An interesting phenomenon has emerged on the Right since the April election. Party leaders are being exposed in the unforgiving heat of the spotlight. Avigdor Lieberman has been revealed as nationally irresponsible. He showed how easy it is to harm Israel's standing in the world – reducing it from a regional power with clout to a laughing stock. The first to discern this was U.S. President Donald Trump.
After impairing the national interest, Lieberman is kicking the religious-secular hornet's nest while being heralded by the anti-Netanyahu media with the slogan "a promise is a promise." Ayelet Shaked suddenly appears unripe and lost in space. In contrast, a seemingly more poised Naftali Bennett looks to be regaining his footing in the wake of his election debacle. He has taken responsibility and isn't crying over spilled milk; we will see if he has learned the appropriate lessons.
Breaking records
The person who has stood out as a serious contender to Netanyahu, meanwhile, is National Union leader Bezalel Smotrich. We've already moved on from his crude and ultimatum-ridden conduct during the coalition negotiations. But ever since his call for Israel to be governed according to Jewish law, he has broken new records. The first person who should send him flowers immediately is, of course, Lieberman. Smotrich is helping him dictate the volatile discourse over religion and state, religious and secular. Long live societal rifts!
Many are wondering – what is going through Smotrich's head? People who have been following the Habayit Heyhudi party for years acknowledge his productivity. He's relatively young at 39 and has already managed, through his ridiculous factional battles, to eliminate three esteemed figures: Zvulun Kalfa, Orit Struck and Uri Ariel. I assume that for Ariel, the former kibbutznik and IDF combat officer, it's difficult to grasp how this shmendrik, who spent his life studying in yeshivas and whose extremely abbreviated army service was in a non-combat role, has managed to make his political life miserable.
The explanation is first and foremost ambition and ego. Bezalel Smotrich is afraid of the serious attempts being made in recent days to unify the religious-nationalist camp. The extremism he is espousing, beyond its intended aim of harming Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, is meant to torpedo these unification efforts. Smotrich likes his alliance with far-right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, but doesn't like the idea of Naftali Bennett returning to a united religious-nationalist bloc. With Ben-Gvir to his Right, Smotrich appears presentable. Just half a year ago, he and Bennett co-orchestrated a strategy of splitting forces – religious-right and religious-secular-right – to straddle the political seam between Likud and Habayit Hayehudi; and now Bennett is already viewed as a threat. Smotrich is worried that under a political unification estimated to generate around 10 seats, he would be in fourth place.
Demoralization on the Right
Bennett has met with Zehut leader Moshe Feiglin, whose inclusion under the giant religious-nationalist canopy would be an important achievement. What's interesting, however, is that Lieberman's hit-job didn't only hurt the country; it also demoralized right-wing voters. This is what's really behind the tweets put forth by media personalities Avri Gilad and Shimon Riklin – that Israel needs to "break free of its addiction" to Netanyahu. These tweets go beyond the whimsical. Riklin and others who are to the right of the Likud aren't merely afraid of Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich being given the justice portfolio; along with other noted figures on the Right who have always opposed Netanyahu, they fear the Trump peace initiative. This is a familiar instinct, whereby it's better to turn the Israeli government and country in general into a lame, limping duck to remove even the hint of a threat to so much as a single settlement outpost.
We've seen this behavior before; first in 1992 but then also in 1998-1999, when the religious Right fought to topple Netanyahu in the wake of the Wye River Memorandum. This time, in the role of Hanan Porat, we have Bezalel Smotrich. What a difference.
