The criticism against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Right is nothing new. Naturally, all the parties to the right of the political map have, at one point or another, expressed disappointment over decisions made by the leaders of the national liberal movement. This is, after all, why they have not found a political home in Likud and sought it elsewhere.
The latest criticism of Netanyahu, augmented by the political campaign mounted by the Blue and White party is, therefore, nothing too exciting but it does serve the Left. After losing the April 9 election, its members now sit back and enjoy the show put on by the prime minister's right-wing critics as Israel heads toward another election in September.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
For months, Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz and the rest of Blue and White's leaders have been reiterating that the Right's only problem – its only obstacle in forming a government – is Netanyahu.
This message, intensified by the mainstream media, which is all too happy to lend itself to the opposition's campaign, is that all of the world's woes would be solved if the Right would be willing to unseat Netanyahu and transfer power to someone else.
The Left has been trying to unseat Netanyahu for the past 10 years and only the pretext has changed. The novelty this time is that right-wingers are gung-ho to share the message.
In the 2015 election, Netanyahu stunned everyone when he defeated all projections and gave the Likud a 30-seat victory. Four years later, he stunned everyone again when he increased that number to 35. Any such increase has always been at the expense of the smaller right-wing parties, and as a result, some have failed to pass the electoral threshold and at times have even disappeared altogether.
The 2019 election saw that happen to Naftali Bennett's New Right and Moshe Feiglin's Zehut parties, although the fact that another election has been called has given them new hope.
The dissonance among right-wing voters is understandable. On the one hand, everyone wants to secure a right-wing government headed by Netanyahu, which is why Likud must remain the largest party; while on the other hand, Likud is not religious enough or right-wing enough for some members of the voting public, who feel they would be better served by the bloc's smaller parties.
Unlike in the Left, whose criticism openly – and naturally – calls for Netanyahu's replacement, the criticism leveled at the prime minister from the Right calls for voters to cast their ballots in favor of other parties that can help to secure his rule but give them more control over him.
This effort misses its mark because the smaller right-wing parties fail to understand that gnawing at the Likud's voter base plays into the Left's hands.
