let the infighting begin

While PM Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to find a way to break the "plonter" and form some sort of government, despite how bleak it looks, he held a meeting with the heads of the various right wing parties this evening and proposed they go as a front, with him as their agreed-upon representative, and negotiate as a united bloc of 55 seats.

I am not quite sure what that means - who is he negotiating with as a bloc of 55 seats and what are the ramifications of such a bloc? Could it not be broken if an attractive offer was made to just part of the bloc? Gantz would take them as a bloc off 55 - but some of those 55 insisted they wont sit with Lapid, so how does this bloc work?

Anyways, the infighting is already starting.

Kikar is reporting that Rav Silman, one of the rabbinic leaders of UTJ, recently said that he does not rely on Netanyahu at all. he says he recently sat with Netanyahu to discuss potential coalition issues and Netanyahu is a real nothing who cannot be relied upon.

Add to that the anonymous senior UTJ activist who today said, according to a report by Yanir Couzin, that Netanyahu failed to supply the merchandise. He ran a lousy campaign. We thought, this UTJ activist said, he would pull out a rabbit on election day, but he didn't. We requested that he attack Lieberman for banning us form a government, but he did not do it. He's a Shlemiel.

So, they are learning that each politician is out for himself and for his party at most. Did they really expect Netanyahu to put his neck on the line for a different party?

One more point. the statement reminded me of something else. Recently Eli Yishai was negotiating with moshe Gafni regarding the possibility of Rav Mazuz supporting UTJ. It was reported that Yishai wanted to be appointed to a ministerial position. At the time Gafni said they would be happy for Yishai to be appointed minister, but it would be up to Netanyahu and it would have to come from Netanyahu and not from the UTJ allotment of appointments..

And now they expected Netanyahu to fight their battle against Lieberman. They did not want to attack Lieberman directly, for whatever strategic reason they decided upon (early in the campaign they said they thought a direct attack would just make Lieberman bigger), but they wanted Netanyahu to do their dirty work for them, and because he did not, he is a failure with a lousy campaign.

UTJ seems to think everyone owes them and they do not have to pay up on their. Sure, support us, but someone else should pay for that support. We are fighting with Lieberman, but we want someone else to run the fight on our behalf and take the fall for us. They have learned so much and become really great politicians for their electorate, but they cannot always expect other people to pay their bills. If they want to play on the court, they have to run their team and fight its fights.

And in no way do I think this is limited to UTJ. It just started with them. I imagine other potential partners will be complaining about Netanyahu soon as well. It is only natural, as he was supposed to lead them into the coalition and he failed, or at least made it very difficult. it is natural they are disappointed in him and will be upset at his coming "betrayal".

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