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Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Who can replace him? Anyone
Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Eitan Haber

Netanyahu is not irreplaceable

Op-ed: Israel’s next prime minister could come from politics, from agriculture, from the academia, from the army, from anywhere. He could arrive at the helm from the periphery or from a wealthy city. He could be Ashkenazi or Sephardic or mixed. He could be everything and everyone. The best recent example is Donald Trump.

It’s quite possible—and we'll never know about it—that one of the most delightful and exciting occasions for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the moment when he says to himself, or at least thinks: Look around, who can replace me? The weak Isaac Herzog? The frantic Naftali Bennett? Moshe Kahlon, who I have yet to speak out against? Yair Lapid, the political rookie?

 

 

At this moment, the prime minister calms down. As far as he is concerned, the land will now have peace for at least forty years. He and his family will get to move to the new prime minister’s residence, which has recently been approved. He will get to see his son, Yair, sworn in as his replacement-successor at the Knesset plenum. All it takes is a little patience.

 

The answer to the question who can replace Netanyahu can be found in a Jewish question: Did anyone imagine so and so years ago that Ehud Olmert, No. 30 something on the Likud’s Knesset list, would become prime minister? (And many believe he was an excellent prime minister.) And did anyone imagine in the past that the Air Force commander would go on to become the IDF’s chief of staff? (Oh, he quit because he didn’t do very well in the Second Lebanon War? Did we do very well in the first Lebanon War? And when have we ever had, like now, 10 consecutive quiet years on the Lebanon border?)

 

Netanyahu. Apart from he himself, his parents and his brother, who ever thought he would become prime minister? (Photo: Amit Shabi) (Photo: Amit Shabi)
Netanyahu. Apart from he himself, his parents and his brother, who ever thought he would become prime minister? (Photo: Amit Shabi)

  

So the answer to the question who can replace Netanyahu is: Everyone, including those who are not on the list or in the minds of the crowners right now. The next prime minister could come from politics, from agriculture, from the academia, from the army, from anywhere. He could arrive at the helm from the periphery or from the wealthy city of Savyon. He could be Ashkenazi or Sephardic or mixed. He could be everything and everyone. The best recent example is Donald Trump. There is not a single person in America who did not chuckle about two years ago when Trump’s name was first raised as a candidate for the most important position in the world. Now, he is having the last laugh.

 

The problem here is that the bar was set by a short but great man: David Ben-Gurion, whose many virtues were acknowledged even by his rivals (although he had quite a few shortcomings too). When Ben-Gurion resigned as prime minister the first time, in 1954, everyone panicked: What will happen now? Who will replace the one and only in his generation? And then he was replaced by Moshe Sharett and later by Levi Eshkol, and the sky did not fall, and some will say they were as good in that job as Ben-Gurion was or even better (I personally don’t think so, by the way).

 

It’s true that Netanyahu is an intelligent person with a deep understanding of the state of mind in the Israeli society, and mainly an excellent campaigner who is capable of selling tuna fish to tuna fishermen and even making a significant profit out of it. But it’s the position—prime minister—which makes the person. What was Netanyahu before he went into politics? A sales agent at the Rim furniture company. Apart from he himself, his parents and his brother, who ever thought he would become prime minister?

 

The only conclusion is that no one is irreplaceable, even if he is prime minister. In Israel, this is a very difficult and complicated job, perhaps more than any other public position in the world, but the fact is that quite a lot of people are eying the house on Jerusalem’s Balfour Street.

 

Not a word has been written yet, and not a word will likely be written in this context, about one person, among the most talented ones. Pay attention to the person whose term in a senior IDF position has been quietly extended by one year and then by another year. He too will likely be a worthy candidate. Now’s the time for guessing.

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.25.17, 11:14
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