Amit Segal, the senior political commentator for News 12, told this morning (Friday) in his weekly column in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the Likud and Benjamin Netanyahu will provide “pampering treatment” to Amichai Shikli’s party – the one that may arise in the run-up to the next election.
“As for Shikli, he will receive from the Likud the pampering treatment that Smutrich received in the last election: the internal polls estimate his strength by about two seats. “Netanyahu will cast new figures for him, call for a vote for Mahal or Shikli, and with the help of this push he will try to pass him the blocking percentage, at the expense of Saar and Bennett, of course,” Segal writes.
Segal also says that Edith Silman does not intend to support votes on issues that are important to the coalition.
“Senior Likud members, who also want to avoid declaring her a retiree, will guide her on how to walk in the legal no-man’s land: on the one hand, to shorten the coalition days, on the other hand, not to cross the border.
“One of the directions it is considering is to agree to support the votes only on the condition that it be preceded by a discussion of tens of hours. Thus, all the laws that are important to Gantz, Lieberman and their friends will be stuck in the coalition’s cluttered pipeline. The logic: if they find that it is not possible to promote what has lied to them, they will lose sight of the existence of the coalition. “
Segal adds and writes in his column about what all the coalition swingers have in common: “One thing is common to all the coalition swingers, Walid Taha or Nir Orbach, Mazen Ghanaim or Avir Kara. They are all what are called commuters abroad, commuters in Hebrew: working in one place, living in another.
“Taha’s friends in Kafr Qassem do not understand what he is doing together with Israeli generals who send planes to bomb outposts in Gaza or fighters to eliminate terrorists in Jenin. Nir Orbach’s neighbors fill the balconies with signs against the coalition of which he is a member. The working assumption is that any of the above will be broken in the coming months.
“Bennett hopes that smart management at the beginning of the summer conference, including the postponement of non-essential provocative legislation, will prevent a rapid collapse and create the opposite dynamics.”