Bibi and Benny sign deal, but how long will it last?
The national unity government agreed to – forged after three elections within a year, and 16 months after the Knesset originally disbanded in December 2018 – means that Binyamin Netanyahu will step down as prime minister in 18 months when Benny Gantz will then take over.
While neither side – the Likud, or the remnants of Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party – got everything they wanted, the terms of the deal as announced at press time Monday night is more favorable to Netanyahu, and the Likud, in the short-term and goes a long way to ensuring that Netanyahu’s legal woes will be sidelined for at least the next 18 months, if not longer.
However, given the bad blood between the two sides that flowed freely during three nasty political campaigns and the last month of negotiations over a national unity government, and the very unwieldy power-sharing agreements, the history of previous Israeli unity governments draws a bleak picture for the future.
More about that shortly.
Here’s how Netanyahu wins in the new deal:
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