On at least three occasions Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to look into or promote the establishment of a casino in Israel. The first attempt took place during his first term as prime minister and then again in 2003 in his capacity as finance minister. The most recent attempt was made Feb. 17, when the premier set up a steering committee that would draw up a plan and prepare a bill for the establishment of a casino complex in the southern city of Eilat.
Netanyahu and Yariv Levin, the tourism minister and the (future) steering committee’s chair, claim that a supervised casino complex in Eilat will save the southern resort city from economic collapse. As it turns out, over the past three months Levin has turned from a vehement detractor of the idea who had many cogent arguments against it into a staunch supporter. His change of heart came after delving into the issue and studying it, as he put it. To pre-empt his critics, Netanyahu announced ahead of time that his close associate, American casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, would not be investing in the Israeli casino.
Hatched by Levin and broached at a meeting Netanyahu held earlier this week, the plan proposes to set up a gambling complex in Eilat, consisting of four casinos as well as hotels and restaurants. The idea is to create a tourist attraction primarily for foreign tourists. The law will restrict Israeli gamblers in terms of when they are allowed into the complex and how much money they can gamble.
Yet nobody in the Knesset was really impressed with Netanyahu and Levin’s casino idea. The strong objection that immediately ensued from left and right — from within the coalition as well as from the back seats of the opposition — heralds the demise of Netanyahu’s current initiative. Similar to all its predecessors, this plan, too, is doomed to vanish into thin air. The reason is chiefly a political one. Netanyahu won’t be able to cobble together a majority for a bill that the ultra-Orthodox parties and Orthodox HaBayit HaYehudi, which make up the core of his narrow coalition, see as a bullfighter’s red muleta.
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