Yonatan Yavin.
Photo: Nimrod Golan
Bennett's criticisms are part of his game-plan
Minister Naftali Bennett attacked the PM, accusing him of going with Defense Minister Ya'alon's 'flow.' But is he correct about who's flowing and who's going?
In contrast with the usual order of play, I'd like to open this article on a personal note and announce – inspired by Minister Naftali Bennett – that I oppose every word I write here, and condemn my paper for agreeing to "go with my flow" and give me this stage. That slang word, "flow," was used by Education Minister (!) Naftali Bennett to condemn the Prime Minister of the government in which he serves, for the fact that he is open to hearing the advice of his Defense Minister (how strange), Moshe Ya'alon.
Bennett was in fact speaking out against the coalition of which he is a member, just like a common opposition member funded by foreign bodies (will someone mark that fellow with an identifying badge please?). Don't call it surrealism, that's a leftist word. How about we settle for "schizophrenia," which only looks more severe when you remember that Bennett is also a member of the Security Cabinet, meaning he is criticizing the security strategies he himself took part in developing.
Minister Naftali Bennett. Who's flowing with who? (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
What did Bennett seek to achieve with this move? Did he want Netanyahu to fire him? The PM has let ministers go for lesser statements in the past, and just look at how many ministries he's already gathered under his control. However, with such a precarious coalition Netanyahu can't even fire a fly, and Bennett knows it. Perhaps he just wanted to annoy Netanyahu for fun, showing the public that the man is so weak as to not be capable of firing a rogue minister? That doesn't sound right. There are ministers who favor such sadistic pranks, but Bennett is not among them.
It seems the minister of education was speaking his heart, then. Netanyahu promised security, but people are afraid of leaving the house and mothers are being murdered at their doorstep in front of their children. Bennett doesn't want to be fired and doesn't want to quit. He wants the Defense Ministry, because he can use it to build more settlement outposts.
Therefore, and not very innocently, he cleared the boss, who's merely "flowing" along, and left the tar and feathers for Ya'alon. Bennett did not innocently misread the cause and effect here, or who was going with whose flow.
DM Ya'alon. A man of action. (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
If there's one person famous for inaction that shows no hint of planning, of procrastination that could end in intensifying small flaws until they become national catastrophes, of impassivity that allows our enemies foreign and domestic to dictate our reality and drag us into another "round" of violence – it's Prime Minister Netanyahu, not the man of action Ya'alon.
If anything, you can criticize Ya'alon for going with the flow of his boss's incompetence.
It's worth looking at the responses to Bennett's accusations, from Netanyahu's associates in general and Ya'alon in particular. These are the people who compared Bennett to an internet commenter from the opposition, with Ya'alon calling him childish and even saying that "leadership is responsibility, not chasing after a few 'likes' on Facebook." This makes it seem like Ya'alon is also lacking in the emotional quotient department. Had he bothered to visit Netanyahu's Facebook page, he would have seen that his boss has no problem with being seen as a "like"-hunting internet commentator. In fact, he welcomes it.
