Livni-Herzog alliance a threat to Netanyahu

The foreign minister rushed out of the Knesset just a few minutes after he cast his ballot in the second round of voting for president. Avigdor Liberman was quickly swallowed up by his limo, which picked him up at just the precise moment to take him to the airport. He was off on a 10-day trip to Africa.

While on his way to the airport, Liberman still hoped to hear that the 10th president of Israel would be Knesset member Meir Sheetrit, a member of the Hatnua Party. From one moment to the other, that scenario seemed increasingly realistic, but it came crashing down against reality in just one short hour.

The timing was perfect, as far as Liberman was concerned. He was about to head a delegation of businessmen and Knesset members to far-off Africa, which meant that he could distance himself from the failed political gambit: preventing former Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin from being elected president. And, of course, it also meant he could continue distancing himself from the prime minister — his main partner at the beginning of the battle against the newly elected President Rivlin, and the man perceived as the ultimate big loser in the presidential election saga.

The fact is that the prime minister and the foreign minister, both heads of parties and in possession of built-in political power, failed to realize a relatively simple political move. They were unable to unify in time around a suitable candidate for president and to campaign vigorously for that candidate until victory. This failure testifies to the declining strength of the alliance between the two.