Making Sense of Israel's Political Upheaval

Making Sense of Israel’s Political Upheaval

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Gregg Roman, director of the Middle East Forum, briefed the Middle East Forum in a conference call on April 3, 2018.

Netanyahu’s lingering police investigations have left the prime minister with no reliable coalition allies and made it difficult for him to resolve key issues before next year’s general elections as he puts the stability of his government ahead of problem solving. Yet it is difficult to see how this will harm his immediate reelection prospects. Ultimately, the Israeli voter’s priority centers on security and the economy - fields where Netanyahu has a marked edge over current challengers - with regional and international developments, another Netanyahu forte, strongly influencing poll results.

A conflagration along Israel’s northern border, for example, will largely reduce domestic political considerations given the public’s need for a seasoned center-right leadership with a proven record on security and strategic affairs. Likewise, Netanyahu’s position vis-à-vis the Palestinian Authority has been substantially strengthened by Mahmoud Abbas’s frontal confrontation with the Trump administration, on the one hand, and the evolving strategic alliance between Israel and the Sunni Arab states vis-à-vis the Iranian threat, on the other. This alliance has received a major boost by President Trump’s regional strategy, which, in sharp contrast to that of his predecessor’s appeasement of implacable U.S. enemies at the expense of longstanding allies, seeks to create a common denominator among America’s regional allies that will allow them to contain Tehran’s hegemonic drive and broker Palestinian-Israeli peace.

Netanyahu’s deft handling of Israel’s regional and global affairs, notably the intensification of bilateral relations with India and China and the establishment of a strategic dialogue with Moscow over the hazardously complex Syrian situation, may provide a counterweight to his investigatory woes in any future elections. Whether this will allow him to survive an attorney general’s indictment is far less certain.

Summary accounts by Marilyn Stern, Communications Coordinator for the Middle East Forum

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Gregg Roman

Gregg Roman is the executive director of the Middle East Forum, previously directing the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. In 2014, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency named him one of the “ten most inspiring global Jewish leaders,” and he previously served as the political advisor to the deputy foreign minister of Israel and worked for the Israeli Ministry of Defense. A frequent speaker on Middle East affairs, Mr. Roman appears on international news channels such as Fox News, i24NEWS, Al-Jazeera, BBC World News, and Israel’s Channels 12 and 13. He studied national security and political communications at American University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and has contributed to The Hill, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, and the Jerusalem Post.