May 14, 2020

Coalition Building

1. With Rav Rafi Peretz splitting off from Yamina, Netanyahu's brilliance in political maneuvering comes through once again. Not because he got Peretz - that is not so important for anything besides Netanyahu's image and support in the right wing. Peretz is taking a job that is almost meaningless, so the job and connection is meaningless for everything except image. Netanyahu's brilliance is in being able to hold the Likud together, even while making almost every Likud politician unhappy, while ravaging [almost] every other party.

Netanyahu has now successfully dismantled Kachol Lavan, Yamina, Labor and the Labor-Gesher-Meretz bloc.

Netanyahu's leadership skills and political savvy will be, or should be, studied for generations.

2. With Rav Rafi Peretz splitting off from Yamina and Joining the Netanyahu-led coalition he has shown, again or further, how fragmented the Dati Leumi community leadership is. Peretz is well respected (though not necessarily as a politician), yet he broke a major promise to Ben Gvir for "the sake of unity" in the DL camp, and now he is breaking up that unity for a minor ministry in a bloated government. It is not even for anything important or significant.

Perhaps Bennett deserved such turnabout, as he himself did similarly in previous election cycles, but at least Bennett did it for fairly important and significant roles and influence. Peretz is doing it for a meaningless ministry with almost no authority created just for him to join the coalition. Anyone who criticizes Bennett for his past breakaways and splits but praises and supports Peretz is being hypocritical and vindictive. And Peretz is not just screwing Bennett and Shaked, but also Smotritch and his supporters.

I am amazed Mafdal/BayitYehudi/Yamina still has any voters and supporters at all. They have shown themselves time and again to be selfish politicians (as perhaps many are) with almost no influence.








------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
at

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 14, 2020 4:13 PM

    Rafi - I'm not sure I agree with you re: Bennett and Shaked breaking away - they had a true ideologically different vision from that of Bayit Yehudi when they formed HaYamin HeChadash, and broke away just before an election. They also did not take any official acts that were contrary to the interests and views of Bayit Yehudi in the period between when they broke away and the election.

    I contrast that with the actions of Peretz, who broke away for reasons of pure selfish self-interest - he's highly unpopular in his own party and faction, which is why he refused to allow for another set of primaries in Bayit Yehudi before the most recent election, since he knew he'd be thrown out. He therefore has nothing personal to lose by breaking away from Yamina and becoming an minister - other than his remaining shreds of integrity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rafi G.May 14, 2020 7:41 PM

      fair enough, either could be correct. we cant really know. either way, as representatives of that community, no matter the nuance of exactly which sub-fraction they are representing, they arent big enough to be able to be so splintered. To serve their community they really need to work better together.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousMay 15, 2020 11:15 AM

      Agreed, which is why Peretz has no business splitting off - he should have stayed with Yamina. Bennett and Shared were going for a different group than the "classic" DL voter, but when that failed, they seem to have learned their lesson and re-joined as Yamina.

      Delete