1

“Ten measures of beauty descended to the world, and nine were taken by Jerusalem,” Chazal teach us; but none of the city’s nine measures appear to have gone to the prime minister’s office at 3 Kaplan Street, a generic brick edifice lacking any grace or individuality. Aside from the airtight security, it bears little resemblance to other seats of power such as the White House, the Elysée Palace, or even the relatively somber No. 10 Downing Street.

Never judge a book by its cover. From the interior, the building could easily be taken for the nerve center of a world power. There’s never a dull moment, and hardly a day goes by without an existential crisis necessitating an urgent meeting in one of the building’s conference rooms. But one room, the one used for press conferences, is reserved for times of national emergency. During wars or other crises (e.g., the coronavirus), the prime minister arrives at 8 p.m. — prime time TV hour — to address the Israeli public.

This time, it was neither about the operation in Jenin nor about the resurgent coronavirus. The first press conference of Netanyahu’s sixth term was focused on economics, but could easily have been mistaken for a wartime address. And to pursue the military metaphor, the sense in the room was that Netanyahu had walked into an ambush. Two days earlier, Netanyahu seemed more than usually cocky when I saw him at the Knesset’s Jerusalem Hall, where coalition leaders had gathered in a show of support for Shas chairman Aryeh Deri after his dismissal from the cabinet by order of the High Court.

The Shas activists packing the hall, never circumspect in their language, sounded tame compared to the coalition leaders. Rhetoric previously used only by militant Justice Minister Yariv Levin became general fare at the event. In his remarks, Netanyahu — followed by the rest of the coalition leaders — aimed his guns directly at the High Court justices, calling them arrogant and aloof and warning that their ruling against Deri would return on them like a boomerang.