When US president Donald Trump left the White House, he moved to his Florida resort, and while every word he says still makes headlines, he has no statutory role.
By contrast, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains the opposition leader, the Likud chairman and its candidate for PM in the next election, as well as the shadow over his former protégé, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
It has become cliché to say that he is the glue that holds this diverse government together. He is actually much more than that.
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Netanyahu is determined to use his presence on social media, the journalists loyal to him, and his speeches in the Knesset to provide a constant contrast between his performance and that of the government that he criticizes. By doing so, he makes his successors’ jobs even harder.
He will continue speaking to world leaders, vaccine makers, Olympic medalists and family members of soldiers as though he were still PM.
His alleged hotel stays with discounts and the revelations of past renovations at his home will keep him in the headlines in a negative light.
Maintaining that presence also keeps at bay the dozen potential successors in the Likud, who cannot wait for their shot to head the party that has had only four leaders, who all became prime minister.
Former Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein is the only candidate with the courage to not rule out running against Netanyahu. The rest have carefully said that they would run in “the post-Netanyahu era.”
A Likud leadership race could potentially include as many as nine candidates: Edelstein, current and former ambassadors to the United Nations Gilad Erdan and Danny Danon, former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and MKs Nir Barkat, Israel Katz, Miri Regev, Tzachi Hanegbi and Avi Dichter. MKs Yoav Galant and Amir Ohana and former MK Moshe Feiglin have not said they would run but it is presumed they would, too.
They may have to wait a while. Netanyahu turns 72 on October 21, but his father, Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, died at the age of 102. The opposition leader has given no indication he is going anywhere soon.
Like Trump, he is determined to come back. Like with Trump, legal challenges could get in the way.
Netanyahu’s criminal trial is moving slowly. Those who thought removing him from the PMO would expedite it have so far been wrong.
That leaves passing legislation against Netanyahu as the primary way to prevent his return. There will be bills enacting term limits and preventing anyone under indictment from forming a government.
Such proposals will dominate the Knesset agenda after a budget is passed.
They will also prove that Netanyahu remains just as relevant and dominant as ever, even though he no longer lives in the Prime Minister’s Residence on Jerusalem’s Balfour and Smolenskin streets.