Hiba Yazbek, Nitzan Horowitz, Ahmad Tibi, Merav Michaeli, Ayman Odeh, Emilie Moatti, Yair Golan, Ibtisam Mara'ana; these names belong to the "Gideon Sa'ar camp," or at least this is what his words would have us believe. "The only thing that troubles me is that the change [of governments] is in danger," he told a Channel 12 News roundtable this week. "According to the figures we're seeing, things now stand at 60-60 [mandates]. One more mandate – and Netanyahu gets to form a government with [Yamina leader Naftali] Bennett and the Haredi parties."
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The message is clear: A right-wing camp exists – which includes the Likud, Bennett, Shas, United Torah Judaism and Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party); and there is a left-wing camp that includes Meretz, the Joint Arab List, Labor, Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, and is supported by Avigdor Lieberman. Sa'ar has chosen a side, the Left, which he even purports to lead to victory in the upcoming election. Later in the roundtable discussion, Sa'ar contradicted himself by telling Lapid that a government under his stewardship would never lean on the Joint Arab List – even though it is impossible to reach the 60-mandate mark Sa'ar desires without it.
Ironically, Sa'ar presents himself as a "real" (and "stately" of course) right-wing alternative to Netanyahu. One of his supporters, Ronen Shoval, even went as far as to say this week that the "Likud forgot what it means to be right-wing." And who will remind Likudniks how to be right-wingers? Yifat Shasha-Biton, for example, his former deputy, who said she sees herself as the "operational arm" of the left-wing protesters outside the Prime Minister's Residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem. As for the other agents of "change" from Sa'ar's 60-mandate camp? Nitzan Horowitz will definitely push for Khan al-Ahmar to be evacuated; Yair Golan will facilitate new settlements in Judea and Samaria; Merav Michaeli will imbue Israeli students with nationalist-Zionist values; Tamar Zandberg will reign in the High Court of Justice; and Ofer Cassif will free the economy from the shackles of the Histadrut Labor Federation and trade unions.
Sa'ar is butting heads with Bennett, who he says will join Netanyahu, but Bennett is always quick to deny this terrible "accusation" by declaring that "if Netanyahu doesn't get 61 mandates, we will establish a grand coalition." In other words, he would rather latch onto the "Left" – as Bennett himself has described Lapid – instead of a right-wing government headed by Netanyahu. Bennett also says "Netanyahu is selling out his values to the Left" – but forgets that he failed to pass the electoral threshold in the first election and refused to join a Netanyahu government after the last election, essentially paving the path to this oft-besmirched parity-based government. Now Bennett is suggesting we toss our right-wing values out the window for the sake of "handling the coronavirus."
Netanyahu is not innocent of many, serious mistakes, as detailed on these very pages in the past; but taking a wider view, under his helm terrorism is on the decline, the economy is strong (even during the pandemic) and Israel's international standing is as strong as ever. It's not for nothing that Ayman Odeh, a member of Sa'ar's 60-mandate camp, said, "Toppling Netanyahu is a national mission" – of the Palestinians, of course. Due to the unfortunate rise of the Biden administration, Netanyahu certainly needs to be bolstered from the right, by Smotrich, for instance; but anyone affiliating themselves with the Left or conceding right-wing policies in advance, cannot hand out grades about what it means to be Right.
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