Israel will elect the Knesset again on September 17. For the second time in 2019. A week after North Carolina’s special elections. Less than two weeks before Rosh Hashana. Like the old newsreels. Time is marching on.
Will Netanyahu continue as Prime Minister? Will he go directly to jail? He is enamored of Trump. As are the people of Israel. When American conservatives explain they could not possibly be anti-Semitic because they are such supporters of Israel, they mean it. They conflate Israel and Judaism – as do we all to some degree.
If Netanyahu and his Likud Party lose? To ex general and Chief of Staff Benny Gantz? To ex TV anchor and ex Finance Minister Yair Lapid? To ex general, Chief of Staff, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon? To ex general, ex Defense Minister, and ex Prime Minister Ehud Barak?
Are the international strong men, men contemptuous of democratic and legal niceties on the verge of slipping? Not just Netanyahu.
Maybe. Just Maybe. Boris Johnson won’t become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s party has lost control of Ankara and Istanbul.
Donald Trump should be on the defensive about concentration camps for undocumented immigrants. Not Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for calling the camps what they are. If Trump loses in 2020, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping will each lose something. Putin’s paranoia; his belief that the US was attempting to destabilize his government might have a basis in the hands of a Democratic president. Xi’s concentration camp for a million Uyghurs will become an international focus if a Democratic President deals more humanely undcumented immigrants from Central America.
History could begin anew.