The play that took place in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday morning, during the vote on the “Electricity Law”, is a rather rare play, quite embarrassing and quite predictable – to the same extent and in exactly the same order. Before the reasoning stage – a summary of the drama in the trial and a half for the benefit of the audience who are not among the loyal viewers of the Knesset channel.
The live drama began when opposition Knesset members slammed right-wing faction chairman MK Nir Orbach: “You are not worried about the young settlement, you will be ashamed!”. Orbach, who has long undergone tough training in front of right-wing activists, both aggressive and vocal, who demonstrated on loudspeakers and posters for hours and days in front of his home while the change government was being built, does not seem particularly excited. That is, not a ray of happiness but also did not transmit distress. The prime minister, on the other hand, does.
It started with interim calls that Bennett called towards the opposition benches, and it did not bother any of the government members, because interim calls from the Israeli prime minister are routine, at least in cases of considerable warming in the plenum. Within seconds it turned out to be just a promo. To the astonishment of the ministers sitting near Bennett, the prime minister rose from his seat at the head of the cabinet table and marched vigorously towards the Likud members who crowded the aisle and shouted non-stop “Shame! Shame!”.
Opposition rages: MK claims Bennett shouted at her “Fly away from my eyes”
“You did not worry about settlement, Netanyahu voted in favor of the disengagement. How you behave, be ashamed!” Bennett shouted at them, who at one point even took off the mask on his face, according to the rules of the corona, so that his words could be heard well even in the corner where the main recipient, Benjamin Netanyahu, was standing. Hela followed what was happening, and seemed to realize that there was no need to participate in the scene, since Bennett was destroying himself on his own and did not need further assistance. Therefore, Netanyahu turned around, responded with a dismissive hand gesture and left the commotion at its height.
Netanyahu, compared to Bennett, did not take off his mask, but his eyes radiated complete satisfaction. And rightly so: the opposition has failed numerically, its reservations have not passed and the “Electricity Law” has been approved. But electorally, she won a landslide victory. It is doubtful whether the public is aware of the super-efforts of Idit Silman and Boaz Toporovsky to mobilize a majority, locate and torpedo the opposition’s plots and bring about the best result. What is sure to remain embedded in the collective (and especially electoral) memory is the moment when Bennett, without a mask, approaches Likud and Shas members and shouts at them while demonstratively losing his temper.
Members of the right watched the play and found it difficult to formulate how a sense of their mixed feelings still prevails over the rest. “Naftali is not a nervous or hysterical person, he did it with good intentions: he stood up to defend the contemptible Nir Orbach, even at the cost of losing image and perhaps also political points” – Doug interpreted the events of the confrontation one of the right-wingers.
Well, if indeed that was Bennett’s motive, it should be noted that his concern for the mood within his faction is justified and well-founded. Of all the coalition factions, the right and the RAAM are in a very similar and very complex situation. The two factions are challenged on a daily basis by their rivals from the opposition, who do not give up and do not give up.
While the joint list takes care of embittering the lives of Mansour Abbas & Co., the small and not very cohesive right is forced to face some opponents from the opposition right. Not a day goes by without another right-wing bill or another initiative designed to embarrass the Bennett people, who come from the Likud bloc.
Each and every one within the right-wing faction sees the polls, reads the picture, looks to the future and is anxious about his private political future. More than once, members of the right expressed in closed conversations (because in the open conversations they take care to convey resilience and optimism) that “the whole Naftali is in matters of government, Corona, Iran and everything else, and the faction is not maintained. He is not with us.” Bennett, a veteran politician, is well aware of the basic rule that a frustrated MK is a walking bomb that is going to explode at the most inopportune time.
Even if you’re a prime minister with 40 seats, but you have a mess in the faction, you’re in trouble. Especially if you are a prime minister with 6 seats (according to the latest polls from this week) and with a very unclear future. So at least get up and yell at anyone who insults your faction leader. At least that’s. But it turns out that this noble move by Bennett (if we proceed from the premise that this is what is behind his conduct) did not achieve the goal.
Some members of the right said in the wake of the “Electricity Law play” that they felt considerable discomfort: “Bennett embarrassed himself and all of us. “For the whole government. When the prime minister loses control, it mainly indicates the instability of the whole government. Pure damage and uselessness.”
No, they are not forced to do good. Those right-wing members who criticized the head of their party are simply politicians, and a politician must be pragmatic and considerate if he wants to be successful as well.
Arguments and quarrels
Well, the key word is “control.” And in two words – “loss of control”. This is what happened to the prime minister, and this is what differentiates him from his predecessor and also from all the other Israeli prime ministers for generations. We will not go too far back, the archive is full of relatively fresh examples. Netanyahu is not a political machine without mistakes. He lost his temper in many different situations, often in front of the cameras and in front of the general public.
We will open the archive of plenary videos almost randomly. In November 2020, a discussion in the Knesset plenum on the approval of the peace agreement between Israel and Bahrain. The opposition shouts at Netanyahu, “Go home!”
Netanyahu lost his temper, but did it in his own way, which is the masterpiece through which every politician begins to lose his temper without losing political points: he remained planted in his place, stuck a kind of frozen smile on his face, and so, without moving and without saying a word, waited on the podium until That “they will solve the problem.” One example out of many, a pattern of behavior that it is not clear whether Netanyahu possessed from childhood or whether he adopted the technique upon entering the political world.
It should be noted that the principle that “the more angry you are, the less you will do, and it is better if you do not speak and do not move at all,” belongs not only to Netanyahu’s public conduct. The two current government officials, Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Lapid, are following exactly the same path. Loss of mind in the style of Lieberman or Torch is zero movements and zero words. They freeze in place and wait until the rage passes (or until aid arrives).
Bennett, compared to Netanyahu, has always not been able to separate visibility and essence in moments of stress and in times of anger. Lose composure without losing control. “In this matter Bennett is a bit like Donald Trump” – tells me a veteran right-wing man who has done many hours of Bennett in his life. “He was hurt on a very personal level, like an almost child, he takes to heart and does not always know how to hide it. A few years ago, during the period of the Jewish home, there was an MK on his list, Yoni Shatbon, with whom Bennett had difficulty getting along. “Tabun is not an easy guy, there were a lot of loud arguments, and Bennett, party leader and minister, did not know how to maintain a poker face – and just went down to a personal quarrel, answered Tabun in the same style, as if two neighbors were in the parking lot.”
People who knew Bennett as chairman of the Yesha Council also point to the prime minister’s “short thread”: “Mostly, it was inconsistency. Naftali is a brilliant man, knows how to impress and enchant. He is very fast, grasps things fast and well, knows how to build a warm relationship. But he is unable to hold and maintain what he has built over time. It seems that at some point he is tired of worrying about visibility and preserving achievements. Then came quarrels, arguments and loss of temper. “
Impulse not controlled
And after all that has been said, it is worth noting another aspect, which is perhaps the main motive that pushed the prime minister into conflict with the wearers of the opposition benches. This aspect is Bennett’s tendency to prove to the public, to himself and his predecessor, that he is “no less worthy than Netanyahu / not like Netanyahu / not trailed after Netanyahu.”
And there are several versions to describe the anomaly. At first, six months ago, this was the most understandable: after 12 years, Netanyahu finds it difficult to get into his shoes without ordering comparisons. Now, six months later, it seems that “Netanyahu’s syndrome” has not left Bennett. So he did not just go and shout at the shouters, but went to shout at Netanyahu because he was the one who abandoned the young settlement, he was the one who voted for the disengagement, he was the one who did not exactly express the values of the right as prime minister. He, and not Naftali Bennett.
This incessant and not always uncontrollable urge of Bennett to convince the whole world that all the Likud allegations against him are idle allegations, and he, Bennett, did not betray the right-wing camp – proves more than anything the fact that even now, six months after the government was formed, Bennett did not quit. “Netanyahu Syndrome” and perhaps also not entirely sure of the step he took when he decided to head the composition of which includes, among others, clear leftists, farthest from everything he has promoted and believed in throughout his political career.
If this diagnosis is correct, the best thing Bennett can do for himself is to stop this unhealthy internal debate with Netanyahu, even if he is left with a sense of loss, and move forward as a mere prime minister, who does not have to stand the test of comparison. In a left-center-right composition within one government, then at least self-confidence that never harms a prime minister, even in rotation.
.