Mitchell Plitnick talks to Scott about the dizzying state of the Israeli elections. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally formed a government after three rounds of elections that looked to be tilting toward his main rival, Benny Gantz. Plitnick theorizes that Gantz simply is not as savvy a career politician as Netanyahu is, and in part he just got tired of the endless fight.
Gantz was never going to stop annexation, but his partnership with Netanyahu will now make it easier for the new government to move forward on it in a more effective way. Coupled with the personal protection Gantz has afforded the prime minister, the former opposition leader got precious little for his surrender.
For Ross and Makovsky, Gantz represents the dwindling hope that the peace process charade can be revived, at least for a while, in a post-Trump world, and that Israel will repair some of the democratic structures that allowed them to claim, incorrectly, that Israel is the “only democracy in the Middle East.” Thus, they paint him as not just the antidote for Netanyahu, but as a bulwark against the final demise of their two-state vision. If Palestinians are ever to be free and to have their inalienable rights recognized, such illusions must be shattered.
Matthew Yglesias, the blogger and journalist at Vox, sent out a twitter storm on Sunday that was one of the best summaries of the current state of the Democratic primary I can imagine. In fifteen quick tweets, he really nailed crucial points. Yet, despite Yglesias’ skills with concision, it’s really worth elaborating on his points. So, here are his tweets, and my comments on each one. Read more at Medium
Episode 2 of the ReThinking Foreign Policy podcast!!!
