As is his holy habit, the Prime Minister postponed the decision regarding the appointment of the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee until the last second. Maybe even beyond. Deputy Minister Ze'ev Elkin (no longer) has stepped down from the government and will return to the place he knows and loves so well when he is appointed chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in rotation with coalition chairman Yariv Levin. Levin will be replaced later.
Several insights emerge from this process:
It is very possible that Elkin and Levin, Levin and Elkin, are in the midst of developing a true and sincere political alliance that will lead them to the top leadership of the movement, while skipping the middle generation that develops ad hoc political alliances, when everyone knows that these alliances are temporary. See, for example, the alliance between Ministers Sa'ar and Shalom. Although all eyes are on Deputy Minister Danny Danon, it should be noted that the duo, who from now on will be referred to by "Alvin", is also gaining strength. Unlike Danon, he is doing so with a minimum of attention while conducting himself in an informed and matter-of-fact manner.
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The Elwin duo may be the Rabin and Peres of Israeli politics, only in the opposite and more positive way. It seems that the beginning of the alliance that was forged between them can be marked when Elkin inaugurated Levin when the latter took office as chairman of the Knesset committee, after the 2009 elections, and the fruitful cooperation between them continued even in the recent primaries.
Until a few weeks ago, the political betting exchange indicated that Netanyahu's existing coalition was going to fall apart. Honestly. One of Bennett's associates told me that if the deal to release the Arab-Israeli murderers had been implemented, Bennett would have left. That was the honest intention. But here, the deal did not go through and despite the fact that the negotiations are not progressing, not only did Yesh Atid not dissolve the coalition, but it is also overcoming a crisis regarding the appointment to head the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Yesh Atid will receive another deputy minister. Yes, those who preached about reducing the number of ministers and deputy ministers have thrown another principle into the trash.
It is important to emphasize: I have no criticism of the appointment, but I do have great criticism of the promises that we knew in advance could not be fulfilled. In this case, MK Ofer Shelah deserves to be a member of the Tsalash, while as of this writing he refuses to be a deputy minister.
And if we're talking about the Prime Minister: Netanyahu has defused another minefield and is weathering another coalition crisis, without really being scratched by the move. But it's worth noting something else: Knesset Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi was supposed to head the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, but he was flatly rejected. In our shallow politics, other MKs would be angry with the Prime Minister and looking for a way to get revenge. Not Hanegbi. He brings a different message to politics and it's to be assumed that he will be compensated for it. Anyone who criticized Hanegbi's political path can understand precisely in this testing case the patience of one of the most talented politicians who have been here forever.
If there is anything that could scratch the Prime Minister's back, it is the presidential election story. It seems that this is the first time that Minister Gideon Sa'ar and the Chairman of the Labor and Welfare Committee, Haim Katz, have clearly and blatantly united against the Prime Minister on the issue of postponing the presidential elections.
It's certainly not boring.
| Minimum attention-grabbing, maximum informed and businesslike conduct. Levin and Elkin• The writer is involved in promoting Israel in the world, lectures at the Israeli Center for Political Training, and is a columnist for Israel Today.'
