Netanyahu's right-wing problem
Analysis: The prime minister is waging war on Bennett and Shaked, who he sees as a possible threat to his power in a new coalition after the elections, but the two heads of the New Right party have their own plans.
If the last week in Israeli politics could be characterized as a big bang in the center, and by polls that showed Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu in a neck-and-neck race, this week began with an explosion on the right.
Netanyahu and his former protégé and current leader of the New Right party, Naftali Bennett, traded unprecendented verbal blows on the sidelines of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
The harsh statements each made to the media about the other reveal a fierce battle between the two for the hearts and minds of the right-wing voters.
Bennett was the first to attack to go on the attack on Sunday. Heading in to the weekly cabinet meeting, the education minister announced that he knew that Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump had agreed an Israeli response to the American peace plan, which includes the division of Jerusalem and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu promptly responded, and, in a departure from his usual cabinet meetings, rushed to the media to give his own reaction to Bennett's comments. He said Bennett was under pressure and confused because of the elections, claimed his comments had no substance, and, in a particularly biting insult, said that Bennett only led one of the "small parties."
Bennett had geared up for his attack in light of the new political reality of a two-way battle between Gantz and Netanyahu for the premiership, a battle that could cause collateral damage among the smaller parties in each bloc.
The political world is also keeping a close eye out for an announcement by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on a potential Netanyahu indictment. According to political sources, if an indictment is filed against Netanyahu, subject to a hearing, those disapppointed in the Likud will be looking for a new political home on the right, and they are precisely the people that the heads of the New Right —Bennett and Ayelet Shaked — are targeting.
The current actions of Bennett and Shaked are largely influenced by the lessons of the 2015 elections, in which Netanyahu ran a campaign to increase his own power at their expense. This time they are fighting to secure their share of the right-wing electorate, and going head to head against Netanyahu in order to do so.
This approach is clearly illustrated in a new video released by the New Right, in which Bennett is seen knocking on the door of a Likud voter's house and convincing the home owner why his party is the true right wing. This is the first time that Bennett and Shaked have openly courted Likud voters, and another video with a similar message will soon be released. Meanwhile, the two party leaders are busy telling the media that only they can stop Netanyahu from yielding to political and diplomatic pressure.
But such attacks are not one-sided. Netanyahu, for his part, has not hesitated to take steps to weaken the New Right and claim as many votes as possible in the right-wing bloc. While Bennett and Shaked could be considered his natural political partners, the personal relationship between the two sides is extremely shaky.
Senior officials in the Likud say that after Netanyahu's primary battle with Gantz, his next priority is to weaken Bennett and Shaked, so as to diminish their power in post-election coalition negotiations. Some sources say that Netanyahu's vigorous attempts to unite the Jewish Home and the extreme-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) were not born solely out of efforts to prevent the loss of votes in the right-wing bloc, but also to cut Shaked and Bennett off from their previous political home and prevent small parties in a future rightist coalition from joining forces and posing a threat to his own power.
Similarly, the small right-wing parties will soon launch a campaign against Bennett and Shaked in a bid to syphon off their voters. This campaign will focus on the fact that the two abandoned the Jewish Home in order to form their own party, and will try to draw far-right voters to their own side and traditional rightwing voters to the Likud. Bennett and Shaked, according to the plan, would be isolated and struggle to win votes.
Sunday's events, however, indicate that the leaders of the New Right are not going quietly, and this inter-bloc slanging match will not end any time soon.
