Consider the following hypothetical scenario: Yamina leader Naftali Bennett is interested in becoming prime minister. This is his dream, what he yearns for, and it is doubtful he will ever get another chance. But Bennett wants to be the prime minister of a right-wing government and he prefers to avoid a "blemish" in his political record for having chosen the Center-Left bloc when he had a clear chance to re-join the right-wing one.
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But what will happen of Bennett become the last choice – the last chance before Israel is swept up in its fifth election campaign in two years? What if he can justify going against the grain by saying they it would still be a government that gives the right-leaning parties a clear advantage?
What if maybe – just maybe – New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar and Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid understood that given the right math, President Reuven Rivlin will task Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the next government and even wanted that to happen, knowing full well that Netanyahu won't be able to cobble together a coalition?
After all, Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich will never agree to sit in a government endorsed by an Arab party, even if it means dragging the country through an endless number of elections.
No one from the "other side" seems to be interested in "defecting" to Likud and after being traumatized by what happened to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz when he joined forces with Netanyahu, chances of anyone else taking a similar risk are slim.
What is not hypothetical, however, is that in recent days, Bennett and Lapid's teams have been meeting for the purpose of forming the next government, discussing parity arrangement and event the distribution of portfolios.
Could it be that when Netanyahu fails to form a government, Bennett, Sa'ar and Lapid will go to Rivlin and say, "Look, we already have agreements, we already have a government." Will the president refuse?
And what about the promises not to join a government that includes Meretz and Labor? Well, in politics there are big promises and there are small promises. Bennett's main promise is to prevent a fifth election, and not coming through on other promises can be explained away, easily even.
True, giving Netanyahu weeks to form a government is playing high-stakes political poker, but paradoxically, it is the only scenario that can remove Netanyahu from office. So in fact, hypothetical, at the end of the day, Bennett holds the key to Netanyahu's government.
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