Benzion Netanyahu, election frenzy and unemployment

The Israeli press reported the death of Benzion Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s father, and honored the life of a man Israel Hayom calls “one of the great historians of our generation.”

The free daily dedicates four pages to the elder Netanyahu’s funeral and his obituary. It reprints President Shimon Peres’s eulogy from Monday’s funeral with the headline “Bibi, your father wrote history, you are making it.” In Israel Hayom, Moshe Arens praises the late Netanyahu as “one of the people who acted for the sake of the state in every matter, with great intensity.” The paper lauds the professor’s achievements, including his lesser known work, “The Five Fathers of Zionism,” about the lives and formative philosophies of Leon Pinsker, Theodor Herzl, Max Nordau, Israel Zangwill, and Ze’ev Jabotinsky.

Haaretz addresses the late Netanyahu’s intellectual legacy. Beside the obituary, the paper publishes snippets of the late intellectual’s political views, which obviously disagree with Haaretz’s political bent.

“The idea of real peace is an illusion,” he told Haaretz in a 1998 interview. “On the issue of Palestinians and conflict resolution with them,” he said, “there is no Palestinian people whatsoever. There isn’t and never was,” and “an Arab state in the heart of our state is a nightmare.”

The author dismisses the late professor’s worldview as anachronistic opinions of “a typical, 19th century conservative,” while giving his prescience and sagacity due credit.

Maariv and Yedioth Ahronoth, by contrast, avoid the political aspects of the man’s legacy and instead focus on the personal loss for the prime minister and his relationship with his father. Both quote the prime minister’s heartfelt eulogy as their headlines: “Father, I had the privilege to tell you how much I love and admire you.” Both run photos of the Netanyahu family grieving.

The death of Benzion Netanyahu had unintended political consequences. The prime minister suggested early elections on Sunday, triggering election mania in the Knesset. Now politicians will wait until the end of the weeklong mourning period for a decision regarding elections to be made.

Flurry of preparation

The official decision if and when to hold early elections might be on ice for a week, but political factions are working feverishly to prepare for the eventuality.

Yedioth Ahronoth writes about Kadima’s dread of early elections. The party has 29 Knesset seats, but some polls give them a mere 11 in the coming election. A senior party member says that half the MKs fear they’ll be stranded after the “battle for life or death” at the polls.

“We are not ready for elections. Mofaz needs more time,” Yedioth Ahronoth quotes senior party members saying.

Mofaz is quoted asserting the opposite in Haaretz: “Kadima will be ready for elections at any time, any month, any year.” About the dismal poll results he said, “We will not be influenced by them, we will influence them.”

Haaretz writes that Yisrael Beitenu and Shas are interested in holding elections as soon as possible. “It’s clear that the sooner the better,” said Shas chairman and Interior Minister Eli Yishai. “We are better prepared than any other party.”

Maariv features a four-month chart showing the various dates that would best suit each party as an election day. Likud and Yisrael Beitenu prefer elections stat, in August if possible. Kadima, Meretz, and the religious parties want them after the High Holidays, in mid-October, so they have ample time to muster their supporters and their bankrolls.

The Independence and Jewish Home parties need November elections. The former is not expected to break the vote threshold necessary to have a Knesset seat and the latter is holding party primaries in early September.

All of the papers mention the fact that Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said on Monday that a decision to press charges against Yisrael Beitenu Chairman and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is forthcoming and won’t be affected by the coming elections. To the contrary, if corruption charges are pressed Lieberman will be disqualified from a ministerial position.

Miserable miscellany

Maariv reports that unemployment jumped by 18,000 in March, and that it is up 75,000 in the first quarter. Israel’s unemployment dropped 2.5% in the past two years to 6.5%, but has steeply risen to 6.9% in three months — a 43% rise. Part of this rise is due to the Central Bureau of Statistics’ decision to calculate small, economically weak towns’ unemployment figures into the national average.

There are currently 123,800 unemployed men and 122,600 women. That figure is expected to go up on account of Israel’s current economic slowdown. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz responded to the figures saying, “Israel’s unemployment rate is [still] the lowest in its history.”

Yehuda Sharoni says that compared to Spain (24% unemployment) or other Western countries, Israel’s 6.9% is nothing to worry about. The real battle for the Israeli employees is not over the price of cottage cheese or candy bars, but protecting workplaces at any price.

Uri Misgav mourns the death of the Israeli peace movement and its replacement with obsession over security. “Peace is off most Israelis’ radar screens, which is why there is nothing said about it during our national holidays,” he writes in Haaretz.

“Now, it seems, we will soon have an election, and Israelis will allow their candidates to sell them a horizon without peace. Apparently this obsession with security has made Israelis addicted to militarism. The difference between means and ends, between tactics and strategy, has been blurred,” he says.

Mati Tuchfeld says in Israel Hayom that early elections would be a nuisance more than anything else. “New elections every two to three years have become tiresome for the public. What’s more, the latest polls indicate that the next prime minister would once again be Netanyahu.” Nonetheless, Netanyahu must make sure not to blunder and lose his place of power on a reckless gamble. “High poll numbers are no guarantee of anything,” Tuchfeld reminds readers.