Wednesday, November 21, 2018
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| Avi Ohayon / GPO Israel |
MK Naftali Bennett threatened
that his party, Bayit Yehudi, would leave the coalition if he were not
appointed Defense Minister in Avigdor Liberman’s stead, after Liberman
resigned. Liberman resigned because his hands were tied in making decisions
about how to respond to the barrage of missiles from Gaza, or so he implied.
Which begs the question: if Liberman’s hands were tied, why wouldn’t Bennett be
equally held back from responding to Gaza according to his druthers, were he
appointed defense minister?
The fact is that an Israeli
defense minister can be overruled by a sitting prime minister. Which would not
be at all unusual or out of line. Most appointments by a prime minister are relegated
to silent positions and prevented from forming their own policies. So no matter
how much Bennett promises to finish off Hamas for good, the promise remains an
empty one. Even if Bibi were to appoint him defense minister, Bennett wouldn’t
have carte blanche to make military decisions on his own. The prime minister
always has the final say.
Bennett knows this very well.
Being defense minister in
Israel, is in some respects like being the vice president of America. A vice
president has no real power. It’s more of a stepping stone to an even higher
office, the presidency.
Bennett had an opportunity
handed to him with Liberman’s resignation: demand the defense ministry and use
it as a stepping stone to become prime minister. If the prime minister refuses
to appoint him, he can threaten to leave the coalition and bring down the
government. Either way, Bennett and his party stood to gain. Bayit Yehudi would
have gained from early elections. Bennett’s own star would have risen further, had
this been the case, especially with Bibi embroiled in legal troubles and with the
threat of war on multiple fronts.
While both Bibi and Bennett are
war heroes, Bibi has come to seem more statesmanlike, while the younger Bennett
retains a sort of military aura. We can see Bennett as a warrior, so that he
comes off as a man of action, while Bibi is more Churchillian: great at making memorable
speeches. Many of the people of Sderot and Southern Israel see Bennett as their
possible savior, but it’s all a mirage. It’s all appearances.
Bennett could not actually do
anything he promises to do as defense minister, because Bibi would stop him. He
probably wouldn’t do any better as prime minister. It’s one thing to make
promises of what one would do as defense minister or prime minister, quite
another to actually carry them out. No doubt Bennett’s hand would be stayed by
the same concerns that now give Netanyahu pause. Things like, for instance,
Iran. The threat from Hezbollah in the North. The fact that the army doesn’t
have adequate skilled manpower to handle several fronts at once.
Netanyahu works the Middle East
like a giant chess board and he is a master. Bennett is very smart and has
accomplished a great deal in his lifetime. He was a star in the military, in
business, and in politics. Still, no one should be fooled that Bennett’s braggadocio
that he knows better than Bibi—knows how to take care of Gaza—is at all
meaningful. There is absolutely no reason to think that Bennett is “our only
chance,” as one Southern Israeli said to me. He’s not in the driver seat and
wouldn’t be in it even if he were defense minister.
As prime minister, he’d be
liable to do exactly what Netanyahu is now doing. Or worse, he’d rush headlong
into something we can’t handle. No one wants to see that happen. Except maybe
Hamas.
In the end, Bennett backed down
and didn’t have Bayit Yehudi leave the coalition. This was the intelligent move
to make, especially after Bibi’s press conference the night before. Bibi made
it clear that Bennett’s machinations were only grandstanding for political gain.
He also made it clear that there are things we don’t know and that these games
just get in the way of the real work ahead of us.
Elections are costly in terms
of both money and manpower. They take the focus away from the actual running of
the country. Bringing the government down at a time when there are multiple
military threats is a recipe for chaos and disaster.
Had Bennett gone ahead and
brought the government down, he would have looked shallow and narcissistic. It
would have looked like he was exploiting a military situation for personal political
gain. Which was exactly what he was doing. That is why, in the end, Bennett was
smart to cut his losses and stand down.
He figured it out, as Bibi knew he would: Bennett got pwned by Bibi, the Pwn Master.
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