Netanyahu Gains Power in Israel
Zip Dobyns
We have a tentative birth time for the new Prime Minister in Israel, thanks to the Internet. An unnamed astrologer sent the data to someone in the Netherlands who passed it on to a news group called Psychological Astrology. Maritha read it and passed it on to me. There is no guarantee that it is accurate, but the chart looks highly appropriate for the way Netanyahu is being described in the press and for his defeat of Peres in the election.
Benjamin Netanyahu, known as Bibi to everyone, was born in Jerusalem on October 21, 1949 with a possible birth time of 9:30 A.M. daylight time. The UT would be 6:30 A.M. He was elected Prime Minister of Israel on May 29, 1996 with a hair-thin majority of less than 1% of the votes. He had attacked the peace process started with the Oslo Accord, yet said that he would continue it more slowly. He talked about peace with security, and enough Israelis believed that his toughness would be more secure than the conciliation of Peres to tip the scales. Some were undoubtedly influenced by the Hamas bombs in the weeks prior to the election, so Hamas must be considered the real winner. They wanted to stop the peace process, to maintain a state of war with Israel, and they succeeded. I wrote about the threatening aspects coming in the chart for the country in the Pisces 1996 issue of The Mutable Dilemma, and the election results support that picture. Almost before all the votes were counted, there were attacks and deaths of a couple in Israel and of Israeli soldiers in the southern Lebanon buffer zone. One result of the election of Netanyahu may be increased cooperation between neighboring Islamic countries.
The opposite result seems likely in Israel where the governing Knesset (legislature) will be more fractionated. Several small parties gained seats at the expense of the two main parties, Labor and Likud. A party of Russian immigrants is gaining strength, along with the ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli Arabs. To get a working majority in the legislature, Bibi will have to persuade some of the fringe parties to form a coalition with Likud, which probably means he will have to move even farther to the right, favoring the orthodox, supporting religious schools and moving Israel more toward a theocracy ruled by Jewish religious law. It remains to be seen whether this will discourage some of the international investment in the country which has been increasing since the Oslo Peace Accords were signed.
Bibi is well acquainted with the U.S., having spent four years here from 1963 to 1967 when his father was teaching at a college in Pennsylvania. He returned to Israel for military service and was in an elite commando unit. He older brother was killed in a 1976 commando rescue of hostages from a hijacked plane in Uganda. Bibi was back in the U.S. in Israel's diplomatic service between 1982 and 1991. He has degrees in architecture and business administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He married his third wife in 1991 and they have two sons. Joe Klein had a fascinating article in the June 10, 1996 issue of Newsweek magazine which pointed out some weird similarities between Bibi and Bill Clinton. Both are great TV performers and both have endured sex scandals—Bibi's in 1993. Klein suggests that Bibi's knee-jerk bellicosity is the Israeli analog to Clinton's all-American empathy. But Klein writes that their eerie similarity is “an impatient, mesmerizing ambition—an ambition uncluttered by doubt or hesitation—that enabled each to achieve unexpected, unlikely victories, the first of their generation to rise to power in their respective political parties.” p.34
The similarities in the charts of Bill and Bibi are obvious. Bill's “identification with God” is shown by Neptune on his Mars and Ascendant along with Chiron and Jupiter in his first house. Bibi has a Sagittarius Ascendant and East Point with Chiron in the first house along with Venus in Sagittarius, and Jupiter is conjunct his Antivertex, the other auxiliary Ascendant. This repeated identification with the Absolute can range from “I ought to be perfect” to “I am God and can do anything I choose,” or “God will give me whatever I want.” Both men also have huge stellia in Libra, the sign most associated with politics and capable of immense charm. Both have Saturn in its own tenth house, emphasizing the drive for power. Both men have factors in Leo, sign of the king and the natural actor. Each also has at least one of the fire planets in Leo; the Sun for Bill and Mars for Bibi. Both also have the south lunar node, a key to lessons, connected to idealism. Bill has it in Sagittarius. Bibi has it conjunct Neptune. The south node points first to an area where we need to learn something, and then to an obligation to give something to the world. Both men see themselves as “saviors” but presumably are still working on lessons connected to beliefs, values, ideals, ethics, morals.
Of course, there are also differences. Bibi has more earth for practicality and conservatism. Even though he has only a degree and a half of Capricorn in his first house, that makes Saturn one of the keys to his identity and its placement in Virgo in its own Capricorn house shows the ability to be realistic in spite of his tendency toward over-confidence. Juno, a Scorpio asteroid, is also in Virgo in the tenth house, adding to the realism. Two more keys to identity, the Antivertex and Jupiter, which rules the first house Sagittarius, are both in Capricorn in the Taurus house, and Vesta, our super-Virgo asteroid, is also in Capricorn in the Taurus house for a statement of total earth. The fire-earth emphasis shows a potential steam-roller or molten lava flow. This can be tempered by Libra IF the Libra is expressed as compromise and cooperation, which is Bill Clinton's instinct. In Bibi, born into a society with a siege mentality, Libra is more likely to be expressed in competition and potential warfare. Neither man has much water if we just look at water signs and houses. Bibi has only Uranus in Cancer in the Scorpio house, an area where projection is common and we often attract other people who will express part of our nature for us. Bill has his Moon in the Scorpio house. But Bill's Neptune tightly conjunct his Ascendant and Mars show the capacity for the empathy and compassion of water. Bibi has a close Neptune, south lunar node, and Moon conjunction which could express as empathy, but the south node is a lesson first and the eleventh house is normally more developed in later years. It is also possible to project factors in air signs and houses into peer relationships, though this is less likely when they are in the first house where Bill has his Libra.
It will be fascinating to watch these two studs jockey on the world's stage. I am still hoping that Bill will be reelected, though, as I have written before, the asteroids point toward a Dole victory this fall. Bill is deeply invested in his efforts to bring peace in Israel, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere in the world. His life is like a comic opera as he pursues the high ideals of his rising Neptune, Chiron, and Jupiter to save both the U.S. workers and the world while one scandal after another haunts him (and Hillary), demonstrating some of the less lofty potentials of Neptune—deception and confusion.
Bibi's secondary progressions fit his current triumph and support the birth time given for him. His P Sun was just finishing three years of going over Venus and the East Point and P Chiron. P Chiron, which is like Jupiter, showing our beliefs, values, and goals, remains on his Venus for years along with a sextile/trine to the P mean lunar nodes. P Sun will maintain the sextile/trine to the nodes for another three years and will sextile the Moon and trine Pluto for another two years after that. Only time will tell whether these aspects of supreme confidence—“I know what I want and I can do it” —are an indication that he will be successful or whether they are over-confidence which will lead to a fall. One warning note is shown by P Sun square Saturn. This aspect started in early May 1996 and lasts for two years but then P Sun will square the midpoint of P and N Saturn, and follow that with a square to P Saturn while the P Sun sextiles the Moon and trines Pluto. This is a dangerous hint of overconfidence that could be brought down by Saturn, which in its own house is a double statement of what is possible and necessary. Saturn symbolizes the “rules of the game”—what we CAN do, what we CAN'T do, and what we HAVE to do if we want to survive in this physical world.
Other current aspects repeat the message. The harmony aspects are mostly in air and fire, representing personal desires and conscious ideas. The conflict aspects in earth show the danger of wanting more than is possible. P Venus is on P Jupiter in Aquarius with both sextile the Ascendant, hinting at excessive arrogance. P Pallas, our most political asteroid, is sextile Mars, with all of the planets, signs, and houses in the air and fire elements. P MC on the Sun is a mixed aspect. The MC carries the message of Saturn, so it is earth in its own nature, regardless of its sign in a chart. The Sun is fire, so this is a combination of the King whose personal will is Law and the Executive who carries out the Laws which are bigger than one's personal will. The pattern often times the attainment of power, but, if the individual has overreached, it can also lead to a fall. John F. Kennedy had his P Sun on his Washington, DC MC when he was elected President of the U.S. and P Sun had reached his birthplace MC when he was assassinated.
A similar aspect is P East Point (equivalent to Mars and the Ascendant as self-will in action) conjunct Jupiter in Capricorn. The Mars-Jupiter symbolism repeats the theme “My will is God.” Capricorn, the Saturn sign, warns of the limits of personal will and power, and of painful consequences if we bite off more than we can chew. P East Point is also square Ceres, a Cancer/Virgo mixture, suggesting tension involving jobs and other security issues. P Ascendant (personal identity in action) is coming to a trine to the MC in about three months, but it is also square Mercury in the tenth house, repeating the theme of limits and consequences with Mercury signifying the media and Libra indicating interactions which can be cooperative or competitive. P Vesta in Capricorn is square the natal Sun for one more repetition of the issue of fire (personal desire and power) confronting earth (the situation in the physical world). P Moon had finished a trine to N Sun just before the election, but it was still quincunx P Vesta when Bibi took on his new job (Vesta) thanks to the public (Moon). P MC started a square to P Vesta in the recent past, and if this 9:30 birth time is accurate, the aspect will last for several years. The MC moves somewhat faster than the asteroids, so it will eventually move out of orb. Around the middle of his four-year term of office, Bibi's P Vesta and P MC will form conflict aspects to Saturn. It does not look like an easy road ahead.
Turning to the extra asteroids, I wanted to check the possible keys to overreach—Icarus, Phaethon, and Hybris—as well as the many named for war and death, the ones which might signify Israel like Davida, the ones for America, and the personal names of current leaders. The asteroid Benjamina was natally in 4 Leo 29, just coming to Bibi's ninth house cusp when he was born. That fits his involvement with the law and ethics and foreign countries. P Benjamina is in 10 Leo 12 on Gaea (earth) and sextile Mercury as his beliefs and ability to communicate them play a major role in the affairs of earth. P Saturn holds a very long octile to N Benjamina, repeating once more the issue of his personal will in conflict with practical limits. Natal Arabia is in the degree of P Saturn and octile Benjamina, for Bibi's confrontation with the Arab world. Hephaistos, the god who made the weapons of Olympus, is in 20 Virgo 57, so P Mars has been conjunct it for at least two to three years while P Saturn just reached it as Bibi took power over Israel's military. Natal Libitina, one of the death goddesses, was in 11 Virgo 26 on both the MC and Juno, our Plutonian asteroid. The combination is decidedly militant. America in 12 Virgo is just over one degree from Libitina and Juno but P Chiron holds a long square to it, not a good augury for harmony with the country which has been the main supporter of Israel's freedom. An immediate clash is not likely. P America and P Juno are now moving together within one degree of each other and they are semisextile Bibi's N Sun on one side and his N Mars on the other side. But P Mercury will be moving in to square them in the period already noted between two and three years from now.
Many other asteroids could be mentioned which repeat the challenges that are likely in the coming years. P Mercury is square N Hel, a death goddess in 23 Pisces, fitting the news of Israeli deaths even before Bibi took office. P Mars will soon oppose P Hel, which was retrograde and is back to within one degree of its natal position. P Mars is also opposite P Nemesis, the god who came after you if you flouted Themis, Divine Law. P Winchester (the asteroid for guns), is on P Darwin (survival of the fittest) square a natal configuration of the Antivertex (personal action), Davida (for Israel), Chaldaea (for the general territory of Iraq and Iran) and Gingerich (for the Speaker of our House of Representatives). Another configuration includes P Williams (for Bill Clinton) on P Hephaistos (weapons) on P Epimetheus (looking back to the past), which are in 3 to 4 Capricorn opposite Uranus for potential changes and quincunx Benjamina. The quincunx is typical of new directions and possible separations.
Belisana, a war goddess, is on Vesta. P Bellona, another war goddess, is on P Medea (who killed her children) opposite N Mercury and square P Ascendant in Capricorn and P Anacostia, a river in Washington, DC, in Cancer. Bellona and Medea are also octile Phaethon in 25 Taurus. I use both Anacostia and Potomac, the city's other river, along with Washingtonia as keys to our nation's capital. P Potomac and P Washingtonia were both on his P Sun when Bibi won the election and our leaders had to deal with him. Clinton immediately invited Bibi to Washington and he is likely to go soon after he takes power. Both Bibi's P Sun and P Chiron are on his N Epimetheus (who looked back to the past) and within two months, P Sun reaches the war goddess, N Belisana.
As usual, there are so many relevant asteroids, it is hard to know when to stop. P Mercury will reach Icarus in about two years, and P Icarus is square Neptune and the P lunar nodes. During the recent years when Bibi was opposing the peace efforts of Rabin and Peres, P Icarus was going over Ra-Shalom and Utopia. Ra-Shalom was named in honor of the initial peace between Israel and Egypt. The meaning of Utopia is obvious. P Ra-Shalom is in 15 Aquarius quincunx Saturn, but with at least some hopeful aspects—a sextile to P Sun which is just starting and sextile/trines to Neptune and the lunar nodes. P Ascendant is trioctile N Phaethon and P Phaethon retrograding in 0 Taurus is quincunx the N Ascendant. Yes, it looks like overreach. P East Point opposes P Hela, another goddess of death, and P Nobel (dynamite) is quincunx her. P Antivertex is conjunct N Hybris (hubris) and P Pluto opposes it for years. P Hybris is octile Ra-Shalom and Utopia and octile/trioctile the P lunar nodes. There is much more, but that is enough of a theme for one article. I believe that character (habits) creates destiny, that we are born where we fit, and we play our karmic roles in the evolving cosmos as the Infinite manifests its previously unmanifested potentials.