Knesset member Yariv Levin, chairman of the governing coalition, knows for sure how he is going to act if he discovers that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promoting a diplomatic arrangement that includes the evacuation of settlements. He is going to give up his role right away and without remorse — a role that, anyway, has never been his heart's desire — and focus his efforts on torpedoing the agreement. “The prime minister knows that I am loyal first and foremost to the way I believe in,” Levin says in an interview with Al-Monitor. “If, God forbid, a move such as the disengagement [from Gaza in August 2005] is re-enacted, I will not stay in office.”

The Knesset winter session is to open in about three weeks [Oct. 15], and what Levin says aptly illustrates the highly explosive situation Netanyahu is liable to face in the Likud party, if and when it becomes clear that he is headed for a historic diplomatic arrangement with the Palestinians. The prime minister is trapped in a far-right faction, and he will need a lot of courage and mental strength to make a decision that would inevitably lead to the loss of his support in the ideological right.

Knesset member Levin, as chairman of the coalition, do you have any idea about the real intentions of Netanyahu in the revived diplomatic process?

“I don’t know whether he is headed for a diplomatic move. I have no indications to that effect. I am following the developments and my position is clear: We are in favor of holding negotiations — but without any preconditions. So far, the prime minister has stuck to it, with the exception of the release of Palestinian prisoners. What’s more, the final outcome should be the strengthening of the settlement enterprise rather than the surrender of territory.”