Naftali Bennett has made a career out of exploiting Benjamin Netanyahu's weaknesses. To be blunt, for all of Netanyahu's exceptional work on foreign policy and devising macro strategies, he has ignored many areas. Whether this was willful neglect or simply a concession by Netanyahu, Bennett has often seized on those voids in order to build his stature.
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Like a bird that pecks on the back of a rhino, Bennett's perpetual campaign has always combed through Netanyahu's resume to find imperfections that could serve perception leverages that would make it easier to create the image of "the leftist Netanyahu," and this made it easier to cast himself as the strong "right-wing minder" who would keep Netanyahu's in check. Just pick a topic and you can see how this template was applied, from Operation Pillar of Defense, in which Bennett slammed Netanyahu for not dealing with tunnels, to the release of prisoners, the incendiary balloons and the settlement moratorium, and the judiciary reforms, the coronavirus response. In all those instances, Bennett made sure to flood the airwaves with propaganda on how Netanyahu and the Likud are lousy while Bennett and his deputy Ayelet Shaked are the big shots who would know what to do and only they had what it took. But in the weeks since Bennett and Yair Lapid formed a government with a rotating premiership, virtually every aspect has seen things gone south. Netanyahu's shortcomings pale in comparison to that duo's mismanagement. Just look at the corona figures. Even the fish are ashamed of being wrapped with the pages of Bennett's small book titled "How to beat a pandemic."
The reports that Bennett is now planning to once again put on hold the eviction of the illegal Bedouin outpost Khan al-Ahmar are part of this mismanagement. But haven't Bennett and Shaked been the most outspoken proponents of this eviction? Just recall the scope of their tirades against Netanyahu on this matter. Of course, there may be legitimate reasons not to take such action right now, because this might lead to another flare-up in Judea and Samaria just as the government is trying to forge alliances with the Arab world and create a coalition against Iran. But they were the ones who said that not evicting would be anti-right-wing, and it was Shaekd who said that "If Bennett becomes prime minister, it will definitely be taken down."
Well now, Bennett is prime minister, and Khan al-Ahamar will most definitely not be demolished. Yet another bluff has been called, adding to a long list. But the bigger bluff runs much deeper. The fact is Bennett is not our prime minister in practice. It was Lapid who signed the request to delay the eviction. Lapid is the real prime minister. This is Bluff Al-Ahmar.
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