The latest developments in Israeli politics make the outcome difficult to predict, Miko Peled, author of “The General’s Son - A Journey of an Israeli in Palestine” and of "Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five,” told Radio Sputnik’s Loud & Clear Monday. However, Peled said that Netanyahu, the leader of Israel’s Likud, might end up victorious.
“This is a very dynamic situation ... in all honesty, I would not want to be in the position that the Joint List has been on this issue. It’s not an easy decision. I personally think the decision to support Gantz was a mistake, but I am not a Palestinian living under Israeli occupation, and so it’s easy for me to say,” Peled told hosts John Kiriakou and Brian Becker.
“At the time, obviously Balad, who is an important part of the Joint List, very, very strongly expressed its displeasure” with the Joint List’s recommendation of Gantz as prime minister, Peled explained. “This is not an easy place for them to be. I think Balad did the right thing, but again it’s easy for me to have an opinion on these things. I’ve never lived as an oppressed person under foreign rule. So, I always say these things with a bit of trepidation.”
On Sunday evening, Balad, an Arabic political party led by Mtanes Shehadeh that champions the rights of Arab citizens in Israel, released a statement expressing their disapproval of the Joint List’s recommendation that Gantz become prime minister.
"Blue and White have repeatedly ignored the Joint List's demands and have consistently refused to discuss them or commit to them publicly and officially. Any one of these reasons is enough to not recommend him, especially when all of them are combined. Balad voted along with the Joint List to take down Netanyahu, and will keep working to prevent that, but at the same time don't see Gantz as an alternative,” the statement reads.
According to Peled, who recently spoke to Haneen Zoabi, a Balad Knesset member, it’s understandable that Balad refuses to support Gantz, who, like Netanyahu, is a “war criminal” deligitmazing Palestinian rights in Israel. Gantz was once chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, during which time he oversaw the 2014 war against the Palestinian Gaza Strip.
“Her [Zoabi’s] party, Balad … it’s probably the only movement that exists as a movement, a real political structure that believes that Palestine should be a state of everybody who lives there, all the citizens who are [in] a real democracy with equal rights. And for that, they’ve [other Israeli parties] tried to disqualify her and disqualify the whole party for running for elections several times. They failed, but they kept trying. Because even that is questionable in terms of what Israeli law will allow in terms of running for the Knesset. It’s calling for the state to be a state for all of its citizens, but it [gave] to the Zionist idea that it’s supposed to be a state only for the Jews who make up less than half of the population,” Peled explained.
Despite the latest developments, Peled does not believe another Israeli election is on the horizon.
“I think this election was one too many. Most people see it that way. It was an enormous expense. And I don't think the Israeli public would stand for it. I don’t think they could pass another election in the Knesset. They’re going to have to deal with this. I think in the end, Netanyahu is going to come out of it a winner … he’s the guy that usually has the ability” to form a coalition government, Peled explained.
So far, Netanyahu has 55 recommendations from Likud and the Orthodox parties Shas, United Torah Judaism and Yamina, while Gantz has 54 recommendations from Labor-Gesher, the Democratic Union and the Joint List. Both are still short of the 61-seat majority threshold necessary to form a government.
