On the one hand, Netanyahu is prepared and ready for the election - and his speech in the Knesset with Lapid will testify to that • But on the other hand, the prime minister is working to prevent the dissolution of the Knesset - in exchange for a blue-and-white waiver of control over the appointment of the commissioner.
Netanyahu. Draw contours for the campaign
Photo:
Adina Velman - Spokeswoman for the Knesset
Ganz. Absence that signifies distrust
Photo:
Adina Velman - Spokeswoman for the Knesset
The prime minister is warming up for the election campaign - but at the same time is working to stop it. It is difficult to explain his speech in the Knesset other than an election speech. At the same time, Netanyahu is in the midst of feverish negotiations with blue and white. Not on the budget. The budget has always been just an excuse. Not only Netanyahu, but also Ganz. What concerns the prime minister are completely different things.
Senior appointments, for example. According to the coalition agreement, an advisory committee for appointments is to be established. Netanyahu is mainly interested in two people: the ombudsman and the commissioner. But the committee did not get up. Netanyahu blames Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn for the delay. It is estimated that if Benny Ganz and Avi Nissenkorn allow him to hold on to appointments, the prime minister may give up on the budget.
Archive // Photo: Knesset Channel
The Likud says that it is not possible for the coalition agreement to be fulfilled by only one party, while the other party will do as it pleases. The absence from the vote on the law that prevents Netanyahu, as the one against whom indictments were filed, from serving as prime minister, is also seen by the Likud as a violation of the blue-and-white agreement. Coalition chairman Mickey Zohar said that according to the summaries, blue and white members should have sat in the plenum and voted against, as the coalition positioned, and not just the absence.
In a normal coalition such an event would not pass quietly. Coalition partners cannot be absent from voting for a personal law directed directly against the prime minister, and think they have done their part. There is no greater expression of distrust on the part of those who are supposed to be his partners in leadership. But this is not a normal coalition. Or to put it more bluntly: this coalition is not normal at all.
• Netanyahu: "Israeli citizens are begging for the budget to be transferred, I hope we will transfer it soon"
• Netanyahu Lapid: "You have a 'Pike Doctorate'"; Opposition Leader: "Prime Minister is freaking out before our eyes"
• Likud signals: "Yes to compromise, no to biennial budget"
Exactly 33 years ago, in August 1987, what was supposed to be the flagship project of IAI and the IDF in general: the Lavi plane was canceled. Operational and cheaper budgetary, vanished because of a conflicted and divided coalition.Who would have believed it could have been worse.The current government could not have built together even Susita.
The Prime Minister's Office denies. According to them, Netanyahu will never give up an annual budget, since this is a matter of principle that is of crucial importance to the Israeli economy. Preparations for the elections are in full swing in all sectors. Netanyahu, too, whose demands may not be met and the election campaign will roll out in ten days, with the Knesset dispersed in the absence of a budget.
The surprise speech in the Knesset during the debate on the personal law designed to prevent him from running, was calculated and accurate down to the last detail. Netanyahu took the stage and drew on it the outlines of the Likud's next election campaign: Yair Lapid's position as the main candidate in front of him. A painting of the Balfour protest as political, the work of Lapid, the left and the joint Arab list. And presenting the trial against him - as persecution.
The full column will be published tomorrow in the "Israel Hashavua " supplement
