Benjamin Netanyahu Has a Moderating Influence on His Coalition Partners—Not Vice-Versa

Feb. 15 2023

Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he was tabling legislation proposed by the Sephardi and ḥaredi Shas party to criminalize mixed-sex worship at the Western Wall. Shortly thereafter, Shas leaders announced that they had no intention of pursuing the issue further. The episode, Jonathan Tobin writes, exemplifies the gap between the platforms of the more radical members of the current governing coalition and political realities:

The secular majority in Israel may rarely visit the Wall and don’t care much about the principle of religious pluralism, as opposed to the widely shared aversion to the way the official rabbinate controls life-cycle events like marriage. It also generally regards Orthodoxy as normative and non-Orthodox Judaism as a superfluous creation of the Diaspora.

Yet the heavy-handed effort of Shas . . . to impose the will of the religious community on society went over like a lead balloon. Netanyahu was speaking for the Likud party as well as the opinions of most Israelis when he made it clear that he was not going to let the proposal take the first step towards being enacted. That he did so in spite of the fact that the idea was part of the coalition agreement he signed with his allies after they won a clear majority in the November 1 election was telling.

Netanyahu’s easy success in reining in his allies also gives the lie to the notion that he is their hostage and must do as they bid him. To the contrary, it is they who are dependent upon him and the Likud for preserving their influence. . . . So rather than expose the extremism of the Netanyahu government and prove that it really is a threat to democracy and human rights, this foolish episode demonstrates the opposite.

Read more at JNS

More about: Aryeh Deri, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli politics, Shas, Western Wall

After Taking Steps toward Reconciliation, Turkey Has Again Turned on Israel

“The Israeli government, blinded by Zionist delusions, seizes not only the UN Security Council but all structures whose mission is to protect peace, human rights, freedom of the press, and democracy,” declared the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech on Wednesday. Such over-the-top anti-Israel rhetoric has become par for the course from the Turkish head of state since Hamas’s attack on Israel last year, after which relations between Jerusalem and Ankara have been in what Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak describes as “free fall.”

While Erdogan has always treated Israel with a measure of hostility, the past few years had seen steps to reconciliation. Yanarocak explains this sharp change of direction, which is about much more than the situation in Gaza:

The losses at the March 31, 2024 Turkish municipal elections were an unbearable blow for Erdoğan. . . . In retrospect it appears that Erdoğan’s previous willingness to continue trade relations with Israel pushed some of his once-loyal supporters toward other Islamist political parties, such as the New Welfare Party. To counter this trend, Erdoğan halted trade relations, aiming to neutralize one of the key political tools available to his Islamist rivals.

Unsurprisingly, this decision had a negative impact on Turkish [companies] engaged in trade with Israel. To maintain their long-standing trade relationships, these companies found alternative ways to conduct business through intermediary Mediterranean ports.

The government in Ankara also appears to be concerned about the changing balance of power in the region. The weakening of Iran and Hizballah could create an unfavorable situation for the Assad regime in Syria, [empowering Turkish separatists there]. While Ankara is not fond of the mullahs, its core concern remains Iran’s territorial integrity. From Turkey’s perspective, the disintegration of Iran could set a dangerous precedent for secessionists within its own borders.

Read more at Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security

More about: Iran, Israel diplomacy, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey