elections. This is if we are talking about the chances of establishing a coalition, which he wasn’t able to do before. But if we are talking about the legal system, I think there’s absolutely nothing he can do in order to avoid a very difficult scenario when he will be forced to face the court, and he will be accused on three criminal charges. It will be a precedent, and I think it will influence dramatically the situation in Israel; I don’t believe that he will be able to somehow escape from this situation. So, yes, for elections, I do believe that he can be elected and he can become the next prime minister of Israel again, but not on the legal front.
Sputnik: Netanyahu is known as a staunch opponent of an independent Palestinian state. What has influenced his strong views on the matter? Does such a position play into the PM's hands on the "domestic market"?
Ksenia Svetlova: It might come as a surprise, but actually I do believe that, unlike many of Netanyahu’s critics that think that he will practically say anything in order to provide for his political survival and he only says and does things that are god for him electorally, I do believe that he opposes a Palestinian state because he ideologically believes that there is no place for a Palestinian state between the river and the sea, and that any Palestinian state that would be ruled by, like Mother Theresa if she would be interested - it’s a joke, of course - this kind of state would be a bad thing for Israel. It would harm Israel’s interests; it would endanger the Jewish state. So, I think that he’s never changed his mind since the 1980s when he was serving in the Israeli Embassy in the US; and basically through all these years, he has done everything that he can in order to prevent any Palestinian state from arising.
Sputnik: Under President Trump the US support for Israel has risen dramatically. In your view, is this support there for the long term, or is it just under the Trump administration?
Ksenia Svetlova: It depends on how you define the American support for Israel. If right now the Trump administration supports a right-wing government position, which basically is against a two-state solution, many Israelis like me don’t think that it’s a positive thing that they are supporting Israel. They are supporting Netanyahu, but not Israel. But I’m happy that the US is a stable supporter of Israel and the Jewish nation at large, that we can be sure that the American nation and the American state will support Israel after Donald Trump; and not necessarily this support will look like today. Again, a different thing is to support Netanyahu, and another thing is to support Israel. I do believe that the benefit of Israel is to promote a two-state solution, which doesn’t happen today; I think that it’s very dangerous and, perhaps, the American politicians who are in charge right now of the advancing of the political process between the Israelis and the Palestinians are, basically, lacking understanding of how dangerous the thing that they are doing right now is. In this way they don’t support Israel; I think they might even endanger Israel in this way.
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