Talking Points Memo: “From an American perspective the most interesting thing right now about the political crisis in Israel is how closely it maps to the one in the United States: a right wing political leader who simply refuses to accept losing office. Since we discussed this last Netanyahu and his supporters have continued the campaign of incitement against the right wing members of the incoming government. After the head of the country’s domestic security service issued an all but unprecedented warning about incitement and the risk of civil violence or assassinations, Netanyahu responded with even more incitement. In reply he made a perfunctory statement about incitement and then told his supporters to ‘let’em have it.’ So, not really getting the message.”

“A side drama, meanwhile, is unfolding over a nationalist march in Jerusalem which had been scheduled for later this week. The idea is to have right wing Israelis march through Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter… It seems almost designed to create the same kind of provocation. Not only is that not great from the point of view of civil violence or another mini-war with Gaza. It also stands a good chance of deepening the electoral/political crisis. And what’s happening right now is that Netanyahu – who still has four or five days left in power – is pushing the police to allow the march or take the decision away from them entirely. In other words, he’s trying trigger another crisis out of some mix of a desire to stay in power (by breaking up the right-left, Jewish-Arab coalition) or simply burning things down on the way out. But beyond this there’s something more general: an insistence that Netanyahu’s fall from power is an apocalyptic moment for Israel and Zionism.”

“That’s the theme of the campaign of incitement, protesting outside the home’s of right wing members of the new government and more. But it shows up on numerous other fronts. Netanyahu’s supporters have pretty much adopted the “stop the steal” terminology from Trump. The particular ‘steal’ theory is that the right-wing parties joining the new government are ‘stealing’ right wing seats that belong to Netanyahu, that are meant to keep him in power.”