The chill that accompanied the Prime Minister at the press conference in which he declared that Operation Protective Edge Continued - when on the other half of the screen IDF tanks were seen leaving the Gaza Strip - disappeared. For Netanyahu, and naturally for other prime ministers as well, the heavy burden on their shoulders and the political and security dilemmas take on psychosomatic expression.
Ehud Olmert broke out with shingles at the end of the Second Lebanon War, while Netanyahu always has the same annoying cold that appears along with the need to make difficult decisions.
The sharp transition from coolness to ease and confidence that Netanyahu spread everywhere at the press conference yesterday, along with the confusing polls of recent days, paralyzed the political system. Israel has left Gaza, but has entered confusion: on the one hand, the public expresses dissatisfaction with the results of Operation Protective Edge, and on the other hand, it gives good marks to Netanyahu, Ya'alon, and Gantz; on the one hand, there is no sense of clear failure, and on the other, there is no feeling of a resounding victory either.
It is possible that Israeli society, which so longed for a sweeping victory like the Six-Day War or a thrilling operation like the operation to rescue the hostages from Entebbe under the command of Yoni Netanyahu, is maturing and painfully internalizing the fact that such victories have passed from the world.
When the cannons roared, the muses barbarized themselves to know. In the last two days, with the end of the Hitlerite shockwave, the muses have also been silent. They see the strange polls and don't understand what the public wants to hear. The politician who will go against the tide and be the first to burst the balloon of consensus and unity has not yet been found, certainly not when the public can't currently find anyone to blame for the gray results of the operation.
Minister Uzi Landau, who said that Israel had lost, received deadly criticism. As long as the first 72 hours of the ceasefire are not over, rants will be seen as irresponsible. And the cabinet ministers understand this well. They have spoken enough in the last three weeks. Any statement by Naftali Bennett or Avigdor Lieberman at this time will be seen as a taunt within the APC. They will gain nothing from it now. To get their points, they must wait for the negotiations to fail or for rockets to rain down on the southern settlements. The "waiting period" was the name of the period before the Six-Day War. Today, it is an appropriate name for the first days of the end of the fighting in Protective Edge. The waiting for the final agreement, as well as the waiting for the long knives that will still be drawn on the right.
In political terms, the main difference between Protective Edge and previous operations is the proximity to the elections. "Cast Lead" and "Pillar of Cloud" were conducted in the midst of a Knesset election campaign. The right-wing parties - Likud in 2009 and Bayit Hayehudi in 2013 - openly and publicly stretched their wings immediately after the fighting ended in order to strike while the iron was hot and reap the political dividends just before the elections.
This time, in Protective Edge, no one knows when the next elections will be held, so no one is currently in a hurry to voice public criticism. Bennett and Lieberman have already registered opposition to Netanyahu's overly restrained moves during the fighting, they don't need to repeat it again right now.
Perhaps even on the contrary, at a stage where negotiations for a settlement are still taking place in Cairo, criticism at this time will be perceived as unstatesmanlike and unbecoming of someone who claims to be a national leader. They can still justify the statements made during the fighting and say that they tried to influence decision-making. But right now they have no choice but to wait and see where the sandstorms created by the chains of tanks that left the Strip blow.
Commission of Inquiry
Netanyahu's luck is that his opposition leader is not Bibi, and that Bennett has been a cabinet minister for a year and a half and not the opposition leader's Kambatz. It is absolutely clear that the two, who after the Second Lebanon War organized demonstrations by reservists against Olmert, would still kill the prime minister today and demand the establishment of a committee of inquiry into the tunnels' failure and the first ceasefire.
For now, the questions that arise from the conduct of the operation will remain unanswered. No one at the political level dares to demand the establishment of a commission of inquiry. The camp that extends from the center and left cannot make any claims after supporting Netanyahu's restrained policy throughout the fighting, and the right is also caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, it is frustrated by the outcome of Operation Protective Edge and the restraint and restraint with which Netanyahu and Ya'alon conducted the campaign, and on the other hand, it understands that its criticism of the prime minister and the defense minister will constitute a reward for Hamas. Moreover, the national camp is afraid of breaching the wall of consensus that Israeli society has built over the past month.
Earlier this week, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Zeev Elkin, declared that the committee he chairs will serve as an investigation committee. This could actually serve Netanyahu. The committee, which will channel criticism and serve as an outlet for venting steam, will obviate the need to appoint a state investigation committee. It is hard to believe that when the committee discusses ministerial responsibility, there will be MKs who will accuse Lieberman or Netanyahu. After all, this is a Knesset committee without the powers of a state committee. What's more, such a committee will be able to choose for itself the topics of investigation and decide what to focus on: the first two days of fighting or the entire 29 days, and also who to call to testify. The decision is in Elkin's hands.
There is no General Staff meeting, cabinet discussion, or conversation with the US President that is not documented. The question is which of these the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee will be able to demand to see, whether Amen's protocols and intelligence reports can be presented to its members. The National Security Council law requires the submission of a periodic global situation assessment. About two years ago, such an assessment was submitted, compiled by the Office of Strategic Threats, which was then headed by the person who currently serves as Minister of Defense, and by members of the Prime Minister's Office, headed by then-head of the National Security Council, Yaakov Amidror.
The report was presented to the political echelon and perhaps also discussed in the cabinet. If the committee wants to find out what the political echelon knew before the decision on the first ceasefire, it should ask to see the document and the minutes from the meeting in which it was presented. The pages will speak for themselves. The public will be entitled to know how the Gaza problem was perceived, what the political echelon's attitude was, and what the ministers said, and what was not said, when they saw the document. Anyone with eyes in their heads will understand that it will be impossible to avoid establishing a commission of inquiry.
Horror presentation leak
The war ended in a balance of terror not only between Hamas and Israel but also between the political and military echelons.
The military echelon leaked that reports on the existence of the tunnels were placed on the desks of those concerned a year and a half ago, and the political echelon leaked to Udi Segal on Channel 2 the black presentation that the army presented to the cabinet about the heavy price that the occupation of Gaza will exact. The political establishment is certain that the leak came from sources close to the prime minister, who is concerned about his political situation. 'What do you want from me,' he could say to right-wing voters, 'It was the army that arrested me.'.
No less important than the identity of the leaker from the secret cabinet meetings is the fact that Netanyahu insisted on holding a vote after the presentation. The prime minister drew praise for managing the platform without involving political considerations, but the vote reveals that calculations and political intelligence were in the cabinet at least for the past week, if not earlier.
In the back of Netanyahu's mind, he was already thinking about the day after. He knew that a vote in which no minister supported the occupation of Gaza would serve him well when Bennett and Lieberman jumped in and said that the Strip should have been occupied. In one moment, he united everyone and made them partners in the decision.
At the same time as the horror presentation was leaked, there were those who venomously dripped the mantra that Chief of Staff Gantz simply wanted to return home safely and that was why he was hesitant, restrained, and restrained, very similar to the prime minister and the defense minister.
The desire to harm Gantz stems from an interest in keeping the fire as far away as possible from the political echelon, but more from the desire to neutralize a potential electoral threat in the form of the Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz, who will retire in a year.
Roni Daniel Party
Yair Lapid was a very successful writer. His novels sold well. According to the press conference he held this morning, maybe he should switch to the science fiction genre: He said that all war expenses would be covered by the 2014 budget, promised that no new taxes would be imposed, he did not give up on the zero VAT law, and also insisted that Israel meet its deficit target.
It is difficult to find a serious economist who believes that these promises will come true.
Lapid also doesn't have a real security figure to present to the people ahead of the next elections. Maybe he should convince his former colleague from Ulpan Shishi to move into politics. Roni Daniel, who called until the last moment to continue fighting, is emerging in the polls as a very popular figure.
With the security discourse taking over Israeli society, Lapid has little to look forward to on the field. Perhaps his runs to the studios show that he misses it. In fact, in the current state of affairs, Roni Daniel could form a party and invite Lapid to run as his number two.
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