The criticism hurled by Prime Minister Yair Lapid on his political performance in the Russian sector caused a fair amount of ridicule in those around him. All the grievances from the right about the so-called destruction of relations with President Putin and the security consequences this may have in the Syrian arena, will not change the trickle of mandates that began in his direction from the Russian-speaking population in Israel.
The Russian voice began to move in the last two weeks to Lapid from the direction of the Likud, and especially from Israel Beytenu, which has already lost an entire mandate according to the polls.
A survey on the largest Russian-language website in Israel, "News-Row", shows that a whopping 75 percent of expatriates from the former Soviet Union clearly support Ukraine. This is not only about Israelis from Ukraine, but also Russian expatriates. Hundreds of thousands have left Russia in the last decade, mainly Because of Putin, and those who left before, with the fall of the communist dictatorship, they see him as someone who is taking the country back 30 years.
The number of pro-Russians among former Soviet expatriates in Israel is negligible. They will continue to support Netanyahu and Lieberman. The absolute majority leave and find a home in the bosom of Lapid, the only pro-Ukrainian leader on the political map in Israel.
While the majority of the population in Israel is quite indifferent to everything related to the Russian war in Ukraine, among the Russian immigrant public it is a hot, even boiling, issue, even five months after the first shell was fired there.
This week, for example, when Netanyahu went on the attack against Lapid and accused him of chatter that causes damage to Israel, the Russian-language social networks began to bubble.
Most of the reactions were angry.
Not against Lapid, against Netanyahu.
The former prime minister was accused of supporting the dictator.
Collaborates with Russia's destroyer.
In this case as well, as in other cases, many wrote that they would stop supporting Likud due to this position of Netanyahu.
The transition of the Russian public in Israel to the center-left is not self-evident.
The vast majority of them hold right-wing positions.
But for many, the Russian theme is stronger than anything else.
Their hatred of Putin outweighs their political position.
In recent days, Lapid is the only one who makes their voice heard.
Netanyahu, as mentioned, is pro-Russian in their eyes, and Lieberman has nothing to talk about at all.
Many see him as Putin's puppet.
His representative in the Israeli parliament.
To this day, they voted for him because the other issues Lieberman spoke about touched them much more.
The war with Ukraine changed their priorities.
If Gantz, Lapid and the other leaders of the camp opposed to Netanyahu persist in their refusal to join him, it should be estimated that Shaked will be freed from the commitment to them and will do so herself (provided she passes the blocking percentage)
Lapid's attitude to the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the Israeli position that needs to be heard these days fits like a glove to his understanding of the Holocaust consciousness.
The first prime minister who, upon taking office, went to Vashem and not to the Western Wall, believes that Israel's role is to voice a moral voice, even if it outweighs other political, even security, interests.
According to him, what the Jews expected from the nations of the world during the Second World War and did not happen, they themselves must not do now that they have a state.
The problem with this view begins when the touchstone of current morals begins and ends in the White House.
More than Lapid appears to be taking a firm stand against Russia, he appears to be bowing to the dictates of President Biden.
The strong desire to avoid confrontation at all costs also characterized his conduct as Foreign Minister, and caught up with his predecessor in the position, Naftali Bennett.
Lapid managed to convince Bennett that the fate of the entire government depends on it.
This, while he himself believes with all his heart in considerable parts of the statement of the Democratic Party, and especially its latest version, which has sailed into the realms of extremism and delusion.
The knights of the rule of law fell asleep
The words of the former Deputy Chief of Police, Moshe Saada, in an interview with Amit Segal on News 12, were shocking. In one moment, the viewers were thrown into the first days of Roni Alsheich as Commissioner.
The wearer of the kippah was for the beloved of the right, the savior who came from the cleanest and most reliable organization to clean up the filth left by those who left in shame.
His firm assertion that the police officer Erez Amadi Levy was murdered in a stampede attack by Ya'acob Abu Al-Qian, contrary to other positions that began to be heard that day, caused the applause to be louder, but also led a short time later to Alsheikh's dramatic turn, who realized that the butter was spread on the other side of the slice.
With the help of the media consultant Lior Horev, Elshich performed a U-turn which, when complete, was already standing in one line, shoulder to shoulder, with the heads of the media - the same ones who initially received him with suspicion, then with hostility.
In this place Alsheikh felt comfortable.
The state attorney is with him.
And then anyway the ombudsman. And the journalists in their pockets. And of course the politicians.
Nothing has changed.
Saada did not provide proof for his words and the fact that he wants to run for politics can certainly put all his words under great doubt.
However, what is unbearable and completely incomprehensible is that things are not checked at all.
On the contrary, those who demand inspection and investigation are denounced as the enemies of democracy and the state.
Those who complain about the need to protect whistleblowers are silent when it comes to those who expose them from the wrong side of the fence.
So feast.
So did Carmel and Scherzer before him.
That's how Hila grew before them.
Contrary to the impression and the campaign from the left, Netanyahu really has no motivation to fight these bodies or to make the necessary arrangement in them.
Also the firm assertions that after the elections, if there is a right-wing government, a state commission of inquiry will be established - are not on his mind nor in his knowledge.
Such a committee, or some kind of order in these bodies, will be established by Netanyahu only if he is pushed to do so by his political partners and the leaders of his party.
The price of democracy
Ayelet Shaked knows that Yoaz Handel is not really a mandate magnet, to say the least, but she still gave him half the kingdom in the "Zionist Spirit" list.
The move indicates the level of pressure and the feeling of lack of choice in which she finds herself.
When the party does not consistently pass the blocking percentage, it is difficult to recruit stars, and you have to make do with crumbs.
Since the announcement of the elections, Shaked has been busy not only connecting with Handel and Zvi Hauser, but also trying to reshape the party in the post-Bennett era.
Shaked recognized the lack of a center party that belongs to the right-wing camp but is not part of the bloc that automatically goes with Netanyahu.
Many from this camp, perhaps the absolute majority, would have been willing to give him power if they knew that he would not form a narrow right-wing government with Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Gabir and the ultra-Orthodox.
A foot here, a foot there.
Shaked, photo: Gideon Markovich
She is now trying to enter this space with the commitment to allow Netanyahu to form a government, provided that he includes at least one party from the other side.
A deal, by the way, that Netanyahu would have done with both hands, if it had been up to him.
However, it is understood that if Benny Gantz, Lapid and all the other parties from the opposite camp persist in their refusal to join Netanyahu, it must be estimated that Shaked will see herself released from her commitment to them and will join the government headed by him, if she is the one who completes the required 61.
But first of all, a small and marginal detail, she must pass the blocking percentage.
In the absence of another party on the right, one that could drain the votes of the moderate right, Netanyahu decided that the Likud would be the one to fill the void.
In his estimation, balanced and measured statements, without attacks on the law enforcement system or the left, are worth two mandates of voters who will be convinced that something has changed in Netanyahu and now he is not as dangerous as he was.
Only Lapid can still be attacked.
Even on the left, he is not a particularly popular figure and many of his voters do so by default and not out of excessive appreciation for the man and his leadership.
In the last two weeks, Netanyahu has made sure to attack only Lapid (sometimes he also smears Gantz, in order to peel off the few votes that Gideon Sa'ar brought with him), to accuse him of sitting with the Muslim Brotherhood and the Joint List, and above all to talk about his achievements as prime minister, an element that was not part of the Likud campaign For years now.
Netanyahu's biggest problem right now is the primaries.
For him, this is a period of loss of control, where each candidate thinks only of his position and his activists, while Netanyahu's wishes and intentions are now as interesting to him as the skin of garlic.
In those days, in Likud, there is no king in Israel, the man who is honest in his eyes will do.
And Netanyahu meanwhile is pulling hairs.
When the competition between the MKs and former ministers is who protects him more and attacks the law enforcement systems with greater severity, in complete contrast to the new line he wants to lead - what wonder that the feeling of helplessness around him is increasing. Until the outrage passes, until the voting sites start working and this nightmare ends. The price of democracy that other parties don't really recognize. In Beish Atid, Blue and White, Yisrael Beytenu and the like, factional discipline continues all year round.
It turns out that the senior Likud, those who are fighting for a place in the first two tenths, are Netanyahu's least big problem.
The real damage is in the second division.
in the places reserved for districts and sectors.
When fringe types who paid dues legally present their candidacy with their dubious past, and center the full focus and color articles on the television channels - Netanyahu has not much to do.
But he uses all the tools at his disposal to exclude those elements from the Likud list.
Is there a problem in a particular district?
Move the whole thing to a less realistic place.
If there is a candidate with a criminal record that the media has already had time to celebrate - another candidate is placed in front of him, who may prevail over him.
While in the other parties the list is almost closed and the campaign is already in the air, Netanyahu is forced to base himself up to his neck in an attempt to minimize damage with the long trail he will bring with him to the next Knesset.
61 It's not visual everything
Of all the questions Benny Gantz was asked in the blitz of interviews he gave this week, he was only interested in conveying one message: he has a government without the coalition and with the ultra-Orthodox factions.
This message is critical in his campaign and is intended to prevent a leakage of votes to Lish Atid, which would leave him with a single digit figure.
Lapid has an advantage in mandates, Gantz has an advantage in the chance to form a government, so it is important, so the message goes, to keep him in the picture.
And not just as a satellite party but as a candidate for Prime Minister.
The big question is how well-founded his words are, i.e. if the ultra-orthodox factions will indeed break up the right-wing bloc, if they will not get 61 seats, and go on a new adventure with other parties.
Until now, it has been customary to divide the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and Agudat Israel on one side, and the Torah flag on the other side. The first side is firmly with Netanyahu to the end. And the other side hints that there are other options as well.
Recently, there seems to have been a blurring of positions, with the first part getting closer to the second.
In other words, Moshe Gafni's courtship dance in Benny Gantz's office in the days before the dissolution of the Knesset infected both the Hasidim and the Shas, who continue to express unqualified support for Netanyahu but make sure to hang it on the fact that there will be 61 and no further elections.
This was highlighted this week in the words of the one who is considered an elder member of the Council of Torah Elders of the Torah Council, at the special gathering held this week in preparation for the Knesset elections, Rabbi Baruch Mordechai Tsari (93).
Greater than him in the important forum is only the president of the council, Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, who is six years older than Rabbi Tziri.
"We are not interested in who the prime minister is," said Rabbi Tziri, "what interests us is the Jewish identity and the strengthening of the Torah world."
The following sentence may ring even louder in the ears of the members of the right-wing bloc.
"We are not interested in the 61 - for us it is only 'the most you will find' (a Talmudic term meaning: a means that is not the goal) - but to bring results and achieve the goal itself."
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