I acknowledge that I am writing from outside Israel. My readers know why. But someone has to say this.
Many years ago, when Naftali Bennett emerged as the new head of the then-latest version of Mafdal (the Orthodox Zionist party associated with the religious center and right), many of us knew little about him and were hopeful we had an excellent new leader. He was Zionist, “Modern Orthodox,” wealthy, spoke excellent English, had a level of extra intelligence, was for Judea and Samaria. In Yiddish, it would be said he came with “alleh myless” (all the good stuff).
He tried to build up the Orthodox Party by bringing in a nationally popular soccer star. Alas, that guy prominently played soccer publicly on Shabbat and was not himself Orthodox — a shocker for an Orthodox party — but he was a super crowd pleaser and could have brought in many, many more votes for the Orthodox party. Still, he was not Orthodox, and this was an Orthodox party. It just did not mesh. The soccer player had to step aside.
Although Bennett managed to get his close non-observant aide, Ayelet Shaked, past the party’s religious standard bearers, he felt electorally stymied within an all-Orthodox rubric that could not have soccer stars on the ticket. He was right in that respect because he was aiming for the premiership someday, and the Israeli coalition system does not anticipate at this stage a Prime Minister from a minor party. That is why Moshe Feiglin once tried Likud.
So Bennett staked out a different path, holding to his right-wing positions but from new platforms that allowed for non-Orthodox participation. He shocked the religious party by splitting off so close to elections, and he (and Shaked) rose higher. But, in time, Prime Minister Netanyahu knocked down Bennett’s support to just below the Knesset voting threshold. Bennett was out by a whisker. And Netanyahu had been smart by half: without the four seats Bennett almost won, which would probably have joined him, Bibi could not form a 61-seat coalition, ushering in the era of elections and elections and elections.
Bennett was out, but he rebounded eventually, made it back in, and actually positioned himself to be a power broker in coalition talks. To paraphrase the Egyptian wine steward (no, not al-Sisi), I admit my sinful thoughts this day: If I had been voting in Israel during that fateful election, I would have voted for Bennett as did an overwhelming number of Centrist Orthodox, intensely nationalist Israelis.
Why not for Smotrich or Ben-Gvir? Because, for decades, I have not especially trusted Prime Minister Netanyahu’s promises to annex Judea and Samaria, or even just the Jordan Valley, but I believe he is the best person at this moment in time to be Prime Minister. (I believe that for many reasons that I have laid out in the past and will again in the future.) Therefore, since I do not and did not trust Prime Minister Netanyahu on matters of annexing Judea and Samaria, and absolutely crushing and destroying Hamas and Hezbollah (which only the circumstances of October 7 made impossible to delay any longer - although to be honest, the Israeli public and army elites would never have let him do it anyway, the public because they could not live with purposefully endangering their sons again and the army because its elites are brainwashed by the Wechsner Fund and progressive ideas), I preferred Bennett over anyone else on the right for perfectly sensible reasons.
In those days, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir did not get enough seats to be able to collapse a Netanyahu coalition. However, Bennett did. With the 7-10 seats he surely could get, he would be positioned to be kingmaker. In that role, Bibi would need him desperately, would be stuck with him, would have to name him Defense Minister again — a role in which Bennett served one term fabulously — and Bennett, who hates Bibi, would be positioned to force Netanyahu to stand by promises on Judea and Samaria: coercing him until Bibi would say “I want to! I want to!” (Kofin oto ad sheh-yomar “Rotzeh Ani! Rotzeh Ani!”)
Alas, so much for my predictions, we know what transpired. Bennett indeed emerged as the kingmaker. Unfortunately, even if he had joined up with Likud, that proposed coalition would have fallen barely short. Netanyahu pleaded with him to stick with coalescing with Likud anyway. There always are one or two Knesset turncoats who will abandon their party and personal beliefs for a ministerial appointment, which includes a fancy office, limousine, much higher salary, and — perhaps most important — much higher lifetime pension. Sell your soul only one time, and you and your loved ones are financially set for life.
So Bibi asked him to stick with the right, and Bibi would try to pry one or two more. But Bennett went left, allied not only with Benny Gantz, but with the rabidly left and G-dless Yair Lapid, and — still needing a few more votes — allied with Mansour Abbas’s Arab party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Ra’am.
We know how that worked out. As an everlasting monument to Bennett’s perfidy, that coalition gave away Israeli natural gas fields and territory to . . . Nasrallah (remember him?) and Hezbollah. How did that work out? The corrupt Supreme Court allowed Lapid’s one-man give-away without even a Knesset vote. And in return, Israel gained peace and quiet, finally, with Hezbollah and Lebanon. . . .
. . . but only two years later . . . after 2,000 pagers, 700 walkie-talkies, a slew of assassinations, dropping tons and tons of bombs in Lebanon and Syria.
(If Trump ever takes the Panama Canal back, Israel should take back its gas fields.)
As a result, everyone in the Centrist Orthodox religious nationalist orbit never, ever, ever, ever will vote for Bennett again, no matter what he promises. Can’t trust him; too much at stake. Imagine a war that has extended more than a year against Arab Muslims in Gaza, Arab Muslims in Lebanon, Arab Muslims in Syria, Arab Muslims in Iraq, Arab Muslims in the AEJS (Arab Entity in Judea and Samaria), Arab Muslims in Yemen, and just-plain Muslims in Iran — with the balance of political power, capable of bringing down the government single-handedly, lying in the hands of Ra’am, the southern wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.
So, finished with Bennett.
But I still don’t and never will completely trust Bibi. (Though I believe 100% that the lawfare charges and trials imposed on him by Israel’s Deep State are not only bogus but themselves criminal. And I believe 100% that he needs a week or two rest and rehabilitation before being dragged back into court. He probably will be attached to a catheter for 10 days, and in enormous post-op pain, so under the influence of strong prescription pain killers. He should not testify under such conditions when his health will be back to normal in barely two weeks.) Therefore, since Bibi lost my trust, I moved over to Ben-Gvir and Smotrich with a slight dilemma as to which is preferable.
Now my dilemma is resolved.
If I were an Israeli voter (and my ongoing rehabilitation, with G-d’s help, will tell)), Smotrich is all I got. It is great having Ben-Gvir there, but it never again would be with my vote. I would never ever ever vote for him. I don’t care what the negotiating issue is. That “Great White Hope” almost brought down the most right-wing, Orthodox Israeli government in history. For those old enough to remember 1993, it was Orthodox and secular nationalists who fought with each other over fingernails and sprinkles, splitting away just enough votes, with the added help of some traitors (one later convicted for spying for Iran), and the haredim, who made possible Rabin’s Oslo — Oslo, which has killed multiples of October 7. Multiples. Oslo — the largest killer in Israeli history.
The current government is doing more to reclaim Judea and Samaria than ever before. Ben-Gvir has been given power to do great things, and he is doing them, despite being harassed by the Deep State and the corrupt Supreme Court. And, finally, Bibi has his groove: 80 percent of Hamas destroyed, at least 17,000 of them killed, Mohammed Deif killed, Ismael Haniyeh blown away, Yahya Sinwar rubbed out, Fouad Shakur and his Mistress Quartet, Ya Ya Nasrallah bombed to bits and suffocated so as to experience each and every of the four Biblical capital punishments, the whole Syrian military complex destroyed (though new problems eventually will be coming from the new iteration), a comparatively clear aerial avenue to incinerate Iran pending Trump, Putin moving from Syria to Libya . . . .
With all due respect, what kind of narcissist would bring down such a government and would risk new elections that could turn it back to Bennett, Lapid, Meretz and Labor (whatever they call themselves: Republicans/Democrats) and Mansour Abbas? Does he want Lapid to come back and give away the rest of the natural gas? Ra’am to steer war policy holding the power to break up a government?
I wish Ben-Gvir well. In many ways, I love the guy. But, after what he has done, almost bringing down the government, the only vote I can fathom for sensible and sane right-wingers is Smotrich. (As it happens, with Smotrich polling just below the threshold, it almost is definite that they will run together once again on a joint ticket so that both parties get in, and then they will split the next day.)
Postscripts:
Thank G-d for the unsung hero of the day, Almog Cohen, who broke ranks with Otzma to save the government. You want courage? That was courage.
Want more courage? A man who leaves his hospital bed, accompanied by his doctors, less than two days after somewhat serious surgery, to save the government. Do not underestimate the medical risk he took. That is courage. That is PM Netanyahu.
Want more self-sacrifice? A man who has to leave his shiva home with garment torn to save the government. That is greatness. That is MK Boaz Bismuth.
And want a petty jerk? Look no further than Yoav Gallant who refused to allow offsetting the votes of the PM and Bismut. If he can’t be Defense Minister, then no one else can either. The sweetness of pulling your political opponent out of his hospital bed less than two days after serious surgery and pulling another guy out of his shiva home because you feel insulted. And, yet, as is his wont, all he accomplished was causing a tumult without achieving a different result.
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