Is Israel entering the post-Netanyahu era? - analysis

It will take time for some to adjust to an Israel without Netanyahu as prime minister.

By HERB KEINON
Updated: MAY 30, 2021 21:58
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to supporters following the announcement of exit polls in Israel's election at his Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv on March 3, 2020. (photo credit: AMIR COHEN - REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waves to supporters following the announcement of exit polls in Israel's election at his Likud party headquarters in Tel Aviv on March 3, 2020.
(photo credit: AMIR COHEN - REUTERS)
With Naftali Bennett’s dramatic announcement on Sunday night of his intention to join Yair Lapid’s government and rotate as prime minister, the country moved one step closer to the end of the Netanyahu era.
Twelve years and 55 days after Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister for the second time, and after a total of 15 years and 73 days of him sitting in the Prime Minister’s Office, the day that everyone knew would come at some point – but which many wondered if they ever would really see – is just around the corner: Israel without Netanyahu at the helm.
Netanyahu has been a part of the political landscape here for so long, has been the prime minister for so long, that it will take some time for people to get used to the very notion that he will not be calling the shots, his baritone voice won’t be giving speeches, and he won’t be determining policy.
It will take time for some to adjust to an Israel without Netanyahu as prime minister.
But they will adjust, and Israel will move on, and that aphorism about no one being irreplaceable will surely come true. Why? Because Israel is more than its leader, no matter how dominant a leader he may be, or how deep are the footprints that he leaves. And also, because there is more than just one man capable of leading this country.
Why is Bennett doing this, many are asking themselves, especially after the campaign in which he promised explicitly not to do exactly what he’s doing: enable Lapid to form a government, sit in a government with Lapid as prime minister, and serve as prime minister himself, even though he is bringing to the table only six Knesset seats.
Another of his promises – ensuring that there won’t be a fifth election – he is keeping.
But what are his motivations? Is he taking this step because he believes it is what is in the best interest of the country? Or, as Netanyahu railed Sunday night in response, is he doing this because of blind personal ambition and because he has much to gain personally; namely, being prime minister, a job that – if it were dependent on the number of votes he garnered in any of the previous elections – would be far from his grasp.
The question about Bennett’s motivations, however, is not a binary one, and it should not be phrased in an either/or framework. Bennett is doing this both because he sincerely believes that it is for the good of the country and that a fifth election, which could then lead to a sixth and even seventh, would be a disaster, and he is doing this because he will become prime minister.
The two reasons are not contradictory, and people are not motored by just one motivation: The mind has room for many different reasons and motivations.
If, indeed, Bennett’s move succeeds, and if there is not some unforeseen snafu that will keep the anti-Netanyahu coalition from coalescing, then the man who deserves the credit is Yesh Atid’s Lapid.
During the campaign and after it; when Netanyahu had the mandate to form the government and when Lapid himself received it; when it looked as if Lapid was about to form a government, and when the crisis in Gaza derailed that idea; Lapid quietly soldiered on, without getting overly excited, without making bombastic statements.
He also demonstrated a degree of political magnanimity that is rare in these parts when – soon after the elections in March – he offered Bennett the first shot at prime minister in a rotation arrangement, despite the latter's poor showing at the polls.
Lapid demonstrated with this act that the goal he set – removing Netanyahu – trumped his personal ambitions, and that he was willing to sacrifice personal ambitions for what he viewed as the collective good.
This wasn’t the first time he acted in this manner. In March 2019 he yielded the right of way to Benny Gantz and gave him the leadership of the Blue and White Party.
For years, the government here has been about one person: Netanyahu. If this new government comes into existence, it will be about three: Lapid, Bennett and New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar.
It’s going to take the public some time to get used to that, and it is also going to take a great deal of that magnanimity – even political selflessness – that Lapid demonstrated in recent months, to make it work.