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Netanyahu is failing, but not exactly the way Trump did

2021-06-09 00:00:00.0 美国有线电视-特朗普新闻原网页

Anshel Pfeffer (@anshelpfeffer) is a writer for Ha'aretz and the Israel correspondent of The Economist. He is the author of "Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu." The views expressed here are his own. Read more opinion on CNN.

(CNN)On Sunday afternoon, Benjamin Netanyahu went full Donald Trump. Facing a new coalition, led by his former protégé Naftali Bennett, with the seats needed to replace him as Israel's prime minister, Netanyahu went on the attack.

"We are witnessing the greatest election fraud in the history of the country, in my opinion in the history of any democracy," he said in a meeting with his Likud faction. Sounds familiar?

So does the next bit. "We, my friends and I in Likud, we will vehemently oppose the establishment of this dangerous government of fraud and surrender," Netanyahu thundered.

But he was also prepared to accept at least temporary defeat. "And if, God forbid, it is established, we will bring it down very quickly."

Given the similarity in Netanyahu and Trump's rhetoric, it's worth asking: Is Israel about to face its own January 6, with thousands of armed right-wing militia members storming the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, before the new government is likely sworn-in on Sunday?

Probably not. However, Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, felt the need on Saturday night to issue a rare public warning against the toxic discourse and incitement to violence, especially on social media.

As of now, though, there are no signs of any widespread plan to physically obstruct the transfer of power this weekend. But even if Israel is saved the spectacle of a Capitol Hill-like insurrection, the resilience of its democracy has been sorely tested in the latter years of the Netanyahu era, and like in the US, its core institutions have had to fight back and safeguard basic principles.

Israel will remain Netanyahu's even if he is no longer prime minister

Of course, Netanyahu and his remaining allies will keep up the pressure on potential defectors from the new coalition, as they have been doing for weeks now. But the torrent of verbal abuse -- online and in protests outside politicians' homes -- coupled with discreet inducements to the wavering members of the new government is unlikely to escalate much further. And so far, at least, it seems to be failing.

It looks like Netanyahu, unless he persuades a surprise defector, will leave office next week, peacefully but without the semblance of grace. The sight of a second populist leader being forced to leave office following a hard-fought election (in Israel's case, following four consecutive elections) within the space of six months should be instructive.

What the current wave of populist leaders around the world share in common is their populist rhetoric of "us" -- the "people" versus "the establishment" -- the "elitist traitors" and their "foreign" supporters. They also share an instinctive capability to identify the phobias and the resentments of their base, and are adept at stoking them -- building angry coalitions of fear, of loss of privilege and disenfranchisement.

Beyond that, however, every populist is different.

Netanyahu, unlike Trump, is both a professional politician and an intellectual. That is how he succeeded in staging political comebacks -- despite earlier setbacks and defeats in his career, defying the pundits' predictions and the polls, and ultimately becoming Israel's longest-serving prime minister.

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