How do we stand up to Netanyahu's "lava"?

Written by: Jawad Boulos

Five years ago, when the Special Investigation Units of the Israel Police began interrogating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many of his relatives and close associates and those who worked with him and his entourage during the past years; Speculation abounded about his political fate and who would replace him.

As everyone knows, the investigations have led to more than one serious indictment against him, which the Israeli judiciary is still examining, and no one can predict its outcome today. All possibilities were and still are open.

Many have bet, according to the evidence revealed in the press, on the imminence of Benjamin Netanyahu's political end, or, at least, on the decline of his popularity among the citizens; However, Benjamin Netanyahu was not deterred, as was expected and natural for a prime minister facing a number of criminal charges to behave, nor did his popularity among citizens, at the popular and elite levels, decline. On the contrary, he faced his rivals with remarkable ferocity and, at the same time, enjoyed popularity that might lead him with his party to form the next Israeli government.

The Israeli scene in the past five years was not limited to how Netanyahu himself disdained the details of his case, but rather went beyond it when he used it in his war to undermine the foundations of the Israeli system of government, especially the judiciary in all its branches. So, with his infernal and populist methods, and with the help of his striking teams, he inflamed the atmosphere and pitted his supporters against the institutions of government and law, challenging their legitimacy and questioning their independence and integrity.

Netanyahu advanced the ranks of his camp in this war, and his policy, in all its stations, was the ferment that contributed to accelerating the completion of the process of right-wing fascist delinquency and bridging the gaps within the quarreling and discordant segments of Israeli Jewish society, and melting them together so that they rush together in the streets and squares of the country like a torrent of lava. scorching.
These developments have aroused the resentment of a number of legal figures among the Israeli elites. Some of them expressed, in addition to the discontent, fear about the form of governance and the fate of their state itself, while others dealt with the phenomenon of Benjamin Netanyahu as an anomalous and transient event, believing that state institutions are still able to punish and limit him. And saving the state's structures from "authoritarian corruption and rot" that have taken hold of most of its body parts.
All their bets will soon be off; The issue, as I said five years ago, is not confined to Netanyahu and his clique, nor to his political fate. Rather, it goes beyond all of that to what is more general and more dangerous, even if his name was marked, in the history papers, for this entire era.
Where does Netanyahu's high popularity come from?
Indeed, Netanyahu's party stands behind him as one man; This in itself is an expected harvest of what he planned in the last two decades, when he deliberately systematically excluded all the historical traditional leaders of the "Likud" party and brought in personalities obscure in "history and partisan lineage" and recruited in this way to teams of political "martyrs" who are ready to sacrifice the "victorious leader." With everything they have, and whatever he did or didn't do. If we review how these people acted and what they declared, we would verify that they are loyal soldiers in Netanyahu's army, and we would discover the depth of the differences between them and those who founded the Likud party and led it for a long time. Representative Miki Makhlouf Zohar, for example, did not hesitate to compare the investigations with his “redeemed leader” to the killing of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, or as he stated at the time: “I said clearly in the past that just as Yigal Amir wanted to bring down the government in an undemocratic way, This is how they do to Prime Minister Netanyahu through attempts to “distort and tarnish his reputation.” In Netanyahu’s case, “the media is Yigal Amir, and they are trying to shed the man’s blood by persecuting him, and this is what the people feel,” according to Zohar’s statement with the start of the investigations with Netanyahu.
This deputy was not alone in his impersonation of the spokesman for “the people,” like its leader, and his attack on “others.” Others also uttered dangerous inflammatory speeches, through which we can explore what Netanyahu relies on as a basis for his strength and confidence.
The people are the constant goal in his basic political discourse, and appeasing them is his highest task. This is how he taught his followers, and it suffices to pay attention to Representative Zohar’s response, and his clear and provocative assertion, when some of his colleagues in the Knesset demanded that he apologize for his previous statements, on the grounds that his positions are “clear and I will not apologize for my words, because I am not “naive” but rather that I reflect what the people feel. I represent a million voters who supported the Likud party and feel that some are trying to steal power from them in undemocratic ways."
They are obedient students who speak as their teacher and, like him, try to bypass and ignore state institutions; In the name of the "people" they defend their "democracy" and trample the real democracy with their slippers. In the name of the people they invent a "right" for themselves and in its name they anticipate the results and by its power they exonerate their leader.
It is the school of absolute loyalty to the strong leader, which adopts the rhetoric of "pure demagoguery"; Its students are the masters in striving to build a system at the head of which stands the "teacher", the powerful, omnipotent, omnipotent magician who is capable of everything, free from sins, and whose faults and mistakes are forgiven; For them, he is this "Netanyahu", the savior of the people and the protector of the future of the state from all its enemies, internally and externally.
It is a state that is born in the mind and bosom of the "person", then soon becomes larger and more dangerous than him, just as history has introduced us to its similarity; Netanyahu may be the most difficult problem today, but he may disappear or his role may end, by a judicial decision or otherwise. But the “situation” that he engineered and laid down its concepts remains, and it is our real problem. He has become an "idolized" leader among wide segments and segments of the people because he knew how to plant his concepts in their "pockets" and reach their hearts, and from there to control their fists.
In short, he is the "royal" leader who is able to win over the hearts of simple people like the minds of those with money and mighty equipment and equipment, and to speak in front of them and make them feel that they are "masters of the universe" and that with them they stand on "the nose of the world" and at the head of a state that does not compete with its power; Then he captivates them, with a body language and a unique rhetoric that a supposed prison cannot fail from, and will not stop its extension by the rods that he sees from paper.
His Israel / Israel, as he repeats on all occasions, is the mother of progress and excellence in all areas of life; She is the goddess of strength and the army that cannot be challenged by force, and she is the impenetrable fortress of the economy, which testifies to her position in the currency markets of nations. He is the leader who knows what he wants and how to get what he wants.
All Netanyahu's files pending before the Israeli judiciary will soon end, and we will know if there are still judges in Israel who dare to convict this "leader"; However, far from any conclusion reached by the court judges, I recommend that we not wait for the fate of Netanyahu the person and not rely on justice that did not do justice to the victims of Netanyahu and the leaders who preceded him, each of whom participated, according to his concepts, in paving the paths of oppression, repression and racism that brought us to the complete fascism of our days. Our tragedy, we, the Arab citizens, began far back in time, let's say with "Bangurionism" and before it, and worsened from era to era until it worsened in the era of "Netanyahuism". Our forefathers knew what it was like to stay in the homeland and how to suggest signs of struggle and steadfastness, when they understood that our cause was not confined to a person who stood at the head of the state, but rather it was “more than that in our blood.” Ben-Gurion was not the problem, but “Bangurism.” The issue was not Sharon, but “Sharonism.” Today, the solution will not be with or against Gantz, Lapid, or Netanyahu.