Photos from the sector in the north showed Netanyahu, the chief of staff and senior commanders - and who did not come? He, led by Gabi Ashkenazi, will not give up on one thing - the demand for a biennial budget, even if the world turns upside down



The invitation to the faction meeting was urgent. Members of the Blue and White faction, who had just voted against the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry committee into the submarine affair, contrary to the election promise (again) were called to get to the Knesset conference room quickly. The reason for the urgent gathering was not given. Perhaps a solution to the budget crisis has been found. Maybe a vaccine for corona. No one knows. Full of astonishment, the ministers entered the place only to find that it was very important to Bnei Gantz to make it clear that he was staying. And not going anywhere. And that contrary to what he said in that TV interview that he would like to forget, about the fact that he has no desire to go to school every day, he is actually determined and determined, not afraid and not giving up.

If there are elections, he will reach them with his head held high to show that he has stood his ground. Ganz // Ariel Hermoni / Ministry of Defense

What was it about him, Gantz, convening them all just for this strange clarification? And what is its relevance at this time? After all, there are no primaries in blue and white. Nor is there anyone who is challenging his leadership right now. Although the threat of the election is hovering in the background, at this stage, it is a rather distant speculation that will only become clear at the end of the month, and not an immediate thing that requires urgent attention at noon this Wednesday at the Knesset. 

In the near term considerations, Ganz did what he could to stop the worst-case scenario: an alternative government without him. No elections and of course no rotation. To do so, Netanyahu needs a majority of 61 MKs, which he does not have. If he had, he would not have formed the unity government and given half the monarchy to Gantz. But this possibility, as if the prime minister is going to surprise during the 17 days left before the Knesset dissolves without Approved budget, and obtaining two defectors from the second camp to stop the election and throw Gantz to every wind, from a sleeping apartment in the eyes of the alternate prime minister.

And if that wasn't enough, stubborn rumors as if he had already made up his mind not to run again in the case of early elections, which spread inside blue and white and outside the last day, forced him to clarify things before it was too late and disintegration would occur faster. 

For some of his listeners, his words fell on deaf ears. Some blue and white ministers were happy to hear that their leader had regained consciousness. On the other hand, another part, small and limited, must have grinned to itself at the news. Maybe even filled with pity. After all, they heard completely opposite things from Gantz himself in closed conversations. Hear how tired he is and how his retirement thoughts are getting stronger every day. That the decision to insist on a biennial budget is in fact his refuge chair to get out of the crazy campaign he got into a year and a half ago with dignity. 

Ganz stood in three election campaigns with surprising heroism. Even veterans and scrubs from him would not have withstood the tremendous campaign of pressure, attacks and defamation that Netanyahu, the greatest campaigner of all time, has had to go through. But the attacks he is now absorbing are different. They do not come from the right, but from his base. The people who adored him, supported him and even committed suicide to become prime minister, became his greatest haters. The insults on social networks, the attacks and the insults in the media, end it. And with the mental distress the physical pains also increase. Ganz recently stopped running due to his condition. Running alone or with his wife was like therapy for him. Now that too has gone. 

The difficult feelings and the growing distress also directly affect Ganz's functioning on the professional side. The Ministry of Defense, his main workplace, says the man is not noticeable at all. Not physically present, does not get what he does not have to, and refrains from making decisions that can be made in his place by the director general of the ministry and members of the bureaucracy. A Defense Ministry source who spoke at the campus with a political figure who arrived there this week said that compared to Naftali Bennett, Saturdays in the office, sleeping there occasionally and being careful to interfere with anything that moved, with Ganz the conduct is the complete opposite: lack of involvement, lack of interest and constant absence. 

Take out the juice for Netanyahu

This week, after the security crisis in the north, Netanyahu arrived to assess the situation. In the photos that came out of there, the prime minister, the chief of staff and senior commanders were seen. Only the defense minister is absent. Media-wise, this is a catastrophe. The entire public prestige of a defense minister is built on these images, surrounded by senior staff members and high-ranking officials in the field. With Bennett, for example, there could have been no such possibility that a videotaped meeting with the chief of staff would have been in the presence of and without the prime minister alone. But the current defense minister no longer cares. 

Former Defense Minister Bennett // Jonathan Zindel / Flash 90 

Ganz could have solved everything in an instant, if he had reached Netanyahu and whispered in his ear that he was giving up the rotation. At that moment the rocking ship would sail leisurely on resting water. The Prime Minister would no longer be interested in producing crises if he knew that from now on he was guaranteed four and a half years of stability and undisputed. 

But Ganz is not going to give him that pleasure. If there are elections, he will go to them with his head held high, or at least in such a way that everyone will see that he stood his ground and that the entire blame lies with Netanyahu. Therefore, he insists on the budget and not, say, on other laws that are no less important to blue and white, such as the commission of inquiry into the submarine and the amendment of the Nationality Law. Precisely if he had given up on the budget issue and stood his ground on those, he would have gotten more points. But the rest of the laws do not lead to elections. The budget is yes. Ganz has even examined the possibility of threatening Netanyahu with the passage of the law that a prime minister will not be able to serve under an indictment, and even asked Yair Lapid if he would give a hand in the move, which would ensure a majority in the Knesset to pass it. The answer, by the way, was yes. 

Ganz is also disappointed with the ultra-Orthodox factions. After all the talk of bail for the rotation agreement and after getting closer to it in recent weeks, in the moment of truth they slipped away. It became clear to him that the connection with Netanyahu was deeply thought-out, and that what really interested them was the budgets of the meetings and not the implementation of the coalition agreement. Ganz already wanted to pass on to them the recruitment law that would be convenient and their dog. But he will do so only if it turns out that there are no elections. If there is - they will forget about it, he said in the same conversations.

The tension between him regarding Ashkenazi is also far from subsiding. The Foreign Minister's run to the TV studios to make it clear that everything is fine made it clearer than anything that everything was not. Gantz is furious at Ashkenazi, who did not back him up when Gadi Izenkot's name as a possible candidate popped up out of nowhere, and in closed conversations says that if it depends on him, he will not transfer to him, to Ashkenazi, the party leadership the next day. His listeners estimated that Ganz would prefer to announce after the election, if the Knesset dissolves, that he withdrew his candidacy and in fact the entire blue and white candidacy, than to allow the transfer of a stick to Ashkenazi. However, it should be emphasized, Ganz did not say such a thing explicitly. 

But that's not the only thing. Gantz is furious at the foreign minister's disappearance a moment after he took office. While Gantz is grounded in the critique and has a hard time coping, Ashkenazi wraps himself in his silence and maintains his status from a distance. A month ago, it turned out, Ganz wanted to give Netanyahu the biennial budget, and the one who pushed him to stand on his own was Ashkenazi. But a moment later it left him, again, alone, without backing and without any support. Ministers such as Hili Trooper, Yizhar Shai, Avi Nissenkorn and others fight with Ganz shoulder to shoulder and explain their demand for a biennial budget, and Ashkenazi is silent. 

The left of yesteryear 

Netanyahu's speech in the Knesset plenum was an election speech for all intents and purposes. It is not certain that the Prime Minister has already decided, but the groundwork is underway. The more extreme and delusional the protesters in Paris Square are, the stronger his power will be among the right-wingers, including those who abandoned him over time. 

It is difficult to remain indifferent in the face of the demonstration - which the right defines as grotesque, hallucinatory and vulgar - that is raised in Balfour every week, and especially in the face of political backing from the opposition and even a white brush within the government. Among the left-wing demonstrators are also left-wing demonstrators of a certain kind, who despised the values ​​of the state, its symbols, the history that led to its establishment. 

Advocate Danny Cohen, the former spokesman for the Labor Party, who served for many years as an adviser to the late Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, sees a direct connection between the protesters in Paris Square and the death of the Labor Party. These are the same people, he said, those who are protesting today in Balfour And those who infiltrated the ranks of labor a few years ago and destroyed it from within. 

According to Cohen, Labor, also as a left-wing party, was an integral part of Zionism. There was a debate between her and the Likud and the right regarding economic and political policy, but subversive elements, from the extreme left, never took part in it, that the state is no value to them but a tool for fulfilling their desires - so if it does not happen as they wanted you can kick it and pour the baby with water. 

He said the process began about a decade ago. In his opinion, Merav Michaeli, Stav Shafir and Shelly Yachimovich also belong to the same anarchist elements who infiltrated the party, changed its character and led to its destruction. These days he sees the same figures in demonstrations. Right-wingers call them left-wingers, but I do not see them as left-wingers at all, he says. These are extremist people who have nothing to do with the historic Labor Party.

These voices are sweeping the entire left with them. Even Yair Lapid found himself supporting them, while Ron Huldai was also swept away by the current when he decided to illuminate the Tel Aviv City Hall with the colors of the northern enemy state flag, in which Hezbollah is an acceptable and legitimate part of power, and a large part of the explosion To the city of a rat. 

Not in a hurry to pull out

Not just Netanyahu. Naftali Bennett also gave a speech in the Knesset that cannot be interpreted as an election speech. Bennett has cried out for the government ignoring the economic crisis and slammed ministers and the prime minister for engaging in nonsense while people are dying. The situation in which Bennett finds himself is most convenient for an election leap. He has all the cards and he will draw them according to the situation. 

If Bennett sees that explicit lack of support for Netanyahu is causing him to leak votes to the Likud, he will support him. However, if he sees that standing by Netanyahu will drive away votes, like that of right-wing voters who found themselves voting in blue and white the previous time because of their opposition to Netanyahu, he will not express support until election day, muffle messages and feel out of pocket to serve as an address for them. A lightning rod of right-wingers and left-wingers who would not want to vote for Torch. Of course, all of these votes will eventually go to a Netanyahu-led government, with great potential to serve as the equality breaker that has been lacking so far in the last three election campaigns.