Netanyahu's team of losers
Analysis: After he singlehandedly drove away the best people in the Likud, the prime minister is left with those who are prepared to burn down the house as long as they win in the primary elections.
They were all there, in Netanyahu's pocket: Dan Meridor, Gideon Sa'ar, Benny Begin, Carmel Shama, Limor Livnat, Michael Eitan and Moshe Kahlon. All veteran politicians, all experienced, all esteemed. And, most importantly, all sane.
Others were driven away mid-game by the fans, for being too intelligent, too moderate. And today, those players are prepared to do anything so long as they don't have to play under Netanyahu.
At this point, the only ones still on the pitch are the extreme rightists and public activists, the wheeler-dealers of the league, those who spend most of their time meddling and striking shady deals - the Steinitzes and Yisrael Katzes. They don't add a single Knesset seat to the party, and if they do manage to change the balance of seats, it's not in favor of the ruling (for now) party.
Let's move on to politics: After Limor Livnat's decision to retire from political life, Netanyahu is now almost on his own. Granted, he still has the wheeler-dealers and the agitators, but when he looks back, he mostly sees a void. A void in ideology, a void in leadership, a void in standards, a void in almost everything.
While in the past Netanyahu was a real asset for the Likud, that has also evaporated now. All that is left is a party leader whom most in the Knesset are looking to remove from the prime minister's bureau, and a party whose "stars" are only really fit to play in a Sunday league.
Netanyahu singlehandedly drove away the finest people of the party, which is now only a pale shadow of the glorious Likud of the old days. He made their lives miserable, used them and tossed them away, took the smile off their faces, exploited them when he needed them and forgot about them the next minute.
It's no wonder that they're leaving. Sa'ar and Livnat, for example, saw how the Likud chairman treated one Reuven Rivlin. How he did everything in his power to make him lose the presidential elections, how he worked against Rivlin and Sa'ar to try to crown a different president - one who did not even come from the Likud.
And so, one after the other, they are all veering away from Netanyahu, like they would veer away from trouble. Those who are abandoning the Likud today are doing so because they have had enough of the prime minister's conduct, enough of his empty tricks and lack of leadership.
One after another, the movement's senior members have left the party, slamming the door behind them. And once they are out, bitter and sad, they breathe a sigh of relief and lament what used to be the old Likud: Moral, ideological, liberal, democratic.
On the ruins of that party, Netanyahu built an island of anti-democratic and unruly behavior, a party moving at the whim of its chairman, who is willing to put Israel's international status at risk for one more vote and for one more Knesset seat from the rightist, extreme fringes of the political system.
Netanyahu's Likud looks today like a collapsing team: The fans are deserting the bleachers for more attractive prospects, the players are storming off the court, and those who stay on are prepared to burn down the clubhouse, just as long as they succeed in the primary elections.
Netanyahu wants to go out on the court in the next season as well with Moshe Feiglin, Tzipi Hotovely and Yisrael Katz – and secure a victory. With these stars, he is promising to play better and score many more goals. And that's before Gideon Sa'ar has decided whether he should run against Netanyahu, a decision which could drag the prime minister to a bitter battle over the Likud leadership.
In this situation we should ask ourselves the following question: If he cannot fulfill all his promises with the Likud's finest people, how will he succeed with the team of losers he has singlehandedly put together?
This is how you lose the league.
