Will Netanyahu's departure help relations with the Palestinians?

The Palestinians themselves don't think so.

It's probable but not yet certain that Israel's longest serving and most violent leader will be sent out of power. His corruption and decrease in popularity means that there is a big tent coalition of parties set to remove Bibi from office. This is a good thing.

The coalition in question though even has some parties who are to the right of Netanyahu and whose main problems with him is that he hasn't built enough settlements on Palestian land or bombed enough buildings.

Even the centre and centre-left of Israeli politics is Zionist and hawkish. The institutions of the country, from the courts to the IDF, are geared towards driving Palestinians from their land and further entrenching the military occupation. 'End of a dark era and the beginning of a new dark era,' is how one Palestinian put it. The problems are systemic and change needs to come from outside by stopping arms sales to Israel and forcing the state to comply with international law.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/04/palestinians-welcome-end-of-netanyahu-era-but-fear-more-of-the-same

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Northwest · M

The new government introduces something that's never happened in Israel's history: an Arab minister. In its 73 year history, 20% of Israel's citizens have not had representation at the Cabinet level.

That deal was actually cut between Bennett and Mansour Abbas, and Islamist Knesset member, not Yair Lapid. The latter was invited into the coalition.

Bennet differs from Netanyahu, in that he's actually a religious zealot, who favors settlements on ideological/religious grounds, whereas Netanyahu, much like Trump, is a con man, who uses religionists to get and remain in power.

Bennett and Abbas (no relation to Mahmoud Abbas) share a common goal: improve the lives of Arabs within Israel. The deal includes $17B in spending on basic services to Arab villages, Bedouin settlements, an immediate stop to demolition of Arab houses (a tactic Israel used to force Palestinians to emigrate), schools, social services, removing roadblocks in the West Bank, police harassment of Palestinians, etc.

The other thing that just happened, is that an Arab party, is the key to keeping the new government in place. If Abbas pulls out, the government will collapse.

Bennett is also more likely to respond to US initiatives. He's practically an American, with American parents, having lived in the US for years growing up, and he made $300M from starting/selling two tech companies in the US.

The 1 state solution Bennett favors is one where Palestinians are just as invested in the state as Jews. That's at least his vision. Netanyahu's plan, fully adopted by Trump, was based on making Palestinians lives so miserable, they would want to emigrate on their own.

Lapid favors a 2-state solution, and as co-PM, he gets his say as well.

I read some of the commentary in this thread, and it's amazing how well propaganda works, on both sides.

There's still a chance the new government may still collapse. Netanyahu released details tying Bennett to the Qana massacre, where 106 children were slaughtered in Southern Lebanon, while taking shelter in a UN refugee shelters. 4 UN peacekeepers were also killed. Hundreds of children were also maimed for life.

At the time, Israel said that an artillery battery malfunctioned, and returned fire on what it thought was Hezballah fire, and said that it made adjustments to auto-fire software. Turns out Bennett was the officer who ordered the artillery fire, after his unit came under Hezballah attack, while he was inside Lebanon.

Netanyahu is accusing him of cowardice, and of ordering an artillery attack on the UN refugee center, instead of verifying where the threat may have come from.

Bennett is denying that, and while acknowledging it was a massacre, says that the screwup was not his, and someone else is responsible.

Burnley123 · 41-45, M

@Northwest Thanks for the well informed post. I'm less optimistic that things will improve.

Northwest · M

@Burnley123 I am not very optimistic. I was simply presenting things as they are. The Israeli left-wing press is not optimistic about about Bennett and they've never had a good relationship with him, going back to when he was Netanyahu's Chief of Staff.

It's a coin toss at best.

Hamas will do its best to try to make it fail. It makes the US-Iran negotiations all the more important.