It's the dawn of an old day
Op-ed: On his way to victory, Netanyahu didn't stop at anything, including burning all bridges to US President Barack Obama, confronting almost every possible sector and renouncing his promise of two states for two people.
Let's not be confused: This isn't the Likud's victory. This is the victory of one man, perhaps the best campaigner of all times, who managed within three days to tip the scales from a negative momentum for his party to a wild victory.
He did it by using lies, throwing false accusations at his rivals, lashing out at the media and inciting. On the way to this victory, he didn't stop at anything, including burning all the bridges to US President Barack Obama, confronting almost every possible sector, including his comment Tuesday against the Arab public, which was nothing short of a disgrace, and renouncing the promise he made in the previous election of two states for two people.
All the compliments to Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog for his achievement can’t erase the simple fact that the way things look now, Israel got Netanyahu for four more years. If on Tuesday morning there was still a feeling of a political turnover, in the night we realized that things will remain the same. Israel is entering another era of the Netanyahu family in the house on Balfour Street, with all that it implies.
The "help" campaign waged by Netanyahu in the past few days succeeded in emptying out Naftali Bennett and Eli Yishai's Knesset seats and positioned the Likud as the biggest party. The Likud's public answered the call and came home. Nine years of inaction, of international isolation, of serious state comptroller reports and of a feeling of alienation among the Israeli public were not enough for the Israelis to say: No more.
But Netanyahu's achievement cannot erase what was revealed in Tuesday's exit polls – the fact that Israel is divided. For half of the nation, the result was like a punch in the stomach. In the past few weeks, Netanyahu radicalized his stances, and only two days ago he retracted his old commitment of two states for two people. In the negative campaign he waged in the past few days against the entire world, he managed to alienate entire groups in the population.
All this won't change the fact that the key is today in Netanyahu's hands. With all the president's goodwill, Bibi will be in charge of things now. And if he does what he said he would, he will first of all build his narrow government with his natural partners – the Likud, Bayit Yehudi and the ultra-Orthodox parties. Then he will try to get Kulanu to join. But Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon said he won't join a narrow government with the right and the haredim. The person who could help him go in is Avigdor Lieberman.
The Yisrael Beytenu chairman is a treasure for Netanyahu, way beyond his electoral power, which means that the prime minister will be willing to give him a lot to get him to enter the coalition. Have we already mentioned the Defense portfolio? Lieberman's entry may make Kahlon's entry possible, but he will have to get over the bad blood flowing between him and his prime minister. Kahlon knows more than anyone else what it means to be a successful minister under Netanyahu, particularly a finance minister. And if he doesn’t know, he should ask Lapid.
Will he be convinced that things will be different this time? Will he believe Netanyahu's promise to back him? That's hard to believe, especially after what Netanyahu did to him in the past few days. Kahlon is not a person who forgets easily. Or forgives. His decision will decisive when it comes to the coalition's composition.
And there is the option of a national unity government. Judging from Netanyahu's pre-election declarations, that won't happen. But since when do we pay any attention to his declarations? It's hard to see Herzog agreeing to enter a government with Netanyahu without a rotating premiership agreement. He will need much more than that to convince his party members to be part of Netanyahu's coalition, which also includes Bennett.
And there is one more possibility, an almost imaginary one, and that's a government led by Herzog. That will happen if Kahlon and Lieberman decide not to go with Netanyahu after all. If these two men's regard for Netanyahu is a measure of what they might do, it's not impossible.
