Israel’s fractured opposition hands Netanyahu a full term

With the budget set to pass, Netanyahu’s government is poised to complete its term, as opposition infighting continues to undermine efforts to unseat him.

Barring any dramatic unforeseen event, the State of Israel will have a budget on Monday morning, after months of speculation and weeks of political wrangling. And this means that, again, barring anything dramatic, the sixth Netanyahu government will finish its four-year term. Early elections will not be held; nothing will bring this government down.

Considering that this is the government under whose watch October 7 happened, that is nothing short of remarkable. Had you asked most people in the days and weeks following the Hamas massacre whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government would finish out a full term, most would have thought you were crazy.

The anger, frustration, and pain were palpable and directed at the government.

Yet here we are. That the government will apparently make it to the end of its days – the first to do so since 1988 and only the sixth in the state’s history of 37 governments – is attributable not only to Netanyahu’s undeniable political acumen but also to the fumbling nature of the opposition. Even the worst disaster in the country’s history was not enough to bring about this government’s replacement.

And that fumbling was in clear view over the last few days as heads of three of the parties vying to unseat Netanyahu in the next elections aimed their guns at one another. On Thursday evening, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who will be heading his own party into the next elections, broke an interview drought with the Israeli media and spoke with Channel 12.

In it, he all but assumed that he would be the country’s next prime minister, saying at one point that “as a prime minister for a second time,” he has been preparing a detailed plan for the country over the last year and a half that can be implemented on day one.

Whoa, talk about putting the cart before the horse.

Not only will he have to beat Netanyahu and form a government, but he will also have to be coronated as the head of the opposition camp, something that – despite the impression he hoped to leave in his interview – is by no means a given. And it is obvious – and the polls bear this out – that his main competition is Gadi Eisenkot, who, like Bennett, is heading his own party.

Bennett tried to frame his bid not just as ambition but as inevitability. He said that he is the only one in a generation who has succeeded in replacing Netanyahu and, therefore, the only one who can do so again.

He dismissed the notion that he was giving the interview because he felt Eisenkot breathing down his neck, and – as if in a show of generosity – said Eisenkot is a worthy man who “will fill a significant position in a government under my leadership.” Bennett said that half a year ago, he offered Eisenkot “a very generous proposal to join under me in the party. Until now he has been tarrying, but even though he tarries, he will come.”

Eisenkot, however, had other ideas. In an interview of his own on Saturday night, he pushed back, saying that he intends to lead the opposition camp and defeat Netanyahu – and that he is running for prime minister.

Eisenkot for prime minister?

Mincing no words, he said, “I believe in myself, I know what kind of leadership I bring, and I see myself as a very strong candidate. I didn’t leave Benny Gantz as number two in order to be Bennett’s number two.” Not to be overshadowed, another of those who sees himself as a viable alternative to Netanyahu, Yair Lapid, took to social media on Sunday with a warning of his own.

Lapid was blunt. He cautioned voters to make sure that their vote “does not, in any way, go to the other camp.” He briefly praised both Bennett and Eisenkot, but then questioned whether either could be trusted not to ultimately join Netanyahu, warning that what might be presented as a “unity government” could in practice become “just another Netanyahu government.”

Don’t buy “a pig in a poke,” he said, don’t vote for parties whose lists are unknown, and don’t risk waking up after the election with unexpected defections, referring to Amichai Chikli and Idit Silman, both on Bennett’s Yamina list in the 2021 election, who later defected and brought down the Lapid-Bennett government. Rather than a call for unity, his was a warning against voting for his own potential partners.

It is natural that political egos will clash and that each candidate will say, “Vote for me.” But the way this is coming across now feels off-key.

A public that has spent the last month running to and from shelters and safe rooms, whose lives have been upended, could be forgiven for asking: with a war on two fronts raging and with elections not scheduled until late October, is the question of who should be number one in the opposition camp – Bennett or Eisenkot – really the most pressing issue at the moment?

Though the interviews themselves were largely measured, there was something jarring about what looked like an ego-driven contest over leadership playing out so prominently now.

The question of who will lead the opposition camp in the next election is important. But it should be decided in a way that attracts voters, not through what looks like a public contest over the top spot. With red alert sirens wailing, this dynamic feels out of sync with the national mood.

While Netanyahu is assuring himself a few more months and the completion of a four-year term of office, Bennett and Eisenkot are each saying, “I want to be first,” while Lapid is essentially cautioning the public against placing its trust in either of them.

This kind of disjointedness is not new; it has become a defining feature of the opposition’s conduct.

No wonder, then, that the opposition failed in what it often described as its main job: bringing down the government – even a government that, after October 7, seemed mortally wounded.