Benjamin Netanyahu’s swindling, thuggish behavior toward his decent, well-meaning partner, Benny Gantz, should be taught in criminology departments.
A year earlier, to avoid obeying the letter of the law and giving Gantz a chance to form a government, he forced the country into another round of elections.
And since there’s no justice, this man who drags a gang of racist nationalists, ultra-Orthodox politicians, criminals and messianists in his wake – people who, like him, are determined to destroy the legal system and the rule of law – is currently in the pole position to become prime minister.
Israel's Government of Change Nears End Along With Bennet's Political Career
Bennett will apparently resign soon and not run in the upcoming election as renegade lawmakers who brought down the government in hopes of joining the opposition may be left with nothing
The way Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that he was passing the
torch to Yair Lapid sounded a fitting final chord to the tune the
government they led has played for 375 days. They are political rivals
who were wise enough to create a rare partnership, almost utopian by
Israeli political standards. They began nicely and ended even better. We
were as dreamers – is this Israel, or Denmark?
Just a year ago, we ushered a prime minister who set the opposite
example into the opposition. Any agreement he signed was trampled on,
violated and thrown into the trash a moment after the ink had dried.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s swindling, thuggish behavior toward his decent,
well-meaning partner, Benny Gantz, should be taught in criminology
departments.
A year earlier, to avoid obeying the letter of the law and giving Gantz a
chance to form a government, he forced the country into another round of elections.
And since there’s no justice, this man who drags a gang of racist
nationalists, ultra-Orthodox politicians, criminals and messianists in
his wake – people who, like him, are determined to destroy the legal
system and the rule of law – is currently in the pole position to become
prime minister.
Bennett said he made his decision – the right one – after meeting Monday
night with two of his party’s lawmakers, Ayelet Shaked and Nir Orbach.
The latter made it clear that in his view, it’s over. He intended to
vote on Wednesday in favor of dissolving the Knesset. Shaked urged him
to wait a week. Government officials in Morocco were waiting for her.
Orbach did her a favor and agreed to wait until next Wednesday – a
decision he, poor guy, is doubtless cursing energetically.
Shaked took off with a quiet mind. Meanwhile, Bennett held another conversation, by phone, with Orbach.
It was very vocal and emotional. After it, the prime minister began
drafting what he would say in the joint announcement with Lapid.
His decency, collegiality and gentlemanly behavior toward Lapid was left
by the wayside in his relations with Shaked. It’s not just the
embarrassment she will face in Morocco. It’s the knowledge, which
certainly shocked her, that her political career is on the brink of an
abyss, and that Bennett didn’t even bother to wait a few days for her.
He did this in cold blood. He called to inform her 15 minutes before he
and Lapid issued their official statement, and after he had already
informed the heads of the other parties in the governing coalition.
Bennett will apparently resign soon and not run in the upcoming
election. He’ll await an opportunity outside of politics. Monday night,
he explained his dramatic decision by a desire to avoid “chaos” for West Bank settlers
when the regulations that apply Israeli law to them expire at the end
of the month. That is eminently believable. He doesn’t want that
catastrophe recorded under his name.
Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, his loyal partner, will
inherit the Yamina party and run at its head in the next election, or
else as part of some kind of joint ticket. There are no buyers for
Shaked’s merchandise. Netanyahu’s Likud party will slam the door on her.
Nor can she pin her hopes on New Hope; that party isn’t enthusiastic
about her, either. Perhaps her race for the gold is over (though it’s
impossible to know; politics holds many surprises).
As for New Hope, a lot of spin about it has
been thrown into the political air in recent weeks. There were even
so-called scoops about party leader Gideon Sa’ar being in talks with
Netanyahu about forming an alternative government.
But Sa’ar has no intention of sitting with Netanyahu – not in thisKnesset, and not in the next one, should
Netanyahu form the next government. His slogan from the 2021 election –
“Anyone who wants Netanyahu shouldn’t vote for me” – will be replaced in
the 2022 election with the following: “I won’t be the one who brings
Netanyahu back.”
Really, why should his position change? Has the man in question changed? Does he not still seek to halt his trial, even at the cost of destroying the entire system? Has he moderated? Has he become more statesmanlike? Less of a liar? Has he not set new records for inciting against, smearing and declaring open season on his rivals over the last year?
The disgustingness the political system sank into in recent weeks when a
gang of parliamentary grasshoppers lacking any substance or repute
dictated the pace and nature of events, will now come to an end. Orbach
will be left without anything, his soul-searching ending as a farce. The
most famous mortgage in the country is in danger. Idit Silman, who
caused the election, was promised a guaranteed slot on the Likud slate.
We’ll see what her fate is in light of the expected massacre there in
the party primary. Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi and Mazen Ghanayim will
disappear from our lives, she will return to Nof Hagalil and he to
Sakhnin. We won’t miss them.
As for Likud: For the first time in three years, and four rounds of
elections, the party will be forced to hold a primary again for its
Knesset slate – and also for party chairman. Yuli Edlestein promised to
run against Netanyahu. His chances, to be polite, are not good.
According to the system in Likud, about a third of the slate will not be
reelected. In addition, old new candidates are expected to join the
national primary list: Danny Danon and Gilad Erdan, the first a former
ambassador to the UN and the latter is still serving there.
Netanyahu could very well try to form an alternative government in the
present Knesset, but the chances are poor – as long as New Hope is not
in the game. Numerically, he could reach 61 lawmakers with parts of some
parties and individual lawmakers, but that is not how you build a wall.
Such a government would be a sort of temporary solution, until a new
election is set.
In the center-left camp, or in its alternative name the “anyone but Bibi
camp” – the opening situation is problematic. Meretz, after the Zoabi
trauma, is shuddering. New Hope has only four seats in most of the
polls. It looks like there will be new players, Gadi Eisenkot for
example, one of the most decent, moral and modest IDF chiefs of staff.
He will most likely join Yesh Atid as the number 2 of the camp’s
candidate for prime minister. Lapid earned this role honestly over the
past year, and with the concessions he made on the way to forming the
present government.
