Will Israel’s Opposition Become Beholden to Europe?
Israel’s opposition is uniting to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in October’s elections. Former prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced April 26 that they have merged their parties into one. Bennett will lead the new party: Yachad (Hebrew for “together”). Bennett and Lapid worked together in 2021, but under a coalition.
The pair has the support of Gadi Eisenkot, the other popular opposition candidate. While he has not committed to joining the new party, he called Bennett and Lapid “partners” and asked Bennett to coordinate future decisions with him. At the very least, Eisenkot and his Yashar party could become a future coalition partner.
A poll released April 27 suggests Yachad could receive 26 seats, compared to Likud’s 25. If this trajectory continues to election day, the party would be first in line to form a government.
Yet the most remarkable aspect of the new party may be who is inspiring its vision.
Hungarian Dance
Hungary held parliamentary elections on April 12. Longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orbán lost to upstart Péter Magyar. Orbán had ruled Hungary as a strongman since 2010, which led to the country being called an “electoral autocracy” at times. Hungary’s opposition determined the best way to unseat Orbán and “restore freedom” was to put aside their differences and rally around Magyar. Unlike Orbán’s previous challengers, Magyar isn’t leftist but conservative. He was able to appeal to some of Orbán’s old base as well as the perennial never-Orbán crowd. He also appealed to voters wanting Hungary to have a normal relationship with the rest of the world. He promised to get Hungary in line with the European Union on issues. Magyar’s strategy worked.
Orbán and Netanyahu have many similarities. Both have been governing their respective countries, on and off, for almost two decades. Both head their countries’ main conservative parties. Both are reviled by the world’s leftists. Both have generated a decent amount of fatigue among the electorate.
Bennett and Lapid have acknowledged Magyar’s unseating of Orbán as their model to unseat Netanyahu. Bennett admitted this in an interview with Israeli public broadcaster kan. He claimed Magyar’s method of stealing from Orbán’s platform is the only viable option for Israel. “In Israel too,” he said, “if they try once again to bring someone who is not a right-wing figure, we will lose as we have since 2009. Only a man of the right can defeat this government.”
Between the previously fractured opposition unifying around one candidate, the framing of the election as “democracy versus tyranny,” and using a front man from the right rather than the left, it appears the opposition parties are deliberately copying Péter Magyar’s style.
There is one tactic Magyar used that Bennett and Lapid haven’t mentioned. But if they want to copy the Magyar playbook, it would be hard for them to succeed without it.
From Brussels With Love
Magyar did well not only because of domestic issues, he also had massive foreign support from the European Union. Since 2010, Orbán has caused problems for everything from Ukrainian aid packages to Russian sanctions to the EU’s punishment of other countries in the bloc. So the EU did everything it could to give Magyar ammunition to unseat Orbán.
The EU withheld nearly $20 billion in funding. It gave Magyar, previously unfamiliar with top-level politics, experience and publicity leading a party at the European Parliament. Intelligence agencies leaked embarrassing reports before the election, portraying Orbán as a Russian stooge.
This doesn’t mean Orbán is an innocent victim or that the reports are inaccurate. But all of this gave Magyar amazing electoral ammunition. His campaign pledges included unlocking the frozen funding and removing Russian influence from Budapest. These pledges—encouraged by the EU’s actions—helped win him the premiership. And they are part of a wider platform to reintegrate Hungary into the EU’s mainstream.
Magyar may not have won the election if it weren’t for the EU’s meddling. For Bennett and Lapid to succeed in Israel, they may need to turn to the same place Magyar did.
Many European governments despise Benjamin Netanyahu almost as much as they do Viktor Orbán. In Netanyahu’s case, he has an added strike against him: He may be the biggest single force stopping the formation of a Palestinian state.
Europe has attacked Netanyahu specifically because of his Palestinian policy. This includes weapons embargos, recognizing a Palestinian state without Israel’s consent, and even threatening to arrest him per an International Criminal Court warrant.
A Bennett-Lapid government would be far more preferable for Europe, especially regarding the Palestinian question. Lapid declared support for the “two-state solution” in 2021. “I don’t have any interest in ruling over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza or 2.9 million in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank],” he said.
Bennett, who would become prime minister if Yachad wins, has a hawkish reputation. But if he becomes beholden to European backers and has Lapid as his right-hand man, he could become more malleable.
A European Double Cross
The Trumpet analyzes world events in light of Bible prophecy. Any one with a cursory understanding of prophecy knows the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem feature prominently. Jesus Christ prophesied in Luke 21:20-21 that right before His Second Coming, Jerusalem and the land of Judea would be invaded by armies. The Bible doesn’t describe who will be leading the State of Israel in the lead-up to this coming war, but it does give general trends to watch for.
One of these is that the State of Israel would become dependent on Europe for its security. Hosea 5:13 prophesies: “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.”
As Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry elaborates in Jerusalem in Prophecy, the word wound actually means remedy. “In other words,” he writes, “the remedy is the wound! … Is the peace pact with the [Palestinian] Arabs the Israeli wound that God refers to in Hosea 5:13? There would have been no peace pact if Judah would have trusted God instead of men.”
Assyria is a reference to modern-day Germany. (See here for more information.) Hosea 5:13 states that the Jews would look to Germany, historically their worst enemy, to fix its problem with the Palestinians.
“It seems the Israelis can trust their worst enemy, but they can’t trust God to protect them!” Mr. Flurry continues. “And God is their only true source of help. Israel will become ‘lovers’ with the Germans. This move will lead to its destruction. It is not the Arabs who will destroy Israel. The friendship between Germany and Israel will lead to one of the biggest double crosses in the history of man!”
The mention of “lovers” is a reference to another prophecy in Ezekiel 23. Ezekiel, poetically describing the Jewish nation under the feminine name “Aholibah,” pictures the country as abandoning God in favor of trusting foreign militaries for its protection: “She lusted for the neighboring Assyrians, Captains and rulers, Clothed most gorgeously, Horsemen riding on horses, All of them desirable young men” (verse 12; New King James Version). Because of this, God thunders: “Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, From whom you have alienated yourself, And I will bring them against you from every side” (verse 22; nkjv).
Prime Minister Netanyahu has prioritized close relations with the Germans, even to Israel’s immediate detriment. But he has also prioritized making Israel self-sufficient in defense.
But imagine Naftali Bennett, desperate to replace Netanyahu at any cost, begging Europe to help him as it did Hungary’s opposition. Europe is already working hard to undermine Netanyahu’s government; it would probably jump at the opportunity. Imagine Europe sending clandestine funds or engineering a diplomatic fiasco for Netanyahu. After Bennett gains power, imagine Europe using its new leverage to pressure him to go forward with the Palestinian peace process and even invite European peacekeepers. People in Bennett’s own party, such as Yair Lapid, would be goading him to go down this direction.
This is just a projection based on current trends. But it is not an unlikely scenario. In light of Bible prophecy, it could very well become the path that takes Israel to its worst crisis ever.
To learn more, request a free copy of Jerusalem in Prophecy.