What more could have been done to persuade Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end his disgraced friendship that he did not have to abide by the coalition agreement he signed with Benny Gantz seven months ago?
Netanyahu had devised new rules for the political game. According to him, the biennial budget for 2020-2021 which should have passed in August was only a piece for him to play when appropriate and not a requirement for government action.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: Reuters)
Under Netanyahu’s new rules, the deal that would give Gantz the top spot in November 2021 was just a joke that would never come.
Former Labor minister Haim Ramon, who led the talks between Blue & White and Likud in the run-up to the Knesset disarmament, said just as the two parties seemed to be shaking hands away from preventive elections, Netanyahu asked him to remain prime minister until May 2022.
But according to Netanyahu’s new rules, Blue & White is to blame for the fourth election in two years.
But it was the arrogance of Netanyahu, who refused to listen to anyone else, whose sycophantic cheerleaders circulating party propaganda that brought Israel to this point. Admittedly, Gantz’s embarrassing weakness and lack of political understanding were also part of it.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: Tal Shahar)
The former news of Netanyahu ally Gideon Sa’ar that he was leaving Likud to form his own party and run against the prime minister in the upcoming elections – as well as his promise not to sit his -ever in partnership with him – a new challenge.
In Sa’ar, the consummate politician has for the first time turned against a clever and skilled lawyer in his own hand, a man who was not so long ago a trustee, cabinet secretary and coalition whip.
The Sa’ar move demonstrated in repealing the budget expansion bill – which Netanyahu believed had a Knesset majority – shocked the prime minister.
The political board was spent. The majority of the Israeli population may be just, but they may not be Likud voters.
Former Likud distiller Gideon Sa’ar has set up his own party to challenge Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: Amit Shabi)
For the first time, swathes of the right wing are accompanied by the camp “Anyone but Netanyahu”. The first flaw of Yisrael leader Beytenu was Avigdor Liberman, another former acolyte, and now a Sa’ar. This should keep Netanyahu awake at night.
The Prime Minister alone has caused a shift in the right wing that has now spread to the electorate. He may never accuse those who do not follow him of being leavers, communists or spies, but he has enough keyboard heroes to do so of his own free will. .
And despite the landmark normalization agreements and the coronavirus vaccines, the elections are not going to play out as Netanyahu expected.
He has no control over the game anymore.
Limor Livnat was previously a Likud MK and a minister