Opinion | How Trumpism Has Affected Israeli Politics


How does Trumpism, the rise of right-wing populist parties in many other countries, particularly in Europe, how has that affected Israeli politics? Its sense of what is possible, what is desirable? So in 20 —— when I go back to 2016, following a Super Tuesday in March 2016, when Trump actually took over the Republican Party, Netanyahu told his staff, be like Trump. He repeated those three words, “Be like Trump.” And then Netanyahu shifted from the TV Netanyahu to the Facebook Netanyahu. OK, he turned into Donald Trump. Now he is no Donald Trump. He is. … And he’s way more educated. He got better English, but he changed. And in my opinion, this is why, in an absurd way, the right wing in Israel or the power of the populist right, the radical right wing in Israel, is way smaller than in the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany. Why? Because you still have the founding father of the right, Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is two for the price of one. He is both the elder statesman that gets the agreement of the U.S. to attack Iran and for the annexation of the Golan Heights and the recognition of Jerusalem. And at the very same time, he is the Netanyahu that speaks quite, I don’t know, viciously about the left. So once Netanyahu resigns, you will see a spike, in my opinion, in the representation of the far right in Israel. I don’t know how many people are aware of the fact that both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir combined got only 10 percent of the popular vote in Israel — 10 percent. Just compare it to the Reform Party in the U.K. these days.



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