Netanyahu and the 'art of the possible'

if Netanyahu decides to go for sovereignty and refuses to hand over major ministries to Gantz as the Blue & White head demands, hs other options may actually be better.

Tags: coalition Blue and White
Dr. Martin Sherman

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Netanyahu phones from HQ
צילום: MS
Dr. Martin Sherman
The writer served for seven years in operational capacities in the Israeli Defense establishment, was ministerial adviser to Yitzhak Shamir's government and lectured for 20 years at Tel Aviv University in Political Science, International Relations and Strategic Studies. He has a B.Sc. (Physics and Geology), MBA (Finance), and PhD in political science and international relations, was the first academic director of the Herzliya Conference and is the author of two books and numerous articles and policy papers on a wide range of political, diplomatic and security issues. He is founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies (www.strategicisrael.org). Born in South Africa,he has lived in Israel since 1971.
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Otto von Bismarck, (1815-1898) the German statesman, credited with the unification of Germany (1871,) and who served as its first Chancellor until 1890, famously defined “politics” as “the art of the possible” 

This is certainly true in the dizzyingly volatile kaleidoscope realities of Israeli politics.

Indeed, only a few days ago, Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, was facing the grim prospect of being dispatched to the Opposition and the looming specter of a minority government, led by his then-major rival, Blue & White’s Benny Gantz, and totally dependent on the dominantly anti-Zionist Joint List.
However, the dramatic events at the end of last month, when Gantz, together with just over half the MKs of the Blue & White faction, unexpectedly decided to join Netanyahu in an emergency coalition, radically changed the political landscape—and with it, the possibilities open to Netanyahu.


New surveys show a Netanyahu-led Likud surging, outstripping his nearest rivals by a staggering margin of over 20 mandates...
After all, Netanyahu has now effectively neutralized his two major political adversaries, Gantz and Yair Lapid—paradoxically because the former opted to join him, and because the latter opted not to—leaving each with an emasculated political following and a multitude of disappointed and embittered erstwhile supporters.

Moreover, these developments left his third, implacable foe, the recalcitrant Avigdor Liberman, essentially irrelevant, having been deprived of his previous extortionary power.

Now, with new surveys showing a Netanyahu-led Likud surging, outstripping his nearest rivals by a staggering margin of over 20 mandates, what once seemed his best option—partnering with Gantz—may, in fact, be his worst.

Indeed, given Gantz’s reluctance to seize the moment provided by the Trump Plan for extending Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and portions of Judea-Samaria, and the number of important portfolios necessary to cede to him to entice him into joint coalition, other options may be far more attractive. 

These might include setting up a narrow, Right-wing coalition with the former Right-of-Center Blue & White MKs, Yoaz Hendel and Zvi Hauser—in addition to Orly Levy, who broke away from the Left-wing Labor-Meretz alliance, giving it a 61 seat majority in the Knesset. 
However, if Netanyahu should be loath to entrust his political fate to the vagaries of recent rivals, another possibility would be, despite public fatigue, going for a fourth election—with polls predicting a clear victory for a Netanyahu-led Likud—and his political rivals, divided, disheartened and in disarray—considerably weakened.
 

After all, politics is the art of the possible!           



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