The other day at 06:09 a.m., WhatsApp vibrated on my phone. Friends who wanted to start the day with satisfaction separately sent a photo of the headline in Yedioth Ahronoth. It says in white kiddush letters by Yuval Karni that four senior Likud ministers admitted that "the reform is dead." But in the words of Yossi Banai's melody: "You must always keep an eye out / Beware of traps / ... The war is still ongoing."
In the afternoon, Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at a meeting of the Likud faction and disparaged the publication in Yediot. I tended to trust the newspaper rather than Bibi's denial. Not that it is known that "the reform is dead," but I have no doubt that senior Likud officials said so to the journalist.
It is possible to revisit the significance of the presence of the legal coup in the national arena, the damage it causes to Israel's international standing, its ability to employ military means, and the cost of living. The subject is important, but there is nothing new about it.
On the other hand, seminars at universities and research institutes should discuss the prime minister's political conduct, a kind of academic "war game."
The starting point for the discussion is that Netanyahu has weakened in every democratic capital due to a steep decline in the trust of US and Western leaders in his promises and declarations. Ever since he gave his speech at Bar-Ilan University in favor of the establishment of two states for two peoples, world leaders have felt that he is deceiving them. This feeling intensified, and some were caught saying that he was telling a lie.
Still, his rhetorical level and persuasive ability prevented a total crisis with democracies, but the more controversial events there became, the less his ability to defend his ambiguous policy in carrying out his commitments. It oscillates between the poles: on the one hand, the dependence on international contact in the fields of security and policy and economics and science; On the other hand, the pressure of the extremists in the coalition to establish the judicial coup. Now he has reached a crossroads where his skill "does not hold water," as an antibiotic that is overused and no longer overrides the bacterium.
At the current juncture, Netanyahu has ceased to enjoy the best of both worlds. If he wishes to act according to the perception that seems to me responsible, the time has come for him to stand before the nation and say in clear language that there have been fundamental changes in the arena as a whole, and that what was true in the recent past, when the judicial coup could have been carried out, no longer exists. And its rejection has become essential to restoring prosperity to Israel.
But if he wants to adhere to his policy as set out when the government was formed, then he should continue on his path (which is perceived as a disaster in my opinion) with momentum that reflects the authentic will of the government.
In other words, it makes sense to ignore the promise to Joe Biden and return to the Pentateuch only if the legal coup and its proxies are also implemented. But there is no sense to go back to the Pentateuch and provoke the wrath of the United States without achieving the main objectives of the legal coup that are nullified by American opposition. In his current policy, he comes out "bald from here on out." This conduct, which served Bibi successfully for many years, is obsolete.
About a month ago, a thick book (646 pages) by the head of the Begin-Sadat Center at Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Eitan Shamir, devoted to fascinating research on Moshe Dayan and entitled "The Development of a Strategist" (I will write an article or post for Dayan's unique character, as the study suggests).
Recommended to Bibi for his reader. It says that there are two types of strategy: a calculated, inflexible strategy that strives for a complete solution, and I will add that sometimes it ends in dictatorship; The other is the open-form strategy, the outcome of which is never final and subject to change, and is realized on the fly. Dayan chose her and vaguely stated that "only a donkey does not change his mind." Netanyahu should choose this strategy, telling his supporters directly that we must wait for the legal coup for the next Knesset instead of getting entangled in contradictions.
In any case, he has reached a crossroads where he must choose his conduct: either-or.
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