https://www.jns.org/opinion/bennetts-bad-precedent-and-the-curse-of-israels-small-parties/
Ever since the April 9, 2019 Knesset elections, foes of Likud Party chairman Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu—the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history and currently the head of the opposition—have been blaming him for the political quagmire that is sending the public back to the ballot box this fall for the fifth time in three-and-a-half years.
This chorus is made up of various voices inside the halls of parliament and beyond, with protesters and pundits of different stripes uniting around an aversion to a common enemy. The mantra-chanters in question claim that if Netanyahu would only step aside, all of Israel’s coalition crises would vanish, making way for a broad and stable government.
The past year’s “experiment”—with a government created for the sole purpose of “kicking Bibi out of Balfour” (the name of the street in Jerusalem where the official residence of the prime minister is located)—led by Naftali Bennett, whose party garnered just a few seats above the threshold, exemplified that the above assertion was completely false. Astonishingly, however, it is still being repeated ad nauseam, and by the same people.
You know, those who should be eating their hats, rather than parading around like peacocks.
Alas, the looming elections, slated for Nov. 1, have brought us back to square one. But it’s the “anyone but Bibi” crew and not Netanyahu who bear responsibility for the chaos.