Gideon Saar’s bolting from the Likud has turned Israeli politics on its ear
Along comes another week where we go to print facing a cliffhanger. At press time, we don’t know whether the Knesset will disband ushering in a fourth election in two years, or whether the current coalition, or reasonable facsimile thereof, can strike a last-minute deal and stave off dissolution.
No matter which way it goes, Gideon Saar’s bolting from the Likud has turned Israeli politics on its ear, especially after his vow not to join any coalition with Binyamin Netanyahu ends any mathematical chance of a pure right-wing, chareidi coalition.
Keep in mind political promises are made to be broken. And there is also no way of knowing if Saar’s initial spike in the polls is sustainable.
What I found most interesting this week is following the debate in Israel’s Hebrew-language media whether the next election, whenever it’s held, will be another pure “Only Bibi” or “Anyone but Bibi” race, or whether the next election will be an American-style existential battle between competing political ideologies on the right and left.
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