Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plenum speech last week – during the “40-signatures” in the Knesset, called by 40 opposition MKs, with the presence of the prime minister throughout – embraced many of the highly disturbing issues in our current political and military reality.
The topic of the March 26 debate was “Violence in Arab Society” but that was certainly not the only issue raised.
Netanyahu admitted that there is a serious problem of violence in the Arab sector, for which Arab society itself and Arab crime organizations are responsible. However, he claimed that the governments he had headed had acted resolutely to deal with the problem.
He cited large amounts of money poured into education and welfare activities in the Arab sector, the creation of 11 new police stations in Arab towns, and activities to fight the crime organizations, and the creation of a designated national guard to deal with the phenomenon (though in fact it has not been used for this purpose).
What he failed to mention was that since he formed his current government in December 2022, the number of Arabs killed in violent and criminal incidents rose sharply from 109 in 2022 (when the Government of Change was in power) to 233 in 2023, going down a little to 220 in 2024. He also failed to mention that the attitude of his national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is problematic when it comes to Israel’s Arab citizens.
Netanyahu also bragged about the budget for 2025, which had been passed the previous day in the nick of time by a comfortable majority. Of course he did not mention the price he had paid to get the budget approved; had it not passed by the end of March, his government would have fallen.
He did not speak of the billions of shekels he had agreed to provide to the haredi sector to prevent its political leaders from leaving the government over the enlistment of haredim to military service. He did not speak of the fact that the budget has created greater tax burdens on the productive sectors of the non-haredi middle class.
Nor did he mention that the budget does not include economic growth engines or sufficient rehabilitation budgets, does not ensure a consistent reduction in the ratio between the national debt to GDP, and many other issues mentioned by the governor of the Bank of Israel, Prof. Amir Yaron.
With regard to the hostages, he argued that he and his wife meet the hostages’ families, “on an almost daily basis,” and that he is doing everything possible to bring all the remaining hostages back.
He did not mention that he avoids those who are critical of him and his government, and that he has failed to visit Kibbutz Nir Oz, which was most severely hit on October 7, 2023, suffering the largest number of casualties of the souther communities.
Netanyahu also failed to address that he had renewed the war in Gaza, contrary to the three-phased hostage agreement that Israel had signed with Hamas.
It seems that he is stalling so he can achieve total victory over Hamas – all to keep Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in the government. The fact that all this might endanger the lives of the approximately 24 hostages, who are believed to be alive, is an issue that he ignored.
Netanyahu said that democracy is the rule of the people and not the rule of officials and has-beens. Responding to the opposition and demonstrators, he claimed that it is not the Israeli democracy that is in danger, but rather the officials and has-beens who try to disrupt the government’s policies.
They are the ones he is apparently referring to when he speaks contemptuously of the “deep state.” He did so again in his March 26 speech.
Netanyahu said he and his government are supported by a majority of the people. Indeed, a large majority voted for him in the November 2022 Knesset elections.
BUT TODAY, would a majority of the people still support him and his government?
Would a majority of Israelis still support Netanyahu?
Successive opinion polls (with the exception of the most recent one broadcast last week by Channel 14) suggest that even though Netanyahu has regained some of the popularity he had lost in the previous year and a half, his coalition no longer enjoys the support it had in the past.
According to an opinion poll by N12 news site last week, if elections were held today, the current coalition would command only 52 seats, the Jewish opposition parties 57 seats, and the two Arab parties 11. According to the Channel 14 poll, the figures are 64, 46, and 10, respectively.
The Channel 14 poll saw the Likud receiving 34 seats compared to 24 in the N12 poll; the Democrats would receive 18 (!) seats in the former poll, and 14 in the latter; while the National Union and Yesh Atid together would get 14 seats in the former poll and 29 in the latter one. The Religious Zionist Party got five in the former and does not cross the qualifying threshold in the latter.
A final issue that Netanyahu spoke of in his speech concerned treason. He claimed that it is only the opposition and the demonstrators who accuse the other side of treason, and not vice versa. This is a blatant lie.
Likud supporters keep spreading banners that state “Leftist traitors” opposite opposition demonstrations. In August 2020, such a banner was hung outside the official prime minister’s residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem and was not removed by Netanyahu’s staff.
Currently, there is a campaign accusing Ronen Bar, the recently fired Shin Bet head, of having collaborated with Hamas before October 7. There are claims that he deliberately refrained from waking Netanyahu up before the Hamas attack began that day.
I don’t know whether Netanyahu personally has referred to Bar as a traitor, but people around him certainly have. Similar accusations were made against Prof. Shikma Bresler’s husband, a Shin Bet employee. Shikma is one of the leaders of the demonstrations.
In 1995, before prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, there were many right-wingers who accused him of having committed treason by signing the Oslo Accords. Netanyahu, as leader of the Likud, was not one of them, though he claimed that Rabin had erred. However, he did not stop those who were making such claims.
A media commentator pointed out that if all the factual inaccuracies, deliberate lies, and slips of the tongue were deleted from Netanyahu’s 30-minute speech, only five minutes would have remained.
In principle, I am inclined to agree.
The writer has written both journalistic and academic articles, and several books, on a large variety of subjects including international relations, Zionism, Israeli politics, and parliamentarism. From 1994-2010 she worked in the Knesset library and the Knesset Research and Information Center.