Just one week ago, the entire world seemed to have resigned itself to the rule of the two most powerful men among world leaders: Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. The two men shared everything: visits, wars, treaties and discussions about the future of the world. The people of this planet accepted this political shift as they had accepted others before it. In the West, political parties come and go, power changes hands, and victories and defeats are part of the process.
This time, however, the change amounted to a complete upheaval. The Trump hurricane is fading, while the "King of Israel" is losing his majority to a former soldier of Moroccan origin.
For some time, two names have dominated the political stage, whether together or separately: Trump and Netanyahu. Now both are falling from the highest political positions either has ever attained. This may mark the end of their political careers, or at least the first major setback for Trump.
The sounds of celebration have faded in Tel Aviv. The crowds of supporters have dwindled. No one expected such a meager showing for the man who has been waging Israel's wars on every front.
This vote on Netanyahu is no ordinary event. It is as consequential as his initial rise to power, when Yigal Amir assassinated Yitzhak Rabin as he was moving toward peace with Yasser Arafat. At the time, extremists cheered the "King of Israel," while Rabin's widow refused to accept condolences from the man she accused of being behind her husband's murder.
The situation in Israel today resembles the aftermath of Rabin's assassination: deep political divisions and profound anxiety over the country's fate, rather than merely the formation of a government in a multiparty state.
Coincidentally, divisions have reached a similar depth in the United States. This is no passing partisan or political crisis, but a state of anxiety gripping the entire world, a broader sense of weakness that extends far beyond the concerns of America's two political parties.
