The number of pieces on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sprawling political chessboard dropped significantly last week. Today, with those pieces gone, so are the number of moves available to ensure Netanyahu’s survival. This all began when former minister Gideon Saar left the Likud to form a party of his own and announced his intent to run for prime minister. By last weekend, Saar had told everyone who interviewed him that he would not sit in a government with Netanyahu under any circumstances. What this means is that the “Anyone but Netanyahu” bloc has grown. Conversely, the prime minister’s chances of having the majority he needs to form his sixth government have dwindled.
This development could have dramatic consequences, especially now, with the clash between the Likud and the Blue and White party ratcheting up a notch, and the government about to fall. Conventional wisdom says that the Knesset will be dissolved by the end of the month and that elections will be moved up to March.
As for Netanyahu, this means that the pool of seats that he would have to form a future government is shrinking. To counter this, Netanyahu has been looking around for some of the strange bedfellows politics is known for. One such case can be found in the common interests he shares with Knesset member Mansour Abbas of the Arab Joint List. The relationship between the two men is becoming critical for Netanyahu’s survival.
Abbas, 47, a dentist, who completed his studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, heads the Ra’am faction within the Joint List party. These days, he is earning a reputation as Netanyahu’s political “Iron Dome” defense system. The close relationship he has been nurturing with Netanyahu has turned Abbas into one of the most influential people in Israeli politics, and one of the most intriguing. On the other hand, several of his Joint List colleagues consider the prime minister as a racist without any inhibitions whatsoever. They would do anything to put an end to his rule, and refuse to accept the ties between the premier and Abbas.
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