Almost two years ago, at the height of the re-election frenzy, between the first and second or between the second and third, a zoom meeting with right-wing chairman (or "the new right") Naftali Bennett was arranged for me, at my request.
It was really at the height of the rush, and I really wanted to hear but also play.
I remember my opening sentence, it was very unequivocal.
I want, I told him, to be the first dome-wearing prime minister.
I remember he said "me too," and we laughed.
The question is, I continued, how to do it.
The last thing that went through my mind when I made that statement and asked that question was what happened a few months later, when Bennett was sworn in as prime minister through a coalition made up of all the left, one Arab faction and right-wing defectors.
My ambition was real - it was shared by many right-wing and religious, but it hid a huge problem behind it.
I knew Bennett, I appreciated him and I understood well the political tangle he was in - his loyalty to the camp and the idea, his personal ambition and his bitter conflict with Netanyahu, the camp leader, who repeatedly prevented him from advancing, joining the leadership and saying he blocked his way.
And in the midst of this commotion I sought to hear, as one thing to another, if there was any plan, for the whole camp and for Bennett personally.
If he knows how to dismantle this delicate minefield without harming the camp in a process that will eventually, in years, maybe a decade, he will be prime minister.
At that time I believed with complete faith that the politically wise and right-wing Bennett committed to his ideology well understood that the war on Netanyahu was in fact a war on the right, and that a solution must come in the form of breaking Netanyahu's conflict with him and not by joining Netanyahu's enemies.
At that point I believed in something else.
I sincerely believed that Netanyahu was doing injustice to Bennett and Shaked, and perhaps even to Saar, by standing in their way of running for the Likud leadership and the right-wing camp.
I attributed it to family influence, etc., and I was really angry.
Bennett did not really answer my question.
He continued on his line and after a few sentences I felt he was not with me.
There was something strange in his answers, he spoke in an abstract way about "solution" about "out of the box" and "something must be done".
Today I clearly feel that he already knew then that this move would end not on the right, but in the camp against him.
Today I understand that Netanyahu also knew this clearly even then, and was right in narrowing his steps in the Likud and on the right.
As these things are being written, Naftali Bennett announces on television that he is retiring from politics and will not run in the next election.
I think this is a true and correct thing.
This is how it will be done for those who accelerate through it.
kobiarieli@gmail.com
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