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Does Netanyahu have an organized plan which will secure his way to his fourth term as PM?
Photo: AFP
Nahum Barnea

Has Netanyahu stopped functioning or is it all an act?

Analysis: The prime minister has had enough of his partners, and has had enough of the rules of the game. He has entered a state which psychologists may define as close to manic depression.

Most Israelis were not concerned about the governmental crisis until now. There is, they thought, some remote bill, something about nationality, which no one really cares about. Let the politicians play their games, and we will move on with our lives.

 

 

They were unfazed even when Coalition Chairman Zeev Elkin announced that the budget law would not be approved by December 31. So it won't be approved, they said. There's enough time to approve the budget by the end of March.

 

I suggest that we all start worrying, and I'll start with an example: Under the law, when the budget is not approved by the Knesset by December 31, the government can only operate in the framework of the current year's budget. The budget is divided by 12 and the ministries are budgeted according to the clauses they were given in the existing budget, no more and no less.

 

The defense establishment received in the 2014 budget NIS 51 billion (about $13 billion). Ahead of the 2015 budget, it demanded – and received – an addition of NIS 6 billion ($1.5 billion). Even NIS 57 billion ($14.5 billion) are not enough, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon argues, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees with him half-heartedly.

 

From January 1, the defense establishment will have to live on NIS 51 billion divided by 12 per month. This is a command the IDF will not be able to endure, and Treasury officials agree. It doesn’t only mean halting Air Force flights and cancelling training sessions, but it is also a serious blow to the army's preparedness and regular security.

 

The IDF Band will escort the new chief of staff to his office. The trombones will play Naomi Shemer's folk song "Tomorrow," but the IDF will stay behind, will remain in yesterday.

 

All the budget additions Finance Minister Yair Lapid got the social ministries –Education, Social Services and Health – and all the reforms approved by the government will be frozen. Some economic commentators may rejoice at the social organizations' downfall, but the Treasury, even the Treasury, will find it difficult to cope with the results.

 

Netanyahu's harsh comments against Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni last week left no doubt as to the direction the prime minister is headed in, at least as far as Lapid is concerned.

 

In elections like in elections, Lapid is now attacking Netanyahu with all the might of his tongue. According to his perception, Netanyahu's attacks made things easier for him twice: Once when he basically took the responsibility for the government's collapse, and the second time when he portrayed Lapid as his big enemy.

 

Netanyahu's harsh comments against Finance Minister Lapid left no doubt as to the direction the prime minister is headed in. Now, Lapid is hitting back at him with all his might (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)
Netanyahu's harsh comments against Finance Minister Lapid left no doubt as to the direction the prime minister is headed in. Now, Lapid is hitting back at him with all his might (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)

 

The nationality law is not the reason for the crisis; it's the symptom. The beginning of the crisis can be seen one night 22 months ago, once all the votes were counted in the elections to the 19th Knesset. Netanyahu, despite the blow the election results dealt him, managed to establish a government. In the new government he was surrounded by young and ambitious politicians, who sought and are still seeking to inherit him. This was not the government he had hoped for.

 

And its beginning can be seen in a series of personal failures Netanyahu suffered in the past few months, starting from his pathetic struggle against Reuven Rivlin, his party's candidate for president, to the moment the majority of the Knesset voted against him on the future of the local free newspaper.

 

Netanyahu has had enough of his partners, and has had enough of the rules of the game. He has entered a state which is close to what people who know more about psychology than I do define as manic depression.

 

Not so long ago, Netanyahu hosted the members of a certain family as part of an annual ceremony which every prime minister must participate in. In previous years, Netanyahu tried to be polite and say what he was expected to say as part of his position. This time he was different.

 

"We entered a dark room," one of the family members recalled. "Netanyahu appeared gloomy and depressed. He pointed at the map of the Middle East, and broke into a speech about Israel's horrible situation in the face of Iran, in the face of the radical Islamic outburst in the Arab world, in the face of the Palestinians' schemes. It was terrifying."

 

Some ministers are convinced that it's all an act, that Netanyahu is operating under an organized plan which will secure his way to his fourth term as prime minister. And some ministers are convinced that he has stopped functioning.

 

The debate over the defense budget, for example, has been on his desk for weeks. He is avoiding a decision. The Histadrut labor federation is threatening to launch a general strike next Sunday. He isn't intervening. He isn't even picking up the phone.

 

The same applies to Gadi Eisenkot's appointment as IDF chief of staff. The appointment has been lying on his desk, yet he kept postponing the decision. It seems there was apparently no big plot here, just a paralysis in the ability to make a decision.

 

On Friday morning he saw the newspapers gang up on him and realized that the two television channels which are not subject to him would gang up on him in the evening news editions. He released a statement after Shabbat had already begun, promising to release a statement at the end of the day of rest. This is how the Israelis were informed about the chief of staff's appointment.

 

Netanyahu's version of the Jewish nation-state law is expected to be published on Sunday. Elkin of the Likud faction and Knesset Member Ayelet Shaked of Bayit Yehudi, who hold the other two versions, are willing to drop their own bills and pave the way for Netanyahu's softened proposal. The nationality law crisis can allegedly be skipped, but there is a feeling that everyone has missed the opportunity: The election train has left the station.

 

Regardless of all these harsh words, I have a few good words to say about the new chief of staff. He is a sensible, level-headed and thorough person. He will likely get through the Turkel Committee, which vets senior civil service appointments, and the High Court of Justice without any difficulties.

 

One riddle remains: How does an Israeli whose father was born in Marrakesh and whose mother was born in Casablanca have a Polish last name like Eisenkot?

 

I am not the only person who has asked this question; so have Eisenkot's children as part of a school project on the family's roots. The response they got from their father was: I don’t know. It's possible that the original surname was slightly different and that someone made it more Ashkenazi-sounding along the way. In any event, it's an excellent appointment.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.01.14, 00:41
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