Maybe his best present is to get rid of the burden placed on his shoulders.
Samuel 8.
Listen to the people and give them what they want. I guess...
Methinks Bibi’s betting no one else can form a government either .... so it’s found three for elections.
This may be ultimately a stronger position for Netanyahu to take for himself. He could even end up staying on as prime minister of he could negotiate a rotating premiership (which would make sense in a unity government centered around two large vote-getting parties) Now he’s the one to be courted to form a government and he doesn’t have to surrender policy goals to the ultraorthadox parties. It’s now likely either unity government or new elections.
Are the Blue and White the party of wine drinking, Kumbya singing, party of Globalization who considers placating their enemies?
Add what is happening in Syria - Russia, Assad & Iran all weighing next moves there, it is trying times ahead for Israel.
I expect the next government to be a weak government, and for it to be tested, and for it to be voted out of office sooner rather than later (too much infighting trying to get internal agreement by comprimses from different factions). Things will not go well for it. Afterward, Netanyahu might have a chance again.
Israel is becoming ungovernable. Sooner or later the enemies surrounding her are going to interpret the government deadlock as weakness and attack.
“ Netanyahu says he made “every possible effort” to bring Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to the negotiation table.”
Benny is not being cooperative.
But the most popular song in Syria is now Benny and the IDF Fighter Jets.
So much for parliamentary rule that some idiots in the media want for the US.
Now that he’s 70, he should retire and let the country move on. He can’t form a government, and he’s had his time in the sun.
Hmmm. So much that “big win” for Likud and “callin’ it for Bibi right now” and “worst case scenario is a Netanyahu-run minority government” you were confidently claiming would happen when the numbers came in on election day.
Very real possibility that Gantz will form a minority government, with the Liberman faction and Arabs not a part of it, but cooperating with it to keep out Netanyahu.
Such a government wouldn’t last long, but it would put off another election for a year or two.
Very possible Gantz would abide by his power-sharing agreement with uberLeftist Lapid. PM Lapid. Try that for size!
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Its 28 days to form a new government - not 3. Gantz, holding only 44 seats and who has never served in politics, will try to do what Bibi could not. If he cannot, then there will be a new election in the Spring, with Bibi leading the interim government.
To read later.