Weekly Commentary: Mr. Gantz! Don't Let Your Hysterical Partner Destroy Israel!

Weekly Commentary: Mr. Gantz! Don’t Let Your Hysterical Partner Destroy
Israel!
Dr. Aaron Lerner 21 March 2020

It’s a fact: Benny Gantz simply does not have enough votes to form a
minority government.

The only thing his Blue White party can do in the coming weeks is try to
pass legislation specifically against Netanyahu and similar incendiary
legislation.

And this while we face an unprecedented crisis.

Live on Channel 12 tonight Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid out an
extremely reasonable offer to Benny Gantz.

According to details of the proposed deal, Likud would start out with the
posts of prime minister, finance minister and Knesset speaker and Blue and
White would start with a deputy prime minister, defense minister and foreign
minister and then switch after a year and a half. The Justice portfolio
would be filled in agreement by an outsider or a minister and deputy from
each party.

Correction: it is a FANTASTIC DEAL.

The last thing any party needs is the finance ministry portfolio. No
matter what miracles the finance minister may somehow pull off it is going to
be a thankless job.

Ditto for the position of prime minister.

For a moment there was hope.

And then former defense minister Ya’alon, a member of the Blue White
“cockpit”, began sputtering his hatred of Netanyahu in a live follow up
interview on Channel 12, essentially ruling out any solution.

I understand the source of Ya’alon’s hysterical attitude towards Netanyahu.

Ya’alon made a tremendous investment in the Likud, devoting a huge part of
his time in personal contact with Likudniks.

As a member of the Likud Central Committee I participated in meetings with
him many times in Raanana and even at his office in the Defense Ministry in
Tel Aviv. He always made a point to stick around until everyone had a chance
to personally say something to him. To be clear, he wasn’t meeting us to
exchange ideas. The idea was to gain our support by giving us the bragging
rights of personally knowing him.

And then came the Elor Azariya incident in Hebron.

Both Ya’alon and Netanyahu responded immediately to the incident with
statements condemning Azariya.

The Likud WhatsApp groups were furious about these hasty condemnations.

Netanyahu immediately did an about face.

But Ya’alon is a general.

And generals like Ya’alon are convinced that they are infallible.

Ya’alon didn’t back down – he doubled down.

From that moment onward a hysterical hatred for Netanyahu consumed Ya’alon.

And the rest is history.

I frankly don’t think that Ya’alon has it in him to put the nation ahead of
his hatred for Netanyahu. But that doesn’t mean that Gantz can’t put Israel
first.

Jewish history is replete with stories of people whose emotional decisions
had a devastating effect on the fate of the Jewish People.

I sincerely hope that Benny Gantz steers away from that path and takes up
Netanyahu on his offer.

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IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis

Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on
Arab-Israeli relations

Website: www.imra.org.il