A2 · Elementary
9 min
electoral politicsmiddle eastdemocracycoalition government
Israel: The Opposition Against Netanyahu
Israel: La Oposición Contra Netanyahu
This week, two former Israeli prime ministers merged their parties to challenge Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming elections. We dig into Israeli politics, coalition-building, and what a change in power would actually mean.
Esta semana, dos ex primeros ministros israelíes unieron sus partidos para luchar contra Benjamín Netanyahu en las próximas elecciones. Hablamos de la política israelí, las coaliciones y lo que puede cambiar.
8 essential A2-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| partido | party (political) / match (sports) | El partido político tiene muchos votos. |
| elecciones | elections | Las elecciones son en noviembre. |
| votar | to vote | Yo voto cada cuatro años. |
| juntos | together | Juntos, los dos partidos son más fuertes. |
| ganar | to win | Netanyahu quiere ganar las elecciones. |
| seguridad | security / safety | La seguridad es muy importante en Israel. |
| miedo | fear | Tengo miedo del futuro. |
| cambio | change | La gente quiere un cambio. |
Octavio, I want to ask you something.
You covered Israeli politics from Madrid for years.
When you saw the news this week about Bennett and Lapid joining forces, what was your first reaction?
Mi reacción es: ¡por fin!
My reaction was: finally!
Los dos son muy diferentes.
The two of them are very different.
Pero los dos quieren ganar.
But they both want to win.
Finally.
That word carries a lot of weight.
Netanyahu has been at the center of Israeli politics for, what, three decades now, more or less?
And opposition figures keep trying and keep falling short.
Netanyahu es muy inteligente en política.
Netanyahu is very smart in politics.
Es difícil competir con él.
It's hard to compete with him.
Let me give people the basic picture here.
Naftali Bennett, former prime minister, right-wing, nationalist, religious.
Yair Lapid, former prime minister, centrist, secular, pro-two-state-solution broadly speaking.
These two men agreeing on breakfast is an achievement.
A merger is something else entirely.
En Israel, los partidos pequeños son normales.
In Israel, small parties are normal.
Hay muchos partidos.
There are many parties.
Las elecciones son muy complicadas.
Elections are very complicated.
Right, and that fragmentation is actually the key to understanding Netanyahu's survival.
Israel uses proportional representation, which means the parliament, the Knesset, almost always ends up with fifteen or twenty parties splitting the seats.
And Netanyahu, over decades, became extraordinarily skilled at assembling coalitions from that chaos.
Netanyahu necesita amigos pequeños.
Netanyahu needs small allies.
Los partidos religiosos son sus amigos.
The religious parties are his friends.
Siempre.
Always.
The ultra-Orthodox parties, yes.
They deliver votes reliably and they want very specific things in return: exemptions from military service, funding for religious schools, control over marriage law.
Netanyahu gives them what they want.
It's transactional, consistent, and it works.
Sí.
Yes.
Pero muchos israelíes no son religiosos.
But many Israelis are not religious.
Ellos no quieren ese sistema.
They don't want that system.
That tension, secular versus religious, is as old as the state itself.
Ben-Gurion made compromises with the ultra-Orthodox back in 1948 to hold the coalition together at founding, and Israeli society has been living with those compromises ever since.
Es un problema muy viejo.
It's a very old problem.
No es solo Netanyahu.
It's not just Netanyahu.
Es Israel.
It's Israel.
Fair point.
Though Netanyahu has, over time, deepened those alliances in ways his predecessors didn't.
He's not just borrowing from that coalition, he's become dependent on it.
And the corruption trial hanging over him, which is still ongoing, has made him even more dependent, because staying in power is also staying out of prison.
Su juicio es muy importante.
His trial is very important.
Muchos israelíes están muy enojados con él.
Many Israelis are very angry with him.
And yet he keeps winning.
Or at least he keeps governing.
There have been five elections in four years at one point.
Five.
The country couldn't produce a stable majority for or against him.
That level of political deadlock is genuinely exhausting for a democracy.
Cinco elecciones, sí.
Five elections, yes.
[sigh] La gente está cansada.
The people are tired.
Quiere estabilidad.
They want stability.
Now, the merger.
Bennett's party is called Bennett 2026, and Lapid's is Yesh Atid, which means 'There Is a Future' in Hebrew.
They're merging into something called Together, led by Bennett.
And they're apparently leaving a door open for Gadi Eisenkot, a former general and chair of a party called Yashar.
Eisenkot es militar.
Eisenkot is military.
Los israelíes respetan a los militares.
Israelis respect military figures.
Él es importante.
He is important.
The general as political legitimizer.
It's a pattern in Israeli politics going back to Rabin, to Sharon, to Barak.
Military credibility is a currency there in a way it isn't quite in most Western democracies.
Partly because military service is near-universal, so voters relate to that background personally.
En Israel, casi todos son soldados.
In Israel, almost everyone is a soldier.
Eso cambia la política.
That changes politics.
Es diferente a España.
It's different from Spain.
Very different from Spain.
Very different from the United States now, for that matter.
The shared military experience creates a kind of common reference point across party lines.
When a general speaks about security, it lands differently than when a career politician does.
Pero Bennett también tiene problemas.
But Bennett also has problems.
Muchos en la derecha no lo quieren ahora.
Many on the right don't want him now.
That's the genuine puzzle of Bennett.
He governed with Lapid from 2021 to 2022, a right-wing figure heading a coalition that included an Arab party for the first time in Israeli history.
His base felt betrayed.
But from outside, it looked like someone trying to actually govern rather than just survive politically.
Bennett quiere ser pragmático.
Bennett wants to be pragmatic.
Pero en política israelí, eso es peligroso.
But in Israeli politics, that is dangerous.
Pragmatism as a liability.
That's a sentence I never thought I'd say, but here we are.
The war in Gaza, the war in Lebanon, the regional situation, all of this has pushed Israeli politics further right.
The question is whether there's still a majority that wants an off-ramp from all of it.
La guerra cambia todo.
The war changes everything.
Ahora la seguridad es el tema número uno.
Now security is the number one issue.
And Netanyahu has owned that issue for thirty years.
'Security' is his home ground.
The coalition of Bennett, Lapid, and potentially Eisenkot is essentially arguing that you can have security without Netanyahu, that he's become a liability rather than an asset even on the thing he's famous for.
Es verdad.
That's true.
El juicio de Netanyahu es un problema de seguridad también, para muchos israelíes.
Netanyahu's trial is also a security problem for many Israelis.
Because it distracts, because it creates suspicion about his decision-making, because his critics argue some of his military decisions have been shaped by political survival rather than strategic logic.
Whether that's true or not, it's in the air.
Los israelíes están divididos.
Israelis are divided.
La mitad apoya a Netanyahu.
Half support Netanyahu.
La otra mitad no.
The other half don't.
And that division has been remarkably stable for years.
There were massive street protests in 2023 over his attempt to overhaul the judiciary, hundreds of thousands of people in the streets week after week.
And it didn't shift his coalition significantly.
His people stayed with him.
Sus votantes tienen mucho miedo.
His voters are very afraid.
Netanyahu usa ese miedo.
Netanyahu uses that fear.
Es su arma.
It is his weapon.
Describing fear as a political weapon is something that sounds harsh but honestly tracks across democratic backsliding everywhere in the world right now.
You name the threat vividly, you make yourself the only credible shield against it, and you make every election feel existential.
It's effective.
Sí, pero el miedo también cansa.
Yes, but fear is also tiring.
Después de muchos años, la gente quiere un cambio.
After many years, people want a change.
The fatigue argument.
That's probably the strongest card Bennett and Lapid are playing.
Not 'here's a better ideology' but 'here's a chance to breathe.' Whether that's enough to actually move votes, to consolidate the center-right and center-left into something that can actually beat him at the ballot box, that is the real question.
Juntos, los partidos tienen más votos.
Together, the parties have more votes.
Separados, Netanyahu gana fácil.
Separately, Netanyahu wins easily.
Which is the whole logic.
In proportional systems, the opposition's perennial problem is that it splits.
The center-left votes one way, the center-right votes another, they each get twenty seats, and Netanyahu assembles a governing bloc from the right.
Consolidation is the only structural answer.
Oye, Fletcher, una pregunta.
Hey, Fletcher, a question.
¿Tú sabes qué significa 'partido' en español?
Do you know what 'partido' means in Spanish?
Political party.
Partido.
I know that one.
Wait, does it mean something else?
Sí.
Yes.
'Partido' es un partido político.
'Partido' is a political party.
Pero también es un partido de fútbol.
But it's also a football match.
El mismo word.
The same word.
Hold on.
The same word for a political party and a football match.
So you could say 'I watched the partido last night' and mean either the election results or the Champions League?
Exacto.
Exactly.
El contexto es importante.
Context is important.
'El partido político' o 'el partido de fútbol.' Simple.
'The political party' or 'the football match.' Simple.
I suppose in Spain the two things are equally important, so it makes sense they share a word.
I won't tell you which one I think matters more, Octavio.
El fútbol, Fletcher.
Football, Fletcher.
Siempre el fútbol.
Always football.
No hay duda.
There is no doubt.
[chuckle]