Israel's change of guard: Netanyahu out, Bennett in
Global Politics
Israel’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in power since 2009, has been officially ousted in yesterday’s parliament vote.
A coalition of eight parties, under the leadership of opposition politician Yair Lapid, has managed to unseat Netanyahu as confirmed by the vote yesterday.
So what led to this historic turn of events?
Why was a coalition required?
Israel has been in a state of political stalemate for a long time with four elections in the last two years. This is further complicated by current PM Netanyahu’s ongoing corruption trial.
After the latest elections in March ‘21, Netanyahu failed to form the government in the Knesset*. President Rivlin then gave Yair Lapid, leader of the party that secured second highest votes - Yesh Atid, a 28-day mandate to form the government.
*Knesset is the 120-seat Israeli parliament.
How was the coalition formed?
The resultant coalition government comprises of parties from across the political spectrum, including for the first time, the one that represents the 21% Arab minority, United Arab List.
As per the coalition deal, the ultra-nationalist former protege of Netanyahu, Naftali Bennet will serve as prime minister for two years before Lapid, a former popular TV host, takes over.
Interestingly, Bennet’s party that won only seven seats, was being wooed by both sides (Netanyahu and Lapid) trying to secure the 61 seat majority required in the Knesset.
Netanyahu claimed fraud
Last week, Netanyahu called this the ‘biggest election fraud’ in the history of democracy. With this remark, he was specifically referring to Bennett joining the coalition. Bennett had promised in his campaign that he will not join forces with any centrist, left or Arab parties.
On the other hand,Israelis have long been protesting against Netanyahu citing a mismanaged pandemic, persistent economic crisis, lack of a state budget and divisive politics.
What does this mean for Palestine?
Naftali Bennett, the new Israeli Prime Minister for two years, is an Orthodox Jew who supports settlement expansion (in the Palestinian West Bank) and opposes the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Thus, the new government is expected to continue the same policies as Netanyahu with regard to Palestine, possibly in even more extreme forms. Though the risk of alienating the Arab coalition allies could restrict the extreme policies.
Can the diverse coalition stand strong?
The coalition cobbled together by Lapid includes parties from the right, left and centre. The only thing they agree on is that Netanyahu needs to leave office and that the country cannot have another election.
Thus, they are expected to steer clear of any controversial or ideologically divisive issues. Their first big challenge would be to agree on a budget, the first since 2019.
What does this mean for India?
Going by a frequent and friendly exchange of tweets between Netanyahu and Narendra Modi over the years, the Indian PM is set to have another ‘friend’ lose office after former US president, Donald Trump.
India has always been on the fence about the Israel-Palestine clashes. In the recent conflict of May 2021, however, India had taken the stance to urge Israel to urgently restore peace.
The dark side of the crypto world
Finance
The trending discussions about cryptocurrencies have generally been about the money people make and lose while trading them. However, there is another side to the story that isn’t just about trading and speculation. There are some pitfalls to the concept of cryptocurrencies. Let’s discuss.
Firstly, there are some fundamental issues like forgetting passwords and private keys to your wallet. For instance, Programmer Stefan Thomas was given 7,002 bitcoins (today worth $240m) more than a decade ago, which he stored in an IronKey digital wallet and wrote the password on a piece of paper. A piece of paper he has since lost. There is no way to retrieve them back. You can read more about this in the latest post by Uncut: News and Media.
More importantly, there are some severe environmental hazards. Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process that eats up a lot of power.
Then, there’s the issue of volatility
This impacts all stakeholders involved and often brings in questions on the reliability of these coins. We’ve seen that there are way too many breakout and high momentum moves that happen in the crypto markets. A move of 3-4% up and down is just a lazy Saturday.
This brings in two issues. If the crypto is wildly bullish, investors don’t use them for transactions and see it as an investment. Similarly, if the markets are spiraling downwards, the receiving party wouldn’t want to get paid in that coin.
This brings in the requirement of a regulator
This goes against the concept of cryptocurrency. For instance, in countries like India, boards like SEBI safeguard investor interests. The free world of crypto doesn’t allow that. The risk of people losing out on a significant proportion of their investment increases substantially.
Also, a large sum of money can be moved without someone to oversee it. This can be misused by terrorist organizations.
Also, there are simply no fundamentals!
Most company stocks move depending on the firm’s performance. We have quarterly results and balance sheets to gauge the progress. There is the P/E ratio and other metrics. However, with cryptocurrencies - there are simply no fundamentals. Even if there are events like the currency being accepted as a medium of transaction in some countries - it still doesn’t objectively tell you the possible extent of the change in price. In a nutshell, there is no standard basis of the valuation of a cryptocurrency.
Lastly, there is the issue of the currencies running out
For instance, there is a limit to the number of bitcoins that can be in circulation. According to estimates, if the current contracts continue, we will run out of Bitcoins by 2041. Recently, there were announcements regarding the total capping on the number of Etheriums as well. While this isn’t an immediate problem, it might bring in the question of sustainability in the long run.
Cryptocurrencies are touted as the future of money. However, there are a lot of concerns around their reliability, sustainability, and security. Do you think the current banking structure is irreplaceable?
Today’s Cartoon
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