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It’s Time for Bibi Netanyahu to Cry Uncle
Owning a PR firm, we work extensively in strategic communications and how to gain the upper hand in complex situations. Along those lines, the strategic partnership between two political rookies, Naftali Bennett’s Bayit Yehudi and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid is simply genius. It’s the work of political mastery and if they remain loyal to one another are unstoppable.
Both Bennett and Lapid are ideological and have given one another a “man’s word” that they will not betray one another. Even after President Shimon Peres has granted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu a 14-day extension to form a coalition, it’s clear that neither Bennett or Lapid trust Netanyahu. By partnering with one another they believe they can benefit their voters, and their political parties.
And undoubetdly, if they have already lasted four weeks, they can make it another two. And political observers would have to note they have little impetus to break their coalition even if they wanted to. In the unlikely situation there are new elections, Lapid is projected to increase his seats significantly. Bennett, in a government with Labor and Hatnuah won’t make it to summer recess.They both have little to lose by sticking to their guns.
Any political observer would have to say that the Likud Party hasn’t been the most pure ideological party for many years. Ehud Olmert & Ariel Sharon left the Likud for their own interests – and inside the Likud there’s privately been fear for years that Netanyahu could do the same. This move is ideological and as Lapid & Bennett have said they have given one another a “man’s word” which cannot be broken.
Regardless of where one stands politically, it is a pleasant surprise in politics to see someone who actually keeps their word – and that’s the quandary facing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his inability to form a government. Yesh Atid and Bayit Yehudi vowed to push the Ultra-Orthodox into mainstream Israeli society – and they are sticking to their guns.
Netanyahu doesn’t have many choices other than calling time-out and coming to the table with Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett and crying uncle. Without Yesh Atid & Bayit Yehudi in the government there will be new elections.