Netanyahu’s Knesset Outburst Was a New Low. He Knows He’s Out of Ammo

The prime minister’s speech at the Knesset’s swearing-in ceremony joins the pantheon documenting the destruction of Israeli democracy by an unrestrained and dangerous prime minister

November 11th, 00AM November 11th, 00AM

There is no value, norm or custom that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not trampled in his final years in power, along with his coalition members.

In Tuesday’s speech at the traditional and festive ceremony marking the opening of the 26th Knesset session, the prime minister went all in and desecrated this event as well. As a post-election caretaker prime minister, he has spoken many times on this occasion, but always adhered to tradition and protocol – general clichés about the importance of Israeli democracy and so on. This time, as he senses power slipping from his hands, he is left with nothing but incitement, attacks and provocation as a last resort before disaster.

What did he seek to achieve in the 21 minutes he spent viciously attacking representatives of the 21 percent of Israeli society who are Arab? Unity? If that was his goal, the speech should have been completely different: conciliatory, inviting, healing. Even then, signing a unity agreement with him would be like investing in Bernie Madoff’s company after its collapse. Or going on a date with Jeffrey Dahmer after his escape from prison. But at least some theoretical basis for initial contact would have been created.

The conclusion is clear: He knows he is no partner for unity. Everyone knows who he is, what he is, what his promises are worth and how much to trust the agreements he signs. So much for unity. He yearns for another election, in which he and his reckless government can continue to hold the reins of power, but he is aware that the only thing uniting all his rivals is the mantra: “There will be no more elections.”

Netanyahu is left with almost no ammunition. His rampage at the podium, as if he were far-right agitator Mordechai David roaming the streets of Lod, broke records for racism, after an entire term in which Arab citizens – 99.9 percent of whom are law-abiding, ordinary, tax-paying members of society who are integrated into the workforce – became trampled underfoot by a malicious government. Rabbi Meir Kahane must be turning over in his grave with satisfaction. The students have surpassed their rabbi.

In a speech that epitomized a complete loss of composure, Netanyahu dredged up statements by Arab MKs from 10 and 15 years ago, as if he had not conducted a passionate political affair with United Arab List leader Mansour Abbas five and a half years ago.

He even reached back to Arafat and Oslo, as if he had not handed Hebron back to him, negotiated with him at Wye Plantation, embraced him, declared “I found a friend,” and delivered the Bar-Ilan speech in support of a Palestinian state.

At the same time, he demanded an investigation “and the removal of restrictions” on the investigation into election theft, accusing Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara. For the record: There are and have been no restrictions; and there are probably no offenses, neither security-related nor criminal.

If there are terror supporters within the government, they are Netanyahu’s ministers who support, whether through silence, turning a blind eye, or supplying vehicles and other means, the Jewish terror militias in the West Bank.

Netanyahu’s current goal is undoubtedly to try and thwart Gadi Eisenkot’s option of relying on Arab parties to swear in a government. A secondary goal is to incite the masses who heed his words to march on the Knesset next Tuesday – the day of the speaker’s replacement – and prevent the plenum from convening. Or also to signal to outgoing coalition MKs to blow up the session.

In his desperation and panic, he also tried to warn the ultra-Orthodox MKs against joining the change bloc. The wording he chose was particularly pathetic: “They will promise you mountains and hills, but a minute after a left-wing government is formed, all those promises will vanish.” One wonders what Rabbis Lando and Hirsch made of these words after four years in which Netanyahu failed to deliver the draft-evasion law, first with 64 MKs behind him and then with 68.

Like the statement he delivered at the opening of his trial in the courtroom, flanked by MKs and ministers wearing coronavirus masks, this speech, too, has entered the pantheon of events documenting the destruction of Israeli democracy by an unrestrained, corrupt and dangerous prime minister – more than anything any Arab MK has said that might have offended the overwhelming majority of Israelis.

The assessment echoed across the political system on Tuesday, on both sides of the divide, was that Netanyahu’s speech had not only failed to push a change government further away, but had actually brought it closer. How? Probably not through the support, abstention or absence of the Arab parties – Avigdor Lieberman has locked himself into his declarations opposing cooperation with them – but through the willingness of the change bloc’s leaders to turn over every stone in pursuit of far-reaching agreements with the ultra-Orthodox factions. It will not be easy, far from it. But there is no other option.

Those who salvaged the dignity of Tuesday’s ceremony were Democrats chairman Yair Golan, who walked out of the hall in disgust as soon as Netanyahu began spraying his racist venom in every direction, like a skunk; and Naftali Bennett, who shouted at him: “What about a state commission of inquiry into October 7? Why don’t you declare Qatar an enemy state? What about your Qatari advisers?”

In three sentences, Bennett summed up the main reasons why, in his view, Netanyahu cannot remain in office: his responsibility for the failure and his evasion of responsibility; the heavy cloud hanging over the protection he provides to Yonatan Urich; and his refusal to declare Qatar an enemy state, which raises its own pointed questions about hidden motives, secrets and lies.

And it is worth noting another fact: Netanyahu incites against Arab MKs, and the one who opposes him is Bennett. This, too, is the part of the change.