1.
He stood at the door of the Prime Minister's office, shortly after he went inside to talk to him. Rabbi David Nachshon. Anyone who knows the Prime Minister also knows the Chabadnik about whom Bibi once said: "Meet Rabbi Nachshon, he is my brother.".
Forget for a moment how they met, that's a topic for an article in itself. But always, when Netanyahu feels the need for reinforcement and salvation, he calls him into his office for a moment of conversation. That's also what happened tonight, Monday, 7th of Iyar, April 19th.
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""This is a mythological date," Nachshon told me in one of the Knesset corridors. "Exactly today, on the foreign date, 33 years ago, the Rebbe told him, 'You will have to fight against 119 people. You will certainly not be impressed by this because God is on this side.'".
Is that still valid? I ask him. I mean, despite everything we see around us, what we saw tonight with the organizing committee, do you think the blessing is still there?
That's it. That's pretty complicated. If Netanyahu will indeed maintain the values of the right ("the will of the Rebbe," Nachshon says), then yes. But it's not entirely clear, because "he supported the Trump plan, just as an example. I really hope that the blessing is still valid and standing.".
2.
Is he really discouraged? Does he think his time is up?
""Bibi is finished," more and more people shouted at me in the Knesset corridors. MKs, MK assistants, and even just people who came to the Mishkan. Really?
'"'Did you betray the Likud?' I asked Mansour Abbas, the most wooed man in the Knesset today, a moment after he left the plenary session.".
""I'm with the one who gives more," he replied.
And the other side gave more? I wondered. He smiled, and didn't interpret.
So is Netanyahu's era as prime minister over? It depends on who you ask. There are those who whisper in my ears various legends, more and less credible, about moves, and chess pieces being moved from side to side, and "until it's over, it's not over.".
Let's try to summarize all the legends circulating in the Knesset. We'll emphasize in advance that it's not clear whether they're true or not, perhaps some of them have a shred of truth, others none at all.
In other words: take limited liability on the one hand, and on the other hand – take everything into account.
Remember how one day, somewhere in Netanyahu's second term, we woke up to a bang in the Labor Party? Remember how the party split in two, with a great noise, the majority went outside, to the opposition benches, leaving behind five lonely members, with one Ehud Barak at the head, and with a new name, 'Independence'?
That day I studied a chapter on the politics of the Mediterranean country. In Israeli politics, anything, absolutely anything, can happen.
A man who cut his mustache and swore by his trimmed mustache that he would never sit with Bibi, jumped on all fours into his government; after swearing in front of a crowd and a microphone that it wouldn't happen, that he and Netanyahu wouldn't go together to "L-E-V-L-M", he entered with a vengeance in favor of Shard's vehicles and an obscure promise of rotation.
Because, if you will, nothing is a fairy tale.
3.
Legend number 1.
For days, MK Bezalel Smotrich has been going around and saying, in WhatsApp groups and also to those who contact him and ask, that he will never enter a government supported by Ra'am. Not supported, not leaning on, not standing, not sitting. No, and that's it.
Tomorrow, he will be succeeded by MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, who delivers impressive, pathetic speeches.
Was Mansour Abbas hurt and therefore voted against the Likud on the organizing committee? Not so claims the folk legend. According to the legend, with Abbas they were closed in the Likud even before the elections, but when things got complicated, one of the best minds, a walking genius, came up with a brilliant trick: Abbas would 'annoy' the coalition chairman Mickey Zohar with the vote, Mickey (aware of the trick and nervous game or unconscious and everything was going on over his head) would show impressive signs of rage, it would be clear to everyone that Ra'am and the Likud are no more, now Religious Zionism can sign a coalition agreement with the Likud.
Be first, you'll profit, Netanyahu will convince them. And they'll sign, because why not. Then he'll come to Bennett, let him in on the secret of the matter - and sign with him up to half the kingdom (and a little less).
Together with the ultra-Orthodox parties, Netanyahu has a coalition of 59 seats.
Isn't that enough? Great, the storyteller doesn't mind. Because like in the story of the Trojan Horse, you will witness one of the most brilliant maneuvers in the short history of the State of Israel.
In the mythological story, the Greeks used a horse to conquer the city of Troy after ten years of failing to penetrate its walls. Reminds you of the tedious 4 rounds of elections?
What did they do? They built a huge hollow wooden horse and left it near the walls of the city of Troy, pretending to be retreating (Aryeh Deri pushes for a law for direct elections: "We tried 4 times and didn't succeed, and there's no chance that the fifth time there will be a decision." Miki Zohar despairs at the organizing committee: "We've come to terms with it - Netanyahu will be the chairman of the opposition").
The Trojans, deceived into thinking that the Greeks had retreated and the giant horse was some miracle from heaven, brought it through the city gates.
Odysseus and several warriors were hidden inside the horse. At nightfall, the warriors emerged from the horse's belly and opened the city gates to the armies, thus leading to the defeat of Troy.
That is, on the day the 59th government is sworn in, somehow the MKs of the Ra'am Party will have a stomachache, maybe they'll spend the night in the parking lot, maybe in the clinic. And only the next morning (or a minute later) will everyone realize what the exercise was.
At such a stage, to overthrow the new government that has already been formed, you need 61. And that is no longer easy to mobilize.
4.
Legend number 2.
This is an interesting legend, and it is also related to Trojan horses. According to the legend, there are MKs who are planted in parties that are "except for Bibi." They are angry against him, much more than the rest of their friends, precisely because they have to prove their loyalty, but when the day comes, they will emerge from the horse's eyes and say: "Here I am.".
This legend included one party on election night, and in recent days I've heard it in the context of another party that will fall apart and a third of its members will emerge from the horse's belly.
The tellers of this legendary story know how to say that the day this happens, they will be inducted into the Likud, each of them will receive a senior portfolio, including promises to members of the center who will belong to them in the registry.
And the more they shout, "Just not Bibi," the more certain those whispering the legend are of the truth of their story.
Some whispered another punch to me today: "Do you know why Bennett aligned himself with Netanyahu and the Likud today in voting on the organizing committee? Because someone whispered a piece of the legend in his ear, something that is also related to him, directly or indirectly.".
And surprisingly.
5.
Legend number 3.
This legend tells that for several months now - since the end of the previous term - a spy has been sitting in the office of one of the Likud's senior figures. One who worked with Netanyahu's enemies in the past and was promoted to the position, without his boss knowing about his past.
""Oh, he knew, and he's also a spy and collaborating with our enemy," some of the more radical ones are even more so. "Do you understand how we fell out with the organizing committee? The spy heard all our plans, everything we offered Abbas, he ran to the other side and demanded, 'Give us double,' and here's the result before you.".
The way of legends that have no substance. On the other hand, they say, there is no smoke without fire.
On the other hand, if any of this is true, even just a little bit, then politics has gone crazy, man is a wolf to man, trust in people has been lost. It is very sad to work in the Knesset. And you know what? Even to cover it.
To amuse ourselves a little, I've brought up the night of rumors here. Not that I'm saying there's any truth to them. Read, enjoy, browse on.
And who knows if at the end of the day, when a government is formed here, we won't rub our eyes and say, reality surpasses all imagination, even the fairy tale writers didn't dream of such tricks.
