Netanyahu snatches defeat from jaws of victory
Instead of composing a large and stable coalition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds himself with only 61 coalition members and must try to persuade the Zionist Camp to join his government.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fourth government came into being May 6, just an hour and a half before the legal deadline by which he was required to inform President Reuven Rivlin that he had formed a coalition. Right after Netanyahu swept the elections March 17, it seemed to everyone — but especially to him — that the impending coalition negotiations would be decisive, quick and short. As people surrounding the prime minister said, “We intend to form a government within two or three weeks.” In fact, the reality was totally different.
Drunk on his electoral victory, Netanyahu was gripped by typical hubris, made every possible mistake and was caught off guard by his former partner and current nemesis Yisrael Beitenu head Avigdor Liberman. Liberman waited until right before the deadline was up to announce that he was resigning from the Foreign Ministry and withdrawing from the coalition. A natural coalition of 67 Knesset members evaporated immediately, and a very narrow government came into being instead. It was a painful process that involved very serious concessions. With the absolute minimum of 61 seats, the new government that was born had a right-wing-nationalist-religious agenda. In other words, it could be characterized as diplomatic hell and economic adventurism, or in short, a political nightmare. Suddenly, Netanyahu's great victory in the last election turned into a defeat.
Netanyahu is now coming under harsh criticism within his own Likud Party. “It’s a good thing Netanyahu isn't managing the negotiations between the superpowers and Iran,” one senior Likud official told Al-Monitor this week. “Given his negotiating skills, the Iranians would now have quite a few atomic bombs.”
People in the Likud are asking what happened to Netanyahu’s famous statement that "no deal is better than a bad deal." While it was reiterated incessantly, when the superpowers were negotiating with Iran, it completely vanished as soon as Netanyahu engaged in his own negotiations to form a coalition. One senior Likud official even quipped that “the United States is considering the possibility of threatening Israel with appointing Netanyahu head of the negotiating team with Iran.”
