Have things gotten completely out of hand now that a bill to dissolve the Knesset passed its preliminary vote? That is the impression. Defense Minister Benny Gantz needs to work with an emotional charge that's too vast and Wednesday saw the continuation of the decline towards the next elections – in late March 2021, but most likely in May or June.
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If one thinks solely about the national interests, then the current government, where Benjamin Netanyahu is prime minister, and Benny Gantz is defense minister, is good for Israel and its people for the next three and a half years. Without any rotation. There are those in Likud who speculate that this indeed is the prime minister's goal in the current crisis.
We can't possibly continue to call Benny Gantz a political novice who doesn't know how to play the game because political and defense crises on the national level are more complicated and dangerous than on the local level. Will the pundits justify Gantz's actions even then by saying he is still "learning the tricks of the trade"? Think about Ehud Olmert in the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
A new administration is about to enter the White House, with possible future crises on the Iranian and Palestinian issues.
Netanyahu much rater prefers his partnership with Ganz than an alliance with Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi or Yamina leader Naftali Bennett.
Some ask whether this is clear to leftist leaders, like Ehud Barak and his agitators. They think that the only solution to their problems is ousting Netanyahu. But it is evident that the elections in March or June will only make the Right stronger. The right-wing government will have a much larger presence in the parliament. Gantz's choice is simple – be the defense minister for the next 10 months or the next four years.
Netanyahu aims to push the elections to the summer of 2021 in the hopes that the arrival of the coronavirus vaccines will help recover the economy from the coronavirus crisis. In the meantime, he will form an alliance with Joint Arab List MK Mansour Abbas, will considerably improve the Arab sector's civil equality, and create a government that adheres to strict security policies.
The main reason behind Netanyahu's pressure to continue the current government without a rotation is the High Court's intolerable intervention in parliamentary proceedings, seeing that it challenged the unity agreement to begin with.
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