Bloc for toppling Netanyahu now crumbling
With Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid on vacation in the United States, and Yamina leader Naftali Bennett changing course, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has the upper hand against the "bloc for change."
The evening of April 7 marked the solemn beginning of Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel. That night, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid boarded a flight to the United States for what his team called a weeklong vacation.
Lapid is also opposition chair, thus a national symbol of governance. His decision to leave the country on one of Israel’s most sacred memorial days raised more than a few eyebrows. He was criticized for it. The occasion offered him an opportunity to trot from one memorial to the next and stand alongside the prime minister, the president and the chief justice to address the nation from the nation’s most prominent platforms. Instead, he disappeared from the public eye.
What makes the timing of his trip even more bizarre is that just one day earlier, on April 6, President Reuven Rivlin tasked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with forming a new government. The president had no choice. Despite his visible reluctance, Rivlin gave Netanyahu 28 days to form a new government. Now, as long as he has that mandate, Netanyahu will continue to control the Knesset and all of its committees.
But Netanyahu doesn’t have a new government in his pocket — far from it. As such, Lapid, the head of the second-largest party in the Knesset and leader of the center-left “bloc for change,” would have been expected to take advantage of the coming days to try to cobble together an alternative to anything Netanyahu might piece together. Instead, he seems to have abandoned the arena. Analyzing his moves, Lapid seems to be preparing himself for a dreaded fifth election.
