Blue & White Chairman Benny Gantz solidified his status as supposedly equal to that of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the coalition agreement forged between their Likud and Blue & White parties.
The centrist leader will be the alternative prime minister and will live in an official residence, his party will have an equal number of ministers, but will he be seen as a bonified prime minister in the political theater that is television? After all, that is where the public image of leaders is determined.
Though the election campaign is over, politicians never stop campaigning and as soon as the polls close, campaigners begin strategizing to build their candidate's best image and prepare them for the next round.
This will be Benny Gantz's biggest challenge. He will have to construct his image as prime minister while being overshadowed by the master of telepolitics himself, Netanyahu. After all the public is never exposed to the actual business of government. The public has only the evening news to learn from.
The Netanyahu method of leadership-by-media is well known and can be summed up by a simple principle: A charismatic and authoritarian performance.
The coronavirus pandemic and Netanyahu's nightly appearances on television before a worried nation are a case in point. The premier generated a messaging campaign through his pundits that continued throughout the day, building up suspense before his appearance in the evening.
After a fashionable delay, the leader stepped up to the podium, and a flock of cheerleaders in the form of his government ministers appeared on his flank. That was the scene constructed by him and for him to deliver his message.
Gantz's media strengths or weaknesses are well known to all after a year-long campaign. He has proven to Israelis that despite his movie-star good looks, his vocal attributes are akin to that of a nervous Bar Mitzvah boy. He stumbles and mumbles and is much too rigid as he tries to read from his teleprompter.
As Defense Minister, Gantz could conjure up the glory of his military days, though Netanyahu would surely be on hand to upstage him in any security-related affair.
If the premiership rotation ever materializes, and Gantz would actually assume the top position, Netanyahu would be flying around the globe as his Foreign Minister, hobnobbing with his cronies, feeling right at home and once again stealing and controlling the limelight.
If the coalition agreement intended to create equality between the two men, allowing Gantz the opportunity to appear as a legitimate national leader, with what voters could define as "prime minister material" – televised politics, which has sealed the fate of many before him, would certainly put any and all of his abilities to the test.