Opinion | Minimum Leadership, Maximum Damages Israel today

It is not the shouts of the opposition that should worry those who rubbed their eyes in the face of the commotion in the Knesset plenum, but the departure of the prime minister, who shouted, cursed and slammed "Fly me out of sight" in MK Orit Struck. His temper in front of the cameras. This is how a captain does not look confident in himself and his way on a day of historic legislation.

A leader whose behavior reflects helplessness, and above all - zero control over what happens.

We received a live broadcast illustrating the feeling that the state and its citizens are being abandoned to their fate in the wave of the omicron.

That there is no hand on the wheel.

And this feeling is shared not only by the citizens of Israel - but also by the ministers of the government.

Take with limited guarantee the empty statements about "cooperation" and "paragon" and "first among equals".

The real messages are conveyed in behavior, not in statements.

And the behavior of the ministers indicates how much they have no confidence in their prime minister, respect for him and fear of him.

Like a rejected boy suffering from bullying in the school corridor, government ministers compete with each other over who will humiliate him more.

Minister Horowitz will do this in the eyes and in the ears of the participants in the discussion on the isolation policy.

"Sometimes you go into details that are not necessary," he dries him with demonstrable contempt, then threatens that Meretz will not vote with the coalition.

Right, Horowitz.

What will Bennett do to him?

Will fire him?

Then comes the defense minister, Bnei Gantz, who shows Bennett every day who the real boss is.

Meets with Abbas, meets with the King of Jordan, clears buildings in Chumash and another sting in front of the microphones at a faction meeting: "I was disappointed to hear the cabinet ministers, in the closed rooms they speak differently."

How do the young people say?

Brings out Bennett a liar in the eyes of the nation.

Then Yair Lapid arrives to give his humiliating kick: "Without a political process, there is a growing danger that Israel will be defined as an apartheid state."

He will then explain and object that there will be no negotiations in the current government, but what is important? In any case, Bennett has no weight in determining the Israeli government's guidelines for the conflict.

MKs Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett, in the Knesset, Archive // ​​Photo: Dudi Vaknin,

Coalition members from RAAM will make a pilgrimage to inciting Sheikh Raed Salah, Deputy Minister Yair Golan will call the residents of Chumash "sub-human" - and everything in the Bennett-led government. "With Iran, it is better for Israel than the failure of the talks," the head of the security services will say at a cabinet meeting.

From the ministers above to the professional levels below, in education, in health, in foreign relations, in security and even on the issue of Iran - apparently no one sees Bennett as an authority.

Then we came to Wednesday, to the tumultuous meeting in which the coalition voted for the regulation of illegal settlement in the Negev - and against the regulation of the young settlement in Judea and Samaria. The members of the RAAM conducted themselves in the plenum like gentlemen.

With no respect for the prime minister, they waged an ego war on Bennett's back with the joint list: they conducted the yeshiva in Arabic, spoke in Arabic, a finger in the eye of Bennett and to the right.

What came next was just the tip of the iceberg.

Bennett is running, all shaking and rushing, to release frustrations about the opposition, but he snatches the real insult from the coalition: there is not a single one there who honors him as prime minister.

And it hurts him.

Painful, but not surprising, and not just because it lacks public support and with an approaching expiration date.

His ministers do not respect him because they are aware of what has been done in the Prime Minister's Office.

Naftali Bennett // Photo: Arik Sultan // Naftali Bennett,

It appears that officials within the bureau are reporting signs of collapse.

Loneliness, outbursts of anger, suspicion, resignations, frequent threats in polygraph tests on subordinates.

He managed to create a crisis of confidence with the defense establishment: the IDF is angry about the leak that endangered the response to the rocket fire from Gaza (according to a report in Israel Today), and the head of the Mossad demands that the PM take a polygraph test on suspicion of further leakage.

The myth of the manager, the CEO, the entrepreneur, the generalist - the image that Bennett cultivated - turns out to be unfounded to those around him. Bennett conducts meetings in a frenzy. Leaves everything and starts talking about the new topic.Not thorough, unfocused and mostly lets the discussion run it - instead of the other way around.

For years Bennett behaved reasonably well - provided someone above or next to him managed it and left it to him to take care of the details of the performance.

This role is now being filled by Political Adviser Shimrit Meir, who, as I have described before, is gradually taking over more and more areas in the bureau.

Now she has also taken over the care of Corona, even more so during Bennett's isolation period.

Bnei Gantz // Photo: Elad Malka,

But there is no vacuum.

When there is no authoritarian leader, everyone becomes a dictator of policy, and each of the ministers builds autonomy for himself.

The government is not on the verge of collapse, but there is already an atmosphere of disintegration at the end of the course, and the one who is using it to build his status as the center-left leader is the defense minister.

The army, the security establishment, the Palestinians, the Arab world and the international system have already internalized: on strategic issues of Israel - Ganz is the captain, not Naftali Bennett.

In any case, Ganz will remain in his position long after Bennett moves on to sign residence visas at the Ministry of the Interior.

And in order to succeed in this, Gantz harnessed Ayelet Shaked, who is desperate to restore her position on the right.

So here's a deal: Ayelet Shaked promotes wholesale family reunification permits for Palestinians, and passes the Electricity Law to the Bedouin in the Negev while skipping the regulation of young settlement.

And what will she get in return?

Ganz will approve a symbolic session session in Eviatar, and it will be able to wave at the achievement.

Yes, Shaked and Bennett let Ganz and Lapid prepare the infrastructure for Oslo - in exchange for a hut in Eviatar.

Without underestimating, of course.

Eviatar in exchange for casting the foundations for a political move.

Aside from fueling hatred for settlers, this is why this is the worst government for the settlement enterprise.

A successful real estate deal for Bennett and Shaked's ego, but catastrophic for the future of the state. The Negev for Eviatar; and doc: the Negev first.

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