1.
When on Tuesday afternoon this week, I got a flash of news that Ayelet Shaked had gone down to the Shapira Center to meet Rabbi Druckman, the elder of the religious Zionist rabbis, I thought it was old news. Seriously, it happens sometimes: some glitch in the algorithm or whatever it is, suddenly brings up a headline from the past and publishes it as if it were breaking news.
But no. It was new. Fresh-fresh. Ayelet Shaked actually went down to the Shapira Center to meet with Rabbi Druckman.
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History repeats itself. Too fast. I'm still shocked by the events of that time. From that meeting between Bennett and Shaked with Rabbi Druckman on the eve of their desertion of the Jewish Home in contempt, just before the first elections, because of "the party's surrender to the rabbis of the sector.".
I still haven't digested their vile and irresponsible move in the first elections, the one that failed and dragged us into all the repeat elections, and here we are again, after four elections, and after everything that has happened here in the past year, we are back to the exact same point. To Ayelet Shaked's embarrassing attempts to return to the base she imagines she has in religious Zionism.
2.
I really don't know where to begin attacking the matter. It seems mostly ridiculous to me. Even more ridiculous than the adoration poem that Ayelet Shaked published this week for the retiring Bennett: "Thank you Naftali. Thank you for loving everyone and seeing everyone as partners / And thank you for a long road full of successes and also obstacles / I've known you for 16 years / There wasn't a single day when you didn't think of our country as your first priority / As in Lebanon, so in the Knesset and the Prime Minister's Office / You were always ready to sacrifice everything for the State of Israel / You gave so much of yourself / Now breathe" (the full piece is on Shaked's Facebook page. All rights reserved).
I would suggest adding a few verses: "Thank you, Naftali, for making me lie to the knit sector that I loved so much / I can no longer count how many election promises I broke / Thank you for kicking me out of every right-wing WhatsApp group / Thank you for not answering my calls today, even Nir Vaidit / Thank you for laughing at my stomach aches everywhere / Because I brought Nitzan and Merav to the cabinet, and made Walid Taha's dream come true / Thank you for making me lie to the safe candidate for prime minister and the most influential woman in Israel / All I have left to do is rhyme and praise you.".
3.
You read these verses and really ask yourself, who is the electorate of this false kitsch? Who reads the desperate texts published this week by Shaked or Matan Kahane and says: These are my people. I trust them. With them – a word is a word.
This week, Hizki Baruch published on the Channel 7 website that Ayelet Shaked is conducting in-depth research at a cost of hundreds of thousands of shekels that will examine Yamina's chances of passing the electoral threshold "and the messages that might convince the national public to vote for her.".
This is amazing. Shaked is actually conducting surveys to know exactly what the right agenda is to run with now. Where is she and where is the clear and pure path of ideological figures like Merav Michaeli and Nitzan Horowitz? And why doesn't she just retire and go home with honor? Well, right, not with honor, but at least she's going home?
She didn't even apologize for her terrible moves that led to the formation of a government with the worst of Israel's enemies, both at home and abroad. She didn't even say: Sorry, I was wrong. Nothing. It's clear to everyone that if the government hadn't fallen, Shaked would have continued with it until the end of all generations.
So who exactly believes Ayelet Shaked? Does she believe in herself?
4.
Well, the answer is that Shaked and Yamina don't really have an electorate. That's exactly why Bennett was kicked home prematurely. He didn't "nobly resign," as the media lie to us. He was emptied of all support. This is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of politics. A prime minister who goes home for fear of not passing the electoral threshold.
And another unprecedented thing: a prime minister whose retirement doesn't eat up any cards. It's almost not noticeable in any poll. Imagine if Netanyahu announced his retirement from political life. Or even Lapid. That's an earthquake. A change in the political map. A redistribution of the mandate cake. But here, the prime minister goes home - sorry, he just stays home in Ra'anana - and nothing. Just Shaked's farewell song.
Oh, and also the songs that Bennett keeps singing about himself ("There was peace, I was with you and my mouth was full of thanks"), or the verses from the words of the prophets ("Adam told you what is good") that he quotes with pathos in yet more strange posts of an emotional and sticky farewell to "my beloved people." He has been grateful for two weeks now for the historic privilege he was given to lead the State of Israel.
Naftali, no one gave you this right. You took it by fraud.
5.
I just hope that between the reports in the studios about the noble retirement and the caressing interviews, you didn't miss the fact that Bennett, with his departure, broke his last two promises that he still somehow exists:
One, to prevent a fifth election at all costs. After all, Bennett said when he formed the government that this was his only core promise. A complete lie. But let's say, in your opinion, then why did you ultimately resign and cause a fifth election? You could have announced that you would join any right-wing government and made an effort to convince Gideon Sa'ar, or Benny Gantz, to establish something stable while still in the current Knesset. If a fifth election is so dangerous, why did you rush to take us there even though there was still a chance for an alternative coalition?
And here we come to the second promise: "I will never, under any circumstances, lend my hand to the formation of a government headed by Yair Lapid, not in rotation or in any way, for the simple reason that I am a right-winger and he is a left-winger, and I do not act against my values," he swore repeatedly just a year ago.
According to him, this is the reason why, even though he had no political power, he fought to become prime minister. Not for opportunistic reasons, God forbid, but so that a right-winger would be prime minister. Ten degrees to the right. So, he also broke this promise when he resigned from his position, so that Lapid would only be prime minister for a few months, so that he too could add this line to his resume.
6.
So that's it. Now he can go in peace. There's not a single promise that this wild plant that lives among us hasn't broken. But wait, that's not enough for Bennett. In leaving, he told us another lie.
A year ago, right after the government was formed, he told how much he tried to form a right-wing government but simply had no choice, so he lay down on the fence for the sake of the people of Israel and agreed to a left-wing and Arab government. Then, very surprisingly, in his farewell interviews this week he reversed course again. Suddenly it became a matter of hindsight - of going to hell. "A full-on right-wing government in the current sense is a disaster in my opinion because there are no balances," he said shamelessly in his retirement interview, while the name of his party is still 'Yamin'.
That's it, the conversion is complete.
And after all this, Ayelet Shaked writes him a song of praise, and then runs to Rabbi Druckman to try to get his support. I'm telling you, I wouldn't be surprised if the day before the elections she shows up at Boaz Golan's studio in Channel 14 and signs a document in which she pledges not to join a left-wing government "ever and under any conditions." And there will be those in the sector who will believe her. Yes, yes.
Because this melody - I'll never be able to understand why - can't be stopped.
• The column is published in the newspaper 'Bisheva''
