There is something strange in the sight of the fervent preparations for a battle that won't take place for another four months or so. But, as we know, the current Israeli political landscape has its own rules and oddities. Nothing is predictable, and even without a green light, the political armies are already preparing for battle day in November.

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If we keep up the military metaphor, we might be able to determine that right now, the ones who are best prepared are the "Anyone but Bibi" camp, or as they are known in the media, the "center-left bloc." That isn't something to be taken for granted, because until a few weeks ago, when the coalition was breaking apart, it looked like the Right was the stronger, better organized bloc. Its forces appeared well-arrayed and stable, United Torah Judaism and Shas were solid in their corners, the Religious Zionist party was rising in the polls, and the Likud was in its natural place as bloc leader.

The anti-Netanyahu center-left, on the other hand, looked more battered and at odds than ever. It was Gantz vs. Lapid, who was scheming for Michaeli's seats, and Michaeli was in turn looking to Meretz. Even the ideology that had been sacrificed on the altar of "change" ceased to be a factor, and the government ministers weren't performing at their best.

Suddenly, everything changed. In the Haredi camp, MK Moshe Gafni has recently become very active and started obfuscating his messages ahead of ushering Benny Gantz into the prime minister's seat if Netanyahu fails to secure the magic 61. While Gafni has always been seen, and characterizes himself, as having dovish tendencies, political circles are divided about how real his warming relations with Gantz are. What is certain is that realistically speaking, Gafni has only two to three of the 15-16 seats that UTJ and Shas will bring in together. This might sound like few, but in an exciting election they could be critical. Gafni's behavior and remarks are causing the ground to shake in the Haredi wing of the Netanyahu bloc.

Another problem comes from the Religious Zionist party. MKs Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are in the midst of a strange fight. What first looked like a political honeymoon is turning into a nightmare. Of course, the fight is over places on the Knesset list. Ben-Gvir says Smotrich isn't returning his phone calls, Smotrich says if Ben-Gvir wants to talk he can call, and each wants everything for himself.

It would be hard to overstate these two hawks' irresponsibility. If either of them fails to make it past the minimum electoral threshold, it will almost automatically hand power over to the Left. This week, Ben-Gvir held a press conference in which he took aim at Smotrich. Smotrich was interviewed and failed to clarify what the problem was. They, along with the rest of the party leaders in their bloc, think that a responsible adult needs to step in to prevent an electoral disaster.

Meanwhile, the left-wing camp is seeing mergers. Gantz and Sa'ar joined forces this week and announced it to the public without taking questions from reporters. The merger is rooted in their shared interest in posing a threat to Yair Lapid, to take away his legitimacy as leader of the bloc as well as bringing in votes from the moderate Right who do not like Netanyahu. Make no mistake – Sa'ar by no means thinks that Gantz is the best candidate for prime minister. Only a few days before the announcement, he denied that any such idea was even on the table, or that they were in talks.

At this stage, Lapid is projecting confidence. He doesn't feel threatened and continues about his business like someone who is running from the Prime Minister's Office and is seen as bloc leader. Polls aren't predicting any tectonic shift as a result of the merger between charisma bombs Gantz and Sa'ar, who looked paler than usual while talking to the press. But in a country in which a person with only five or six Knesset seats served as prime minister, a double-digit number could be enough to cut Lapid off and lead the way to a new government under Gantz.

The only unknown in the left-wing bloc is the situation of Meretz and Labor. To the horror of Meretz members, Horowitz dropping out of the race for party leader could benefit Yair Golan. Meretz is almost begging former leader Zehava Gal-on to step in and save them, fearing that Golan – a commander of the occupation whom many in Meretz see as a nationalist – will be the final nail in the party's coffin. There, too, they have realized that comparing leftists to Black slaves or Jews to Nazis won't necessarily help them in their war to make it past the minimum threshold.

Despite the situation, Merav Michaeli, who is expected to be reelected Labor leader, is rejecting any merger of the far-left wing of a center-right bloc. But expectations are that the more time passes, this too will be resolved. The apocalyptic scenario rests on the assumption that Gantz and Lapid will try to siphon off as many votes as possible from Labor and Meretz, leaving them both below the minimum threshold.

As of now, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked – who, if you've forgotten, is also head of Yamina – is out of the picture entirely. Yamina, which until a moment ago was the party of the prime minister, is now polling at less than 2%.

This week, Shaked had to pull an ace out of her sleeve, and luckily, she found on. After Amichai Chikli resigned from the Knesset, he was replaced by MK Yomtob Kalfon. It appears that Shaked is having a hard time keeping Yamina member in the party and has difficulty attracting new candidates to the list. This says a lot about how the political world assesses her chances.

So in light of all this, Shaked rushed to have her picture taken with Kalfon and praise him to the skies on social media. Remember, only about two months ago Shaked, Naftali Bennett, and Matan Kahane ousted Kalfon from the Knesset in a sudden attempt to preserve the coalition. Now Shaked, who used to be the princess of the Right and was seen as a future leader, is clinging to Kalfon for dear life. It's not clear which of them is in bigger trouble.

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It has happened again. Without any warning, the coalition has lost another lawmaker, with Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi resigning right under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's noses.

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Perhaps what led to this was the leaders' lack of vigilance or maybe Zoabi is a stumbling block that has been removed. After all, the writing on the wall was obvious, which could be the reason why Lapid has previously arranged the rebellious MK the cushiony position as Israeli consul in Shanghai. Just last week he boasted how no one could be better fitted for the job.

Little did Lapid know that the appointment would never come about and another brick would fall from the cynical wall he has built through a series of appointments and promises geared at suppressing rebellions and ensuring his office as prime minister, even for an interim government.

This was supposed to be an auspicious time for the prime minister-designate. In a way, he has succeeded in stripping Bennett of his political title, assets, and influence. Lapid turned him into an irrelevant figure, took full control of dialogue with Washington and the upcoming Biden visit, and pulled off a maneuver that made the sole person in charge.

Then came Zoabi who completely changed Lapid's reality: the "healing" government is on the verge of collapse. And worst of all, if the coalition does topple, it will have been brought about by a leftist, and Bennett will continue to serve as prime minister until a new government is established.

The "experiment" – as Bennett put it – of creating a "unity" government, has failed because no sweet talk can unite that which is not meant to be united. Turns out, "healing" would have required all coalition members to give up every ounce of their ideology, all notion of truth sacrificed on the altar of false unity.

The leaders now face a simple and cruel choice. Drag on the coalition at the mercy of the Joint Arab List in each and every vote. And we know that Bennett, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, and Religious Services Matan Kahana (who resigned this week) have forgotten the meaning of "red line."

But a single vote in the Knesset is one thing, and daily attempts to function while relying on Ayman Odeh, Ahmad Tibi and Sami Abu Shehadeh is another.

Making the "right-wing" parties in the coalition prisoner of Balad – especially given the events of the recent terror wave, including Tibi interfering with police work in a protest in Jerusalem – would be a path to catastrophe.
It would not only chuck the Zionist vision into the dustbin of history but lead to all-out war within the already unstable government.

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and this is no secret, established the patched-together government and coalition that is currently breaking up as an experiment.

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"In the best-case scenario, this government will do wonderful things for the state of Israel, in the worst-case scenario – we won't succeed. It wouldn't be a disaster. The main thing is that we got out of the mud." This is what Bennett said in his first interview after he decided to establish the government. Regarding "it wouldn't be a disaster" and "we got out of the mud," we can see the bad polling numbers and the severe coalition crisis that threatens the government's survival less than a year after it was established, as well as the political tsunami that consumed the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem this week. But the laboratory is still active, the experiment on 9 million Israeli citizen guinea pigs is still at its peak, and the results are not impressive. Bennett and Lapid have been working on materials engineering, but every day it becomes clearer that some of the materials do not respond well to each other.

The dream that Meretz and Gideon Sa'ar and Ra'am and Yamina could lie down together has turned into chaos, and one can see mathematically how its parliamentary majority is fading. In any case, the political and national story that the government is telling goes beyond counting numbers in the Knesset. Governments rise and fall, coalitions form and break up. The real experiment Bennett, his party, and his government are carrying out is on substantial issues, and includes an attempt to completely change Israel's security conception and its status as a Jewish and a Zionist state, all in the name of an attempt to feed the government and keep Bennett on oxygen.

Engineering a new Israel

While David Ben-Gurion sought to create a new Israeli, Bennett and Lapid are engineering a new Israel, one in which all its citizens' security has been handed over to those who from the beginning saw a Jewish state as something that needed to disappear from the world. From the beginning of Zionism, and more so since the state was founded, Israel's security outlook has assumed the Jews must defend it and their Jewish brothers and sisters. This, of course, alongside alliances with the state's minorities and full civil rights for everyone. This week it became clear that Bennett has formulated his own conception and has entrusted control of our security to Ra'am, who have distorted what's happening on the ground, made false accusations against Israel, and in general haven't agreed to accept the sight of policemen defending Jewish citizens.

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Bennett's experiment, which determines whether our borders will be quiet, whether Jews wrapped in prayer shawls will be attacked on the streets of Jerusalem, and whether the government will survive an attempt to defend Jews from Islamic aggression, is dangerous and goes to the roots of our existence in this country. Instead of the old Zionism, which doesn't allow the tenure of a leader without a Knesset majority, the government is leading us to a place in which Zionism is unnecessary. In the same interview in which he explained "in the worst-case scenario – we won't succeed, it won't be a disaster," he clarified that the government would only deal with civil issues. "There is not a single word about national issues in the coalition agreements," he claimed forcefully.

This week it became clear just how national and religious everything is. The response of the prime minister was silence, ignoring Ra'am's demonstration of ethno-nationalist muscle, and essentially the sacrifice of Zionism and its grip on Israel and Jerusalem in exchange for the government's survival.

One of the coalition MKs, Vladimir Beliak (Yesh Atid), wondered in a Twitter post why everyone was shaken by the fact that the government of the state of the Jews was breathlessly expecting a decision from Shura Council as to whether it would survive. It's like the involvement of the Council of Torah Stages, he argued, so what was everyone getting worked up about?

This, of course, is in the spirit of the leaders Lapid and Bennett, who have handed responsibility for security issues over to the Islamic Movement and have given it a monopoly over policy on Jews responding to attacks on their brothers in the capital city. The materials bubbling in the experiments in Bennett's laboratory are leading to a state of all its citizens, the meaning of which is clear to everyone. The welfare of the coalition is deemed to be worth the elimination of the Zionist ethos and the values upon which the state was founded.

The victims of unity

Zion is Jerusalem, but nothing terrible will happen if it becomes Al-Quds by the time the rotation is implemented. After 100 years of Zionism that has protected and nurtured, we are left with a government that has withdrawn from the Temple Mount; allows the uprooting of trees planted in the Negev; which dreams of a more universal country, whose heads make more speeches, in lofty language disconnected from the roots that nurtured the tree they are currently threatening to chop down following threats from the Islamic Movement. In the face of a movement that insists on ethno-religious principles, Lapid and Benett are silent. They don't even have the courage to mention our right to this country.

While the sacrifices of peace were made on the altar of the Oslo Accords, the sacrifices of unity are made on the altar of the unity government. Tragically, in the new world being built by Lapid and Bennett, nothing is holy apart from the government's survival, there is no red line apart from ensuring there are enough votes in order to prevent it being dismantled. The price of the experiment of turning Israel into a state of all its citizens will be paid, paradoxically, by all its citizens.

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The sound of the clock ticking toward the end of the government can be heard around the government table and in the rooms of the coalition factions. A week has passed since the dramatic resignation of MK Idit Silman and her joining the Opposition. The dust has settled, the emotions have faded and what is left is mainly politics.

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At the cold political level, from the prime minister to the last of his ministers, and to the MKs who replaced them under the Norwegian Law and are sitting on the plenum benches in their stead – everyone understands that the name of the game is time: how much is left until the government train will reach the final station, and how much can be drawn out to delay the inevitable.

As we know, time is elusive. You can't feel or realize it, but you can definitely feel it pressing, oppressing you and putting your back to the wall. No one has been born who can stop it, but it's always possible to try, and this is Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's political mission, one he shares with his partners.

There's no need to waste words on what a nightmare elections in the foreseeable future are for the prime minister and his Yamina party. The governing party doesn't have a significant base, and there's no need to talk about its popularity and sympathy. Outside the office, there's nobody waiting for Bennett.

The response is, as we've said, to play for time. Bennett, who is trying to position himself as Mr Security, is waging a battle of retreat and delay that is familiar in military parlance, a tactic in which the enemy overpowers and tails you. This is supposed to delay their progress while consistently retreating to a more secure place from which to fight.

While he repulses the surprise political attack launched against him, Bennett hopes to carry out right-wing legislation and activity, wink at new communities from the "anyone but Bibi" sector, and maybe, with plenty of luck and persistence, succeed in temporarily righting the ship. At the same time, in Yamina, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Deputy-Minister Abir Kara and MK Nir Orbach are also playing for time by backing Bennett to different degrees, in hope of finding themselves an entry ticket to the next Knesset or improving their bargaining position for the day time runs out.

Meanwhile, in the framework of "preservation" efforts, Bennett is making sure to praise and to exalt Kara, who is currently seen as the weak link. In a clumsy social media post, whose goal was transparent, Bennett said, "there are no walls that Abir can't break through." It seems the next wall Abir will break through will be the coalition's retaining wall.

Away from Yamina, they are also opting to play for time. Defense Minister Benny Gantz's Blue and White wasn't rushing anywhere from the beginning; even before Silman's resignation, the defense minister's target date has been the day the rotation is carried out. It's an open secret that Gantz doesn't rate Lapid (to say the least), and, more than that, he is working to disrupt his plans. He is also using the time to put spokes in the wheels of Bennett; in practice, he is applying a freeze to settlements in Judea and Samaria, taking care of budgetary pensions, making trips for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan, and isn't behaving like someone who is too concerned by the uncompromising political talk about the possibility of a departure from the "change" bloc and the establishment of another government in exchange for becoming prime minister.

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The fact that Gantz will determine the fate of the rotation also explains Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's playing for time. You don't need a polished political brain in order to understand that the alternate prime minister's interest is to ensure that as many days pass as possible so he can reach the yearned-for date in August 2023, in which he will realize his dream and enter the Prime Minister's Office.

On the Left, if we agree with the assumption that Gantz and Lapid are centrists (as they aspire to be depicted), time creates a mysterious paradox. It's precisely the side that is most uncompromisingly opposed to the prime minister are the ones who will seek to draw out as much time as possible in order to stay in their position.

The "Anyone but Bibi" ideology is the main pillar of defense for Meretz and the Labor party, and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz's remarks about bringing hametz (leavened bread products) into hospitals on Passover, which dragged Silman into carrying out her political move, only sharpened this point and clarified the danger. The "Anyone but Bibi" ideology, for the left-wing parties and their leaders, is the only one, and is more important to them than anything, even time. This position is also shared by Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who is maintaining a relatively low profile.

Absent from this political analysis, like many others, is the New Hope party. Again, with regard to the Silman story, and almost consistently, Gideon Sa'ar's party has been sidelined. What it does is almost unimportant, and nobody shows special interest in it.

Passover is here, and the Israeli government is like the song Had Gadya. Everyone is trying to play for time to maintain the same government, but for absolutely different reasons, interests, and ideologies. When will this construction collapse within itself? It's hard to know, but now one thing is already completely clear – it's only a matter of time.

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After four election campaigns, a massive rift in Israeli society, polls that indicate a loss of public confidence in Israel's law enforcement systems, allegations of a judicial coup, hundreds of millions of shekels spend on investigation geared toward one thing and one thing alone – is it possible that this entire saga will all come to an end with a single stroke of a pen?

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No decision has been made and no announcement has been issued, but the mere fact that a plea bargain in the corruption case waged against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is even being discussed requires Israelis to ask themselves whether the state can afford to leave the biggest political-legal-media affair in its history behind it in a way that leaves so many questions open. The answer is absolutely not.

Netanyahu is in going through this process as a leader and a politician, but also as a private individual. He can, and should, manage his legal affairs however he and his legal counsels see fit. That is the most basic meaning of law and order.

In negotiating a plea deal, the private individual, however, faces the Attorney General's Office and the State Attorney's Office. No plea bargain – let alone one that would favor Netanyahu beyond any measure sanctioned by his political opponents – could solve the ailments to which the Israeli public was exposed from the moment the suspicions against Netanyahu were published, through the interrogation period, the onset of the trial and the testimonies heard so far.

A plea deal involves two parties and any plea in Netanyahu's case will only work in Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit's favor in the public eye.

Media reports suggesting that time is running out on the plea offer and that it must be inked prior to Mendelblit's departure from office, are a disservice to the truth.

The State Attorney's Office wages legal proceedings regardless of the identity of the individuals involved and those proceedings will continue if need be after Mendelblit retires. The next AG will be more than qualified to finalize any plea bargain, including removing Case 2,000 and the bribery charge in Case 4,000.

The pressure under which senior officials are on at this point to strike a plea deal underscores not only their distress but also – more so – public interest.

It would be in the public's critical interest to investigate in full the issues that rose during the investigation and the trial. Whatever is finalized in private vis-à-vis Netanyahu will have to become public and the only way to do it is by forming an independent commission on inquiry that would be backed by unbiased bodies that are not affiliated with the current heads of the judiciary in any way.

This commission should include veteran jurists and academics, who would try to find an answer to the question that otherwise, will continue to plague Israeli society: Has the Israeli judiciary pursued – in deliberate, dubious, perhaps even illegal ways – a political upset in Israel?

A plea bargain at this point is not really a "compromise" or "risk management" for either party – that argument is a manipulation that should be refuted whenever it is made in a public debate.

The great strategic achievement has already been marked: despite his immense popularity, which is still going strong according to recent polls, the cloud of suspicion and the trial have seen Netanyahu lose power. Unseating Netanyahu was at one point a leading purpose of the justice system or at least a preferred and long-awaited scenario – Mendelblit had all but admitted it at some point.

Reaching a plea bargain, however, will leave that question hanging in the air as many Israelis will keep carrying it with them. The most profound value democracy gives the citizens is the ability to elect their government – and that was taken away from them. The democratic process was violated. Is there anybody out there who seriously thinks that a plea deal would calm things down? Is there anyone in their right mind who thinks a deal won't leave its mark and cause an even bigger crisis of faith in democracy?

Israeli voters are not children. They understand perfectly well that the plea deal is a compromise. But this is the State Attorney's Office's flagship case and it involves the very core of democracy. It is unthinkable that it is the type of indictment from which an entire case or a bribery charge can just be dropped on a whim. It is inconceivable that what we have learned throughout this case about methods of investigation and the deals offered to state witnesses could just be made to go away.

What happened to "getting to the truth at all cost"? Is knowing the truth the prerogative of only one side? The fact that this aggressive power-play, which ostensibly sacrificed so many values that are at the core of the judiciary, could lead to a plea based on admitting to minor counts in the indictment, says a lot.

If Israeli society seeks to recover, then Netanyahu's personal issues will end privately. But the public aspects of Netanyahu's trial must be placed under scrutiny and that should be the opposition's mission going forward: to pledge to the public that it will not allow this to stand.  That it will see to it that a commission of inquiry is set up and that all parliamentary and public means at the opposition's disposal be enlisted to this end.

The moral and historical importance of this mission cannot be overstated. This is not a gesture to Netanyahu or his supporters – if anything, it is for the next generation of national camp leaders in Israel.

In the short term, it is the only thing that would push reform in the judiciary, and most importantly – it is the only thing that could help Israeli democracy heal.

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When Israel demolishes buildings in Judea and Samaria right after a terrorist attack, it sends an undeniable message. True, previous governments – including ones headed by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – evacuated buildings. And Netanyahu also failed to clear out the illegally-built Khan al-Amar. We heard, we understood, we got it, we won't forget. But not like this. Not after a lethal terrorist attack. Not right after the shiva. Not a moment after masses of right-wingers and members of the national camp, settlers and non-settlers, religious and secular, young and old, marched in solidarity with the settlements, an event that naturally turned into a demonstration against the government.

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This government includes people who pulled out excuses that ranged from embarrassing to insulting: that the security and defense establishment were responsible for the decision, or that it was a decision by operational commanders in the field. Nonsense. Evacuating buildings at this place at this time is a political, intentional act by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's government, which signed off on it. "We aren't with you," the government explained to the settlers and pioneers on the hilltop. The government sent signals to its citizens, to the Palestinians, and to foreign governments about its attitude toward the settlers. We aren't blaming the victim, heaven forbid, but the buildings will be evacuated as the Palestinians shout for joy and chalk up a huge psychological victory.

The fact that in Yamina there are still a few pitiful members who are climbing the walls in a ridiculous attempt to excuse the disgraceful evacuation by claims such as ""But Bibi voted in favor of the disengagement [from Gaza]" – without any ability or intention of providing concrete moral, political, or belief-based grounds for the act of evacuation – only illustrates where the government has ended up.

There is such a thing as context. We are in the midst of a psychological assault on the settlements and settlers. "Settler violence" is a statement of generalization that stigmatizes all the settlers. It was invented and developed by radical left-wing organizations and adopted eagerly by the parties that belong to the coalition. Yes, the Meretz members, who are part of Bennett's coalition, the ones about whom people like Idit Silman and Nir Orbach speak using terms like "redemption," the ones who from the start opened support a boycott of products from the settlements – these are the people who organized a conference about "settler violence" in the Knesset and later on held debates in the media bout the difference between the terms "settlers" and "the settlers."  The public security minister, a Labor member, repeats the term and even threw it around when he discussed the issue with the US deputy secretary of state, and then tells anyone who criticizes this mudslinging that he is "holding up a mirror." Soon we'll hear a report about a "Gantz-Barlev deal," under which the defense minister will provide manpower to handle violence by radical elements in Judea and Samaria. What do Bennett and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked do? Tweet. That's all they can do.

And this might be a sign of the worst news: that former right-wing heroes are now leading a government that is more hostile to settlers and settlements than any since Sharon-Olmert-Livni. This isn't just talk, and like we see, these words are starting to gel into an institutionalized attitude and actions. Atmosphere and shaping perceptions are important; public opinion is being prepared and even as we speak the government is blaming the settlers for violence in Judea and Samaria – in other words, as a problem that is preventing all of us from enjoying calm, peace, prosperity, and tranquility. These are exactly the psychological steps that allowed the disengagement from Gaza and the Oslo Accords: First, settlers are portrayed as a national problem, isolated, a sense of public alienation from them is created, they are blamed for violence and theft and accused of using up resources, and then it's easy to sell the public a strategic move like the disengagement, which will not only fulfill some leftist fantasy about clearing out territories, but also "teach the settlers a lesson" – just like Yair Lapid wrote prior to the disengagement.

So Bennett and Shaked tweet against Omer Barlev, for example, but their hearts and minds are with him. This week, Bennett repeated the false narrative being spread here by the Left about Operation Guardian of the Walls: that the violent uprising by Arab Israelis – the murderous lynches that left Jews dead and wounded, the vandalism, the violence, the cars set on fire, the sadistic abuse of Haredim in Jerusalem, the days of threat and fury that we experienced during the operation – were the result of neglect, discrimination, and inequalities. In other words, Naftali Bennett has completely given in and embraced the Barlev narrative, adopted the losing line that blames the victim for the violence wreaked against him – just like what followed the Homesh terrorist attack – and what's worse, denies the ethno-religious element.

If what "blew up in our faces" during Operation Guardian of the Walls was neglect, and not incitement in mosques, ethno-religious extremism, the good old Arab-Israeli conflict, then it's clear who is guilty and what should be done. More money and resources need to be invested in every one of Ra'am's whims. Because after all, now everything is "addressing the neglect" by criminal Zionism – and what won't we do to keep Mansour Abbas happy. We'll even stop planting trees in the Negev. You read that right: Mansour Abbas demanded and got his way – the KKL-JNF will stop planting trees in the Negev.

And now comes the meeting Gantz held with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Rosh Ha'ayin, which Bennett, of course, approved. Yes, yes, Bennett – who in the past demonstrate so much horror and anger when any senior Israeli official met with the man who he said "encourages the murder of Israelis and pays salaries to the families of their killers." But Bennett at the end of 2021 has not only switched, he's weakened. If he doesn't approve a historic victory meeting for Gantz in Rosh Ha'ayin, he won't have a government. And if you can't beat them – join them.

"Progress can't be made because of the composition of the government," the defense minister will tell Mahmoud Abbas. In other words, the current government really wants to move forward, but a few people have to be buttered up. Who, for example? Shaked, who is all of a sudden getting praise and compliments from the Palestinians. Abbas is pleased with Bennett; the PA is pleased with Shaked. Six months have gone by, and the conversion process is being felt in every corner. Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked are weakening the settlers and strengthening the Palestinians. Hold on – you'll soon get your Oslo back. 

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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has a special interest in King David. He mentions him in speeches, refers to him in private conversations, and even named his children after important characters from the King David story. For Bennett, King David is not just a symbol, but a leader worthy of emulation.

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And while there is nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from a great leader, it seems that Bennett is not only fond of King David, but is desperate to leave a mark no less grandiose than that of the historical figurehead.

Bennett is beginning to realize that his hopes for increased public support and legitimization of his six-seat premiership will remain just that, and that he will soon transfer power to Prime Minister-designate Yair Lapid and the Left, without a legacy and an organic support base.

This understanding is what led Bennett and his political adviser Shimrit Meir to consider expanding his "base" to other sectors, center or Left, even at the expense of losing or abandoning the right-wing electorate.

Bennett may lose the Right once and for all but gain a Nobel Prize and fondness from the Left, Europe, the United States Department of State, and former members of the defense establishment.

However, even that does not seem to go smoothly: Bennett is not progressing, neither in diplomacy nor in the media. And worst of all: his clock is ticking. Even if he initiates a political process, someone else will reap the rewards. Will another Arab state normalize ties with Israel? The credit will go to either former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or perhaps Lapid.

With the diplomatic option off the table, Bennett is now examining a security option, a kind of wide-ranging strategic move that would ensure Bennett's place among Israel's greatest. Something bolder and more impressive than even the 1981 attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor.

The only problem is that Bennett has no public support. With six seats in the Knesset and in the polls, no prime minister can execute a security tactic that could pose a threat to Israeli lives. And let there be no doubt, a security move that would ensure Bennett the grandeur of King David could ignite a storm in the Middle East.

Can you believe Netanyahu used to be criticized as the one willing to set fire to the Middle East just to stay in power? But contrary to Bennett, the former prime minister had wide public support, a stable base, legitimacy, and most importantly, a proven political and strategic vision that Bennett and Lapid are reaping the fruits of now.

Given his obsession with King David, Bennett is desperate to leave behind a legacy rather than get off the stage and watch Prime Minister Lapid enjoy public support and make history.

Bennett has found himself in a tight corner and with time running out, with recklessness, delusions of grandeur, and the understanding he will soon evaporate without leaving behind a legacy being the raw materials for his security decisions.

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Transportation Minister Meirav Michaeli is likely the most dominant, centrist party, and as we will immediately see, forceful chairperson the Labor Party has ever seen since the late Shimon Peres. Her internal moves to fortify her control of the party's institutions lead to one inevitable conclusion: Michaeli is on the path to turning Labor into Yesh Atid and herself into that party's leader Yair Lapid. Ever since entering the role of party chairwoman, Michaeli has gradually neutered the veteran party's institutions on her path to turning it into a shallow organizational shell reminiscent of the unrealistic dummy conference that will manage the upcoming elections for the role of chairperson – "open" elections Yesh Atid-style: reminiscent of what we would see in North Korea, where an appointed committee votes in unison for the election of one single candidate, the supreme leader, and with a standing ovation from the audience.

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This is in all likelihood a carefully planned move and one that involves three lines of action. In the first stage, Michaeli turned Labor into a niche political party – one that is left-wing and Meretz compatible and ceded dialogue with the periphery and the wider public. The few remaining Labor party outposts in the country's north and south have been neutralized. Michaeli's blatant and progressive agenda that now characterizes the entire Labor party was bolstered in the party's internal elections for its Knesset list. These were carried out mainly through technological means and with the dramatic reduction of the number of physical ballot boxes in what in retrospect appears to have been intentional voter oppression among entire sectors of the public who simply abstained from taking part in the democratic game. At the same time, in an unusual move, it was possible to apply as a Labor candidate without a qualification period. The result in practice was that members of Israel's periphery, including from Arab villages and cities in the South and in the North, did not vote in significant numbers and the election resulted in a Knesset list befitting both the spirit and character of the Tel Aviv audience Michaeli had targeted.

At the same time as she is crafting the party in her image, Michaeli has tried to appoint her close associates to oversight and arbitration institutions within the party. These are the bodies that provide the checks and balances, reigning in and overseeing party leadership. Close associates, both male and female, of Michaeli were either appointed or nearly appointed to such critical associations: One of her sisters was on the path to the party's court and another sister was on the path to its finance committee. This was blocked, apparently, thanks to an expose by the Walla! news site. Other close associates of Michaeli's, however, were appointed to influential positions. For example, her former campaign manager Michal Gera Margaliot, was appointed six months ago to the party's arbitration apparatus. And there are other examples. These sorts of bodies conduct discussions into petitions and complaints, and their decisions have dramatic consequences. The result is that Michaeli's representatives are spread out across the party's judicial and constitutional bodies while veteran members - their predecessors - have been dropped. The highlight of Michaeli's plan, however, is the takeover of the party caucus, a body of around 3,000 functionaries, a majority of whom are appointed by the party's branches and others appointed by a committee controlled by the party chair. This is the party's most important body, which has the ability to authorize amendments to the party constitution and the party regulations. At one time, Michaeli advanced a policy of gender equality, and when this was adopted by her party, Michaeli could demand and receive the addition of 300 new female caucus members.

Even after this additional 10%, Michaeli still does not have the majority she needs for various moves she could lead that will fortify her control of the party and neutralize, in effect, its institutions and the party's secretary-general, a role some say Michaeli is interested in canceling outright. That is why the party chairwoman is now working to add another 600 functionaries to the caucus, in other words, the addition of another 20% of her choosing to the party's most significant democratic body, in such a way that will guarantee her a majority.

The proposed addition reveals Michaeli's true intentions: She is now establishing a special team to examine the structure of the party's institutions. This team is expected to submit its recommendations, and then, with the biased majority she may be trying to establish for herself in the caucus, Michaeli will be able to ensure the team's recommendations are "democratically" accepted. In some places, such actions would be referred to as underhanded opportunism.

The move will not only allow Michaeli to take complete control of Labor, but it could also threaten internal party democracy in a movement that could until recently, have prided itself on a glorious tradition of national participation and strong institutions. This is very bad news for Labor party supporters and members, some of whom are not entirely aware of the reform that will soon transform their party into an organizational carbon copy of Yesh Atid. Mainly, though, it is bad news for democratic culture in Israel.

Members of the so-called "change" coalition government do not cease to talk about "rescuing democracy" from the threat of the centrist populism they detected under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yet unlike the Likud, their parties do not even have the appearance of internal democracy: Yesh Atid, Blue and White, New Hope, Yisrael Beytenu, and Yamina are all one-leader parties. They do not have sufficient democratic institutions, they do not have sufficient procedures for running for office and climbing the ranks, and they do not have enough oversight bodies that balance their leaders' power. The leader chooses and controls the party list. Their lawmakers are completely dependent upon them, party officials are subordinate to them, and there is no room for open and free internal partisan discourse. There isn't even a Haredi-style supreme rabbinical council. There is just one leader and their court of advisors.

On a deeper level, this means that these parties are insufficiently engaged with their supporters and wide swathes of the public. On an even deeper, and to my mind more important, level, there is no in-depth party dialogue. We have deteriorated to a point where all of Israel's current leadership avenues lack sufficient democratic infrastructure, and this will very soon be Labor's fate under Michaeli's leadership.

This is, in a nutshell, is the influence of Yesh Atid's political doctrine on Israeli democracy: parties based on one leader and without sufficient democratic infrastructure that serve as a means to promote a new brand of politician, who is by definition more antidemocratic than Netanyahu could ever dream of being.  The populist Lapidism of Yesh Atid could eradicate the democratic spirit of the centrist and left-wing parties, and that is the greyest cloud hanging over Israel's stately skies right now.

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I was born and raised Lod. My extended family still lives there, and, to a large degree, it is still my home. And so, since Tuesday morning I've been receiving a steady stream of photos and videos of burning houses, shattered windows, and a rioting Arab mob, along with a repeated request: "Talk about us, bring our helplessness to public awareness."

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I won't mince words, then: what is happening in Lod is an organized nationalist Arab attack on state institutions, Jewish symbols, and the city's Jewish residents, simply because they are Jewish.

Residents have been telling me that the riots follow a tense Ramadan, during which almost every evening and night (including on Memorial Day) shots were fired indiscriminately and fireworks were set off. The municipality, the police, and all the other government authorities did absolutely nothing to address the anarchy running rampant in the streets.

I know Lod, its residents, and its mayor. None of them are extremists or Arab haters. There was no reason for the Arabs to riot, except for the fact that they can, and that the authorities are not really interested in dealing with them.

As with everything else, the approach towards the Arab minority is dominated by "political correctness," which sees any condemnation of Arab violence as racist. The result is a loud and violent minority within the Arab public that does not recognize the state and its symbols is not subject to its laws and regulations and threatens public order in the most basic sense of the term. This threat is not confined to Lod; it is spreading to the entire country and about to spiral out of control.

The threat is not only civil, but also national. The violent Arab minority does not suffice with full equal rights and affirmative action of which they could only dream in Arab countries; they seek to obliterate the state's Jewish identity, its national anthem, and the Israeli flag.

Former police commander of the Jerusalem District Maj. Gen. Uri Bar-Lev said yesterday that Israel's Arab society is violent, particularly internally, but that the fear of speaking about the issue and acting to combat it causes the violence to brutally seep out, threatening public order and the state's Jewish identity.

The Lod riots are just the beginning of the wave of violence that will engulf the entire country if we don't pull ourselves together and act now.

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Public Security Minister Amir Ohana is sticking to his guns after sparking controversy for saying that while he was responsible for the tragedy at Mount Meron, "responsibility does not mean blame."

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Ohana doesn't believe that he or any other senior Israel Police official is guilty of negligence in enabling the deadly Lag B'Omer stampede to happen, nor does he believe anyone should resign. Nevertheless, he said the Public Security Ministry and senior police officials would cooperate with any investigation that is opened.

Q: In retrospect, is there anything you regret about the management of Mount Meron?

"I think that asking someone if they regret what happened is like asking someone if they had been better off staying home after a car accident. Of course, if that's the outcome, it would have been better not to go. But according to this logic, no one would ever go anywhere ever."

Q: What did you mean when you wrote that 'responsibility did not mean guilt'?

"In the media discourse, there is confusion between responsibility and guilt. This is not the case. I am responsible for everything that happens, and this has something to do with all of the units with ties to my ministry. Responsibility means doing everything so that incidents like this don't happen again: investigating, learning, drawing conclusions. The question of guilt is a separate legal question."

Q: So who is responsible for managing the event?

"Unfortunately, this issue has never been resolved. I've already said that I and all those who bear responsibility will cooperate with whatever assessment mechanism is determined, and we will."

Q: Have you read the state comptroller's report?

"I have read the relevant parts."

Q: The police promised organizers they would be able to regulate the entry of buses when the place started to get packed. Why didn't that happen?

"Of course, that's not a minor issue, and the police took that very seriously. The police made plans so that arrivals to the site would be orderly, and if need be, speedy evaluation."

Q: How is it that 45 people died, and yet no one has resigned?

"I am examining whether there was full and serious preparation to see whether they [the police] functioned properly, whether they dedicated enough forces to this event. Preparations are made for the Mount Meron event for over half a year. I am not familiar with any event like this, [with the participation of] dozens of yeshivas,  almost 5,000 police officers on the ground. I am looking into whether they did all of the drills and made all the necessary preparations, and that's why I can't find a flaw in the conduct of public security bodies."

Q: Do you support calls for a state commission of inquiry?

"I don't oppose them."

Q: Regardless of criminal liability, is there no justification for top brass handing over the keys?

"Absolutely not. If their conscience is clean, and they did all they could to prepare for the event, there's no reason for them to. We have here a terrible tragedy and a difficult disaster. On the day of the event, I visit the wounded to hear what happened. Later, with the beginning of Shabbat, I assisted families in times of difficulty at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, and I'm dedicating these days to consoling the bereaved. I don't hear the things I hear in the studios there. I hear a lot of talk about unity, that that is the will of the deceased. That is the character of the sector they come from. They don't want division.

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