A Statement of the Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 25 November 2019, http://www.the-isleague.com
Last week the Attorney General Avichai Mandleblit’s made a decision to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
Netanyahu the Bonapartist is not willing to step down and continues to act as the prime minister of Israel, even though he was unable to form a government even before the decision to charge him with corruption. In a speech he said that he won’t let the lie win. That he will continue to lead Israel with devotion. He accused police and state prosecutors of an “attempted coup” against him.
The head of the other major bourgeois party “Blue and white” in a speech that was interrupted in Tel Aviv by supporters of Netanyahu said that he wants to form a Zionist government with the Likud but without Netanyahu. Meanwhile, there are signs that some leaders of the Likud like Gideon Sa’ar and Barkat are willing to replace Netanyahu as the leader of the Likud and as a Prime Minister. Whether they will be able to remove Netanyahu as their leader is a big question.
In the cabinet meeting on Sunday the “ministers of the Likud party did not comment on the charges against him and ignored reporters’ questions about MK Gideon Sa’ar’s call to challenge the premier in a party leadership primary.” (*)
If indeed “Blue and White” with the Likud and Avigdor Lieberman will form a government it will be another right wing coalition that will continue the same military political and social policies like the government of Netanyahu.
In the cabinet meeting Netanyahu focused on Iran and Gaza. He referred to the brutal repression of the demonstrators in Iran and called on other imperialist countries to help Israel to attack Iran. Thus the possibility of an Israeli war with Iran is more serious than ever.
In any way we look at it, Israel is a very serious crisis. A corrupted P.M. that accuses the police and the prosecution of a coup and he is ready to go to a major war because he sees himself as the state and a state that is ready to remove him not because of his crimes against the Palestinians, his racism or warmongering.
This brings to mind the case of the gangster Al Capone – a murderer drug dealer who was prosecuted in 1931 for tax evasion.
The ISL, the section of the RCIT in Israel (Occupied Palestine), wants to bring down Netanyahu. At the same time we say no support what so ever to another Zionist racist coalition that will continue the same murdering policies.
Netanyahu has not come from nowhere. The Israeli state is based on theft and repression by the settler colonialists who have oppressed the native Palestinians from the very beginning. In such a state a corrupted Prime Minister is only natural. He is not the only corrupted Prime Minister of Israel that has been charged with corruption. So was Olmert and, let us not forget, the former president of Israel Katsav who on 30 December 2010 was convicted of two counts of rape and obstruction of justice. On 22 March 2011, Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison.
It is true of course that not only in Israel the leading bourgeois politicians are unscrupulous.
The crisis in Israel is part of a global crisis of capitalism. However, while in other countries the masses are fighting for a better future in Israel there is no social political force that will struggle like in Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Chile, and Bolivia to mention only some known examples. Even the left Zionists are blind to the real nature of the Israeli state. They focused on Netanyahu who is only the reflection of the problem.
We can expect ever more violence by the supporters of Netanyahu while the left Zionists will be helpless.
The only way for the Israelis to escape the death trap that is Israel itself is by breaking completely with Zionism. Today the conditions are not ripe for such a break. Only a major military defeat for Israel or the success of the socialist revolution in the Arab countries and in Iran will force a section of the Israelis to break with Zionism.
We supported the Joined List in the elections as the only expression of the democratic voice. At the same time we are telling our brothers and sisters Palestinian citizens of Israel: The leaders of Hadash and Tibi made a huge mistake by their readiness to support from the outside a “Blue and White” government which is not very different from the Likud. Netanyahu is a bitter enemy but “Blue and White” is another enemy.