The Likud party, which over the years has become the largest on the political map saturated with poles, has known permutations and changes of decisive importance. Leaders changed, wars and military operations yielded new insights, and from the fertile ground new parties arose to challenge what had been considered a consensus.
No matter where any Israeli chooses to place himself on the multi-passion spectrum, there is no doubt about one important thing – Binyamin Netanyahu’s entry into Likud, which at first seemed strange in the landscape of Israeli politics, managed to win the cards again and again. In the second episode of the podcast ‘We Were There’ presented by former member of the Knesset Eitan Kabel and media consultant Barak Seri and edited and produced by Nadav Rozman and Michal Kadosh, the two talk about the beginning of Netanyahu’s term as head of Likud and later as prime minister, through all the significant landmarks that left him in power.
It all started in 1993, during Netanyahu’s fight for the position of Likud chairman. “That year they didn’t know he would be with us until this day. Netanyahu decides to face the greats at that time, and brings a style that to this day has not been seen not only in Likud but in politics in general. Other, American, lots of media, cast shows, very verbose and charismatic. Since then, imitators have arisen for him, but he was the one who laid the foundations for that new American politics,” said Seri.
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“I came to see the man everyone was talking about. I see something different. I remember being laughed at for the fact that he spent a lot of hours looking, people in military and conservative Israel for that matter. When I would ask ‘Why Netanyahu?’, I would hear ‘Look at what he looks like.’ He had a child in the early 1940s.” Travel in time to the hot tape case. Somewhere in the same year, Netanyahu said in one of the news broadcasts that he received threats from one person, according to which if he did not withdraw his candidacy, a tape allegedly recording him having sex with a woman who is not his wife would be revealed. After some time, Netanyahu decided to confess that he had had a relationship with another woman, but that was only his and Sarah’s business. Although he did not point an accusing finger, the popular opinion was that the person behind the story was David Levy, but the police investigation on the matter yielded nothing. “This is one of the events concerning the fight between him and David Levy,” Kabel repeated back. “There are those who ask if the contract was signed and written there with his wife, I have no proof.”
“For the Netanyahu of that time, only a rumor was enough to run to television”
In response, Sri emphasized:This is one of Netanyahu’s biggest mistakes in all of political history, and I attribute this to the haste at that time and being young and inexperienced. He came under tremendous pressure, for the then young and immature Netanyahu, only a rumor was enough to run to television. A huge mistake, but in retrospect it didn’t hurt his choice either. His fresh candidacy and polished English won out. Great own goal. Sarah of course did not like this, and the two set up a kind of special relationship so that she would support and stay and a huge crisis would not develop from this. As someone who accompanied Netanyahu on several flights abroad, there is real love there.”
Another front that has opened up for the Prime Minister over the years is with Yitzhak Shamir, his predecessor in the position. In an unforgettable statement, he called Netanyahu a ‘sabotage angel’, and made it clear exactly what he thought of the new star. “Shamir detested him and did not hide his detestation. The undisputed leader was Shamir, and despite everything, Netanyahu wins over everyone and begins a new era in Likud.” Sri had no choice but to agree. “The anger towards the new star, who overshadowed everyone else, was shared by Shamir as well, even though we would have expected him to be patronizing him. Anyone who wants to attack him to this day mentions this statement.”
Another short trip in time. 1996, Netanyahu decides to face Peres for the prime ministership. “I will never forget it in my life,” Eitan shared excitedly. “Chaim Ramon and the late Fuad told Shimon ‘You tore Netanyahu apart.’ The next day, the headline in the newspaper said that Netanyahu had won.” Moments before, the country experienced an unprecedented upheaval – the murder of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. How did that affect the whole story? They agreed and listened. “The murder shocked the whole country,” said Barak. “Immediately Polls are conducted after him and the heir Shimon Peres holds a huge number of mandates, he is told that he should go to the elections while the iron is hot, in one of the worst mistakes he refuses. It could have changed all of history.”
The confrontation between the two was not long in coming, and Netanyahu made it clear again that he is here to stay. “Netanyahu arrives polished with quick answers, Peres looks exhausted, there was no doubt who defeated whom. A year or so after the horrible murder, Bibi manages to get elected by half a percent, half a year of a crazy sprint that started at a terrible political low.” Kabel knows the event even more personally. “You are talking to one of the victims of that incident,” he said to his friend on the microphone. “I went to bed twice, once when Peres was Prime Minister, and once when I was MK. In the end, Peres was not Prime Minister and I was not a member of the Knesset, the rest is history.”
From confrontation to confrontation, as they say, we come to a confrontation between Itzik Mordechai, then the chairman of the Center Party, and Netanyahu, in the iconic program of our friend from the journalist station Nissim Mashal. There, too, there was a moment that Kabel and Seri could not forget. “Mordechai cast a stain on Netanyahu, and Netanyahu Characteristically not stuttering and sweating, he got a serious bomb. Since then there has been no political conflict, no one wanted to make the same mistake as Netanyahu,” Seri claimed.
The two ended the podcast with a defining event for Kabel Yeddinu – the moment when Netanyahu personally offered him to join the unity government. “Netanyahu calls me to him so that I agree to enter the unity government, it would have been possible to establish a government of Labor, Likud and Kadima, and change the face of the country. The one who made it not come to fruition was Barak, an event that could have changed the face of the State of Israel.”
Back to 2022. The political system is turbulent like no other, the parties in the two parallel blocs have never been more divided, as they are now, and the election day – continues to approach. Even if it is not the last election campaign, it seems that at least for now Benjamin Netanyahu, one of the most significant political figures in Israeli history, is here to stay.