In retrospect, is there anything Netanyahu could have done differently?
It’s abundantly clear that Netanyahu’s strategy of unifying the religious right-wing parties and splitting the Arab parties before the last election backfired badly. Those parties captured 11 seats — some at the expense of the Likud. But Bibi’s political woes started long before the March 2021 vote. Netanyahu failed to form a stable coalition after any of the last four elections, as he lost the confidence of one coalition partner after another, not to mention members of his own party.
Netanyahu couldn’t bow out gracefully, either, considering the office of prime minister offered him some refuge from the criminal charges filed against him. Boxed in on all sides — by rivals, rebels, and prosecutors — Netanyahu saw all the rabbits hop out of his political hat.
The Likud prides itself on stability and loyalty, with just five party leaders in its 48-year history. Labor, meanwhile, has had five in the last decade alone. Tradition is important in politics, and it’s certainly understandable why the Likud stuck it out to the very end with its storied leader.
But ask any baseball manager who trudges from the dugout to the mound to pull his ace pitcher when it’s clear that he’s run out of gas, and he will tell you the team is bigger than its biggest star. Once the anti-Netanyahu forces had dug their cleats into the turf, the Likud should have found an honorable way to ask Bibi to step aside. The power struggle to replace Bibi as party head is fully underway, but had they sent their ace to the showers to a standing ovation, a relief pitcher might have saved the game for the party that won — and has now wasted — 30 seats.
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