Dupree Audience Warned of High Stakes in Israeli Election Results

Yaakov Katz flew to Atlanta from Tel Aviv with the surprising news of the Israeli exit polls still ringing in his years. When he landed, the former editor of Israel’s Jerusalem Post newspaper was forced to face the one result he had long dreaded. And he wasn’t happy. But despite his disappointment, he told his audience at The Dupree he was faced with a more immediate question.

“People are very distraught and upset, and this isn’t what they wanted. But this is what the country decided, and I accept that this is what the country decided. And now, I ask myself a different question … so what are we going to do?”

Three years after the tragic events of Oct. 7, the resulting war on three fronts and its long drawn-out conflict, in Katz’s opinion, Benjamin Netanyahu won. An election which largely amounted to a referendum on the political future of Netanyahu has been temporarily settled. The streets are quiet. The large and occasionally violent protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against Israel’s ruling coalition government are over. After all of that, Katz says Israel is being forced to face another crucial decision.

“How are we going to have a functioning government? Katz asked. “Because in my view, to go to another election without a government right now would be a catastrophe for the state of Israel that we cannot afford.”

The most practical solution in Katz’s opinion is to bring together all the leading politicians in Israel. Men like Gadi Eisenkot, the retired general whose party’s slate of Knesset members is just a few short of Netanyahu’s, and Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman, both longtime opponents of Netanyahu, need to put aside their personal feelings about the present prime minister.

“It’s something I’ve been pushing for several weeks now. If we agree on the premise that we can’t go to another election, then we have to make a unity government. And, if you think about it, there’s an easy decision to make, but it means people putting aside their personal animosity towards one another, and that would be Netanyahu, Eisenkot, Bennett, and Lieberman. It’s hard to find any ideological differences between any of them. And yes, it might mean that Benjamin Netanyahu remains prime minister of Israel, but like I explained before, in my view, he won the election.”

There is no time to be lost in Katz’s view. The stakes are too high. He told his audience and host David Zalik that after three years of war much remains to be done.

In Katz’s view, Gaza is unsettled, Hamas is refusing to disarm and has not abandoned its goal to destroy Israel. Likewise, Hezbollah also remains defiant and, like Hamas, has refused to give up the fight. But in Katz’s words, that is all “child’s play compared to the big issue which is Iran.”

What Israel is facing, according to the Israeli commentator, is a unique opportunity to act decisively now to bring about a change of government in Iran. That, in Katz’s eyes, would alter the political landscape in the Middle East, bring Israel and the Muslim world closer together, and avoid a nuclear arms race that could engulf the entire region. The stakes, he believes, are too high and the time for Israel and America to act together is now. He thinks that it’s only while Donald Trump is president that regime change in Iran can be accomplished.

“If Israel wants to do something and maybe have one last shot at toppling this regime in Iran, which would, I don’t want to say solve all our problems but dramatically alter and change history. And, also the future, and our security and safety and America’s security and safety, we have to take advantage of it.”

Katz doesn’t rule out the possibility President Trump may choose to intervene in the formation of a new government in Israel if that process drags on and impacts the United States strategic goals in the region. Katz fears that without dramatic steps on both sides, Israel’s leaders will prioritize politics over policy and fail to face the substance and importance of the issues that confront them. Without that, he pointed out, the ultimate losers of this election may be the entire nation.

“Those who haven’t yet won are the people of Israel,” Katz believes, “because there’s no clear pathway to a government. And I think that if the politicians get together and realize what’s at stake and what is needed of them, it can be done. Politics is the business of compromise.”