A side discussion in the Knesset's Interior and Environmental Protection Committee this (Monday) morning is indicative of the mood in the ruling party. Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar referred to the bill 'Sabbath Day in Local Authority Elections' and sarcastically commented: "It is important to make changes to the election laws some time before the elections and not like they tried to do in other elections only recently.".
Many people sat around the table in the committee discussion and smiled. And not under their mustaches. Saar's open declaration of rebellion against Netanyahu began with a Facebook status a few weeks ago: "I will oppose any attempt, if there is one, to postpone the date of the presidential elections or to cancel the institution of the presidency on the eve of the contest.".
Since then, the feud between Saar and Netanyahu has been open and obvious. Saar, who has not dared to publicly oppose Netanyahu in recent years, is tired of seeing Netanyahu strengthen in the polls and is planning another run in 2017 when none of the Likud senior leaders dares to challenge his position. His former opponent, Minister Silvan Shalom, has been pushed aside. Minister Yisrael Katz, who during the six months after the elections continued to publicly debate with the prime minister (mainly regarding 'where is the Likud's money'), has made amends with Netanyahu and slowed down.
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And Saar, a skilled politician, has identified in recent weeks the weakness and the right place where it is worth, finally, coming out openly.
A few days ago I posted on the blog, that Saar and Naftali Bennett met secretly, in the darkness of the Western Wall tunnels on Jerusalem Day. The justification, ostensibly, was a joint tour of a new wing of the Western Wall tunnels guided by the director general of the Western Wall Tunnels. Saar apparently planned to tour there in advance and Bennett, who heard that Saar would be hanging out in the Western Wall tunnels, rushed to unexpectedly join him and chat with him. It was important to Bennett, very important, to catch Saar in a quiet moment in the Western Wall tunnels and talk. About what? Only they both know, but we will leave it to Netanyahu's people to investigate what the two are up to.
The joint tour of the Western Wall tunnels took place about a day after Bennett joined Saar in endorsing Rivlin for president. Bennett's timing was perfect for him, just an hour before Netanyahu called Rivlin to announce his support, but Bennett took it a step further. In a meeting with students at Bar-Ilan a few days ago, Bennett told them that his (Bennett's) public announcement of support for Rivlin was what led Netanyahu to announce his support as well.
Bennett's megalomania in recent weeks has an explanation. He saw how he managed to pull the entire negotiation discourse with the Palestinians far to the right. How he and his party influence the public discourse more than anyone else. How Netanyahu, who declared that the two-state solution is the solution, is doing everything he can to derail the negotiations.
Netanyahu actually boasted (about a week ago) to the Likud youth that he is the prime minister who built the most in the territories, more than all his predecessors, despite severe international pressure. The one who builds the most will certainly not be the one who gives the Palestinians a state.
In an article about Bennett that aired on Channel 2 on Friday evening, Bennett was asked if he was running for prime minister, and Bennett played it modest. The time has not yet come. But anyone with eyes in their heads reads the political map well. Bennett sees himself as the leader of the right. He grew up in Netanyahu's office and later in the Yesha Council, some of whose senior members are clear Likud figures (Danny Dayan, Shevach Stern, and more).
Likud leans very far to the right and the competition (from Bennett's perspective) is for those votes and the vacuum that Liberman may leave (not Rivlin, yes Rivlin, I do what Netanyahu says, I am pragmatic and love John Kerry, I am in favor of handing over the Triangle territories, I am moderate, I suggest that Arab protesters march to Ramallah and stay there, I demand loyalty - with such zigzags, Liberman will finish below the new threshold).
Bennett and others on the right are confident that the number of votes among annexation enthusiasts is only growing.
MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) is also convinced that he is Netanyahu's next heir. In his conversation with Likud supporters last Sunday in Bnei Brak (at an event hosted by Yaakov Vider), he was asked by an active Likud member, Barak Hershkowitz, about his opinion on the law allowing surrogacy for gays, and he also answered at length about his personal aspirations: "I must be prime minister because in order to succeed in creating a state that will strengthen Jewish identity, we need leadership that seeks to realize the will of our Father in Heaven. One that is deeply rooted in the Jewish faith. Until then, even if the right is in the majority, it will be the left's tool bearer (the intention in the last sentence is apparently that the right will let the left continue negotiations for the sake of negotiations)."
And as for the rights of the gay community? Here Feiglin can wave "I have friends from the community" but continue on his own, because anyway, what is the proportion of voters who support the Likud? "If you ask me whether a gay family is equal in value to a normative family? The answer is no. I see the traditional family as valuable. A family of a man and a woman. In addition, in the discussion about surrogacy, the rights of the child are not taken into account.".
At the meeting of the heads of the factions in the Knesset, on Monday morning, the movement's chairwoman, Tzipi Livni, was absent.
"Where is Tzipi?" he asked. Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein.
"She went to the swearing-in of the Palestinian unity government," coalition chairman Yariv Levin replied jokingly, happily, and with a smile on his face.
Livni has not yet definitively joined the Labor Party, but the background noise about her contacts with Herzog is constantly present. In the Labor Party, as part of a planned attack on the coalition leaders, they pulled out the timetables and promises of the Finance Minister. In June 2013, Lapid said, "Within a year and a half, it will be better here," and Labor began counting down the time.
They, Herzog and his friends, have six months to tell Lapid about economic improvements and also six months (maybe) to pull Livni in their direction. Everyone's stopwatches are ticking.
At the same time, I will just continue to count for the Prime Minister. (He hasn't held a single press conference in two years, and with all due respect to Lapid and the economic situation, he's the one who should be giving answers to the public about the cost of living, real estate prices, the drying up of social services, the crisis at Hadassah, and more.).
From a column in 'Tal Schneider's Blog':
http://www.talschneider.com/?p=10505
