Bibi's final trick
Op-ed: Having finally been relieved of the burden of indecision over whether to remain in the coalition, Lapid and Livni now need to join forces with Herzog to defeat the duplicitous prime minister.
Fans of magic acts know the drill: The audience has its collective eyes fixed on the exposed hands of the master magician, who is about to pull a rabbit from his hat; it knows it's about to be fooled and makes every effort to remain focused and spot how the trick is done.
At the last second, its attention is distracted by the scantily clad magician's assistant or a plume of smoke rising up on the side of the stage; the rabbit appears from the top hat and everyone, surprised once again, cheers enthusiastically.
The so-called nationality bill was in fact a distraction technique performed by the greatest magician in the history of the Jewish nation. Benjamin Netanyahu won't get it passed in its current wording, but we've all forgotten the things with which we've been truly preoccupied in recent times – the intensified terror, the lowering of our credit rating, and the rise in unemployment. Instead, Israeli citizens are being forced to solve the dramatic cryptic riddle: Are we a Jewish and democratic state or, in contrast, a democratic and Jewish one?
Surprisingly, this periodic smoke grenade has in fact scattered the fog of our political reality. In his previous magic act, Netanyahu managed to convince us that he really had put together a real government. Look, there sits Danny Danon, a proponent of the concept of a Greater Israel, in a coalition together with Tzipi Livni, who wants to divide the country. It doesn't add up. But with a touch of magic powder, anything can work. Netanyahu speaks of a two-state solution, and ups construction in the territories at the same time.
A good question is how did the two join a coalition with Netanyahu in the first place. A quick search on Google would have shown them that every government Netanyahu formed eventually crumbled due to his failure to uphold promises to his political partners.
The first Netanyahu government (1996-1999) fell after David Levy's Gesher faction pulled out, while Yisrael B'Aliyah, The Third Way, Shas and United Torah Judaism refused to support the budget because of Netanyahu's breach of promises.
The second Netanyahu government (2009-2013) included the Labor Party, too, and the coalition agreement stated that "the government will promote the political process and work towards forwarding peace with our neighbors." Labor – aside from Ehud Barak and four other Knesset members whose political footprints have since vanished – abandoned the government after the political negotiations stalled.
Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz also joined that government on the promise of a change in the electoral system and the drafting of the ultra-Orthodox. He fled after just two and a half months, when he realized Netanyahu was still the same old Netanyahu.
The negotiations Netanyahu has held with the ultra-Orthodox are proof that the inclusion of Yair Lapid and Livni in his current government was merely an act of deception towards the public. After all, we're essentially dealing with contrasting worldviews, suggesting that Netanyahu's sole motive is to break David Ben-Gurion's record number of years as prime minister, without actually doing a single thing.
Lionel Messi recently became the Spanish soccer league's all-time leading scorer, breaking yet another record in his career. Netanyahu plans to break the Israeli record without scoring even a single goal.
Okay, so Netanyahu is a certified magician. If he were to cease his trickery, he could lose his credibility. But what excuses do Livni and Lapid have for continuing to serve as the magician prime minister's apprentices up until Tuesday?
What else had to happen to stop them from participating in this masquerade until the very last moment? After all, after his Monday night meeting with the prime minister, Lapid finally understood that agreements with Netanyahu are worth nothing.
Netanyahu's decision to fire Livni and Lapid brought their dilemma to an end. They now need to form a common front with Isaac Herzog, in order to establish an alternative to Netanyahu - and make the current government Bibi's last magic trick.
