Tomorrow afternoon, the first representatives of Israel’s political parties will arrive at the Central Elections Committee to submit their candidate lists for the 26th Knesset. Until the filing period closes Tuesday at 10 p.m., we will hear about mergers, last-minute recruits and those pushed off the slates, who will soon be watching events in the Knesset on television instead of taking part in them.
But amid all the maneuvering over names and positions, the most interesting story is Benjamin Netanyahu. Look at what has happened to him. He heads the ruling party. His campaign managers like to describe him as being “in a league of his own.” Yet he has been unable to recruit even one prominent, respected figure capable of bringing new voters to Likud and helping obscure the depths into which this government has taken us over the past four years.
Mr. Netanyahu, your election problem is not what time you were awakened on October 7. It is the years in which you were prime minister. That is what Israelis will be asked to judge when they enter the voting booth.
What about the other contenders?
Gadi Eisenkot arrives prepared for the task of repairing what has happened here. There is something highly symbolic in Shirel Hagag of Ofakim joining him. Hagag’s sister Eli and her family were wounded when terrorists set fire to their home on October 7. He knows firsthand the price paid for the way this country has been governed.
Yair Lapid presents a very different picture. Behind the pleasant exterior lies a remarkably ruthless streak. He severed his relationship with Ehud Olmert in one sharp move, and now he is removing people who stood beside him while he built Yesh Atid. My prediction: Lapid, too, is approaching the end of his political road.
Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid
(Photo: Dana Kopel)
Gilad Erdan and the other figures who briefly challenged us by announcing plans to form political parties remind me of something from childhood. We used to blow through a plastic ring into a mixture of water and a dishwashing liquid called “Ama,” then chase the bubbles that appeared. Within less than a minute, they burst. The same thing happened to Erdan, who announced Friday that he would not run. An “Ama” party.
Avigdor Lieberman is another matter. Anyone still hesitating over whether to vote for him should watch Omri Assenheim’s interview with him. He is the most experienced of the contenders and the person most deserving of a seat at every major decision-making table.
Gideon Sa’ar convinced me once
Gideon Sa’ar once persuaded me not to vote for Netanyahu, and I voted for Sa’ar. So I smiled when I heard him now explain that Eisenkot lacks experience and is therefore unfit to serve as prime minister.
Gideon Sa’ar
(Photo: Lior Sharon)
Gideon, you convinced me, but you did it earlier. I will continue to be angry over the poison machine that tried to destroy you, politically and personally.
A message about exclusion
Avi Gil, wise and sharp as ever, spent decades as one of Shimon Peres’ closest aides. He recently wrote to me:
“I’ve had enough. I will not sit under someone tainted, under someone who won’t enlist, under someone who didn’t wake anyone, under someone who didn’t wake up, under someone who never decided anything in any arena, under someone with an ego and under someone unwilling to kiss my ass.”
A message for Yoaz Hendel and for every list that promises to exclude Israel’s Arab citizens from the basic right not only to vote, but to participate in government.
Listen to other voices
The poet Else Lasker-Schüler arrived in Jerusalem in 1937 and lived here in dire poverty. Today she is regarded as one of Germany’s national poets. Nathan Zach translated a fragment of one of her poems:
“Sometimes a single person is an entire people, yet every person is a world and has a kingdom of heaven, if only he nurtures the nobility growing within him. God above does not ask that blood be spilled in His name. Whoever kills his fellow man has killed the God within him.”
Our country is strewn with violence. Listen to other voices. Perhaps we will awaken to a different world.