The Left's dispirited reaction to the rollout of President Donald Trump's peace plan can only mean one thing: It knows that this was a victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister had gotten what he wanted.
It's not that Trump's deal is perfect, and as settler leaders said, it could create additional threats to Israel if it results in a new Arab state between the Jordan River and the sea.
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The right-wing Habayit Hayehudi party also sounded the alarm on Tuesday after the Trump-Netanyahu ceremony at the White House.
But the right-wing criticism is going to fade away once it becomes apparent that Netanyahu has no plans to adopt the entire gamut of proposals in the plan and will only take the good parts for now: the application Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
The Likud hopes that the sovereignty issue can dominate the agenda for the remaining four weeks of the campaign, as this will definitely help Netanyahu's electoral chances. Netanyahu's decision to withdraw his immunity request may hurt him personally because he will now stand on trial for corruption, but it will help his campaign.
Next week, the cabinet will convene to approve a measure that would extend Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. The ministers will then decide whether the Knesset should also get to vote on it.
If the measure reaches the Knesset plenum, the Likud will make sure its language includes consensus and mainstream provisions, as this will undoubtedly put Blue and White in a bind and cause friction with its more leftist allies Labor and Meretz.
Blue and White and its leader Benny Gantz heaped praise on Trump and his plan after the rollout on Tuesday. But the fact that there was no Palestinian representative in the East Room was much to their displeasure, and as a result, they were quick to announce that any implementation of the plan must be coordinated with Arab, Jordanian and European officials.
The parties that are left of Blue and White, and most of the pundits on television, made sure to do all they can to lower the enthusiasm among Israelis, saying that the plan was humiliating and unrealistic.
But by doing this, they only helped the Right and made it feel even more confident that the bad parts of the plan will never see the light of day, unlike the good parts, which are going to be implemented potentially next week.
What could put a damper on the Likud's celebrations is the start of Netanyahu's trial. Now that Netanyahu can no longer seek immunity, he is at the mercy of the court, which will not change its proceedings no matter how much support he enjoys in the Knesset.
Personally, Netanyahu took a huge gamble by ending his immunity bid, but for the near future, this move helped his campaign by removing a major obstacle. Blue and White will no longer be able to hammer him with the claim that he is trying to evade justice. Now, the only ammo they have left is the actual indictment and they will make sure to remind voters that he is on trial in every infomercial. But this too will run its course.
Netanyahu managed to make his foreign policy agenda eclipse the legal drama that Blue and White had kept using against him. His narrative had won and now he has momentum, but as we have seen multiple times, this does not guarantee victory.
