How Netanyahu outdid his rivals, again

It really seemed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition was on its way out on Nov. 16-17. Resigning Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman was in sync with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who had his own reasons for wanting speedy elections in the near future. HaBayit HaYehudi’s Chairman Naftali Bennett also exploited Liberman’s resignation to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu: Either you appoint me defense minister or HaBayit HaYehudi leaves the coalition to cause the immediate overturning of the government. (After the resignation of Liberman and his party, Netanyahu was left with a narrow majority coalition of 61 Knesset seats.) Even the ultra-Orthodox parties silently accepted the prevailing belief that the current Netanyahu government was on its way out. It seemed that only a miracle would allow Netanyahu to reboot the coalition, which would celebrate its four-year anniversary in less than six months. Netanyahu is a veteran miracle conjurer when it comes to politics, and in order to succeed this time as well he extricated his winning card yet again, his ultimate ace — the security situation. This was the card that won him the last elections in 2015, even though no real security dangers threatened Israel at the time. Netanyahu knows how to rouse sleeping demons, to concoct threats or embellish them for his political needs.

Netanyahu met with Bennett on Nov. 16, but no agreements were reached. In fact, Netanyahu had no intentions of entrusting the security helm to the hands of the hot-headed young education minister. On Nov. 18, Netanyahu met with Kahlon, but again no agreements were reached. Kahlon made it clear to Netanyahu that a narrow coalition of 61 Knesset members would inflict damage on the Israeli economy and it was best to hold elections instead. Therefore, Netanyahu announced that he would make a live statement to the media at 8 p.m. — on prime time TV, which is especially dear to his heart. Bennett heard this and in order to raise the stakes and the pressure on Netanyahu announced that he and Ayelet Shaked would release a statement the next morning. The entire political system began to pack their bags. Associates of Bennett and Shaked briefed the press that they had reached the decision to quit the coalition, unless Netanyahu would acquiesce and appoint Bennett as defense minister.