The prime minister needs to act against the oligarchy, the deep state, or call it what you will. These block him and essentially neutralize electoral democracy in Israel via Benny Gantz and Avi Nissenkorn within the government and via the raised fist of the Black Flag movement outside of it. Supposedly, the correct response to all this anti-democratic activity is to call for an election. But if we put our finger on the pulse of the public, it seems no one really wants another election. An election in four months is hard to envision.
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Thus far, Gantz looks like someone who has nothing of substance to contribute on the national level. He's apparently falling in line with Netanyahu and Gabi Ashkenazi on security, some aspects of which are far-reaching yet naturally must remain a secret. To this point though, Gantz hasn't contributed anything to combatting the coronavirus and certainly hasn't followed through on his pretentious campaign promise to facilitate national conciliation. Just the opposite – ever since the establishment of the unity government the rift has only widened, and what does Gantz have to say in a television interview? "I understand the hate toward Netanyahu."
The solution to this recurring election dilemma is in the hands of the freelancers. Zvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel can climb down from their virtual ladder in the clouds about being "stately."
"I'm against casting doubt on the bureaucrats," MK Hauser said a month ago. Of course, "It's okay to cast doubt on the politicians," he asserted. In an interview with Haaretz he said: "Israel's core problem is that our focus in recent years has been on the process and not the result … the people in positions of responsibility don't have any authority and the people with authority don't have any responsibility. Therefore Israel is currently akin to a ship with a thick rope being wrapped around its rudder, prohibiting it from moving forward … when I see this gap between the internal indolence and the array of external challenges facing us – I get worried."
Do Hauser and Hendel not see how Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit has plundered the State Attorney Office? We should bear in mind that Mendelblit crossed the red line more than three years ago when he instructed the police to raid the offices of "Yedioth Books" to confiscate Ehud Olmert's manuscript.
It would make sense for all the freelancers who quit their left-wing parties to rally to Netanyahu's side and help him form a narrow yet efficient government. They're actions on Sunday, postponing the vote on the national budget, shows that their heads are in the wrong place. This could be a government that makes serious headway in terms of sovereignty in the Jordan Valley – while leaving everything else on a low diplomatic burner. Hauser and Hendel can join a narrow right-wing government and cleave in half the thick rope that is no longer just slowing the rudder but destroying it. Is such a development even feasible? It's highly doubtful. On the right there is one brave man and his name is Benjamin Netanyahu. The freelancers who abandoned the left are scared of police investigations, legal cases and having their character assassinated by the media.
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