You mention it toward the end but still slightly gloss over the fact that the government he led was the widest coalition in the country’s history. Bringing together left-wing Meretz and far-right Ra’am (first Arab party to ever join a governing coalition) and many in between, splitting prime minister position with Lapid, foreswearing annexation while in office, he demonstrated pragmatism and unity. The country now wants another pragmatic unity government, and he’s the obvious choice to provide it.
Yes, that's all true. But Yair Lapid really deserves the credit for putting together that incredibly broad coalition. Yamina won only 7 seats in the 2021 election, after all, versus 17 for Yesh Atid. If Bennett's party has 24 MKs next time and is the dominant party in the coalition, his government's policies will surely be more reflective of his party's priorities.
On the one hand, seeing the polling data is interesting and valuable, especially given the concrete choice of a specific Bennet let party.
On the other, this basic fact in more general form, that Netanyahu divides the Israeli right, has been well known for nearly a decade. In the years between 2019-22, when 5 elections were held in just three years, had Netanyahu just resigned and the Likud welcomed back the defectors who he drove out of the party for personal reasons, there would have been a large and stable right wing government lead by Likud, which is clearly what the voters as a whole would have preferred.
It's well-known to people who are in touch with Israeli politics, yes. But even among those people, I see frequently the claim that the Israeli center is center-right while Netanyahu has embraced the hard right. But Bennett is not a center-right figure! (Neither is Lieberman, for that matter.)
The fact that there are so many different axes in Israel on which to plot left vs right does complicate the issue. Nonetheless, I think a lot of people who are aware that various right-wingers have left Likud think that they are all versions of Tzipi Livni. Bibi himself is continually making a version of that argument, saying that anyone who breaks with him is functionally a leftist because they are empowering the left by being willing to sit in coalition with parties to the left of Likud.
You mention it toward the end but still slightly gloss over the fact that the government he led was the widest coalition in the country’s history. Bringing together left-wing Meretz and far-right Ra’am (first Arab party to ever join a governing coalition) and many in between, splitting prime minister position with Lapid, foreswearing annexation while in office, he demonstrated pragmatism and unity. The country now wants another pragmatic unity government, and he’s the obvious choice to provide it.
Yes, that's all true. But Yair Lapid really deserves the credit for putting together that incredibly broad coalition. Yamina won only 7 seats in the 2021 election, after all, versus 17 for Yesh Atid. If Bennett's party has 24 MKs next time and is the dominant party in the coalition, his government's policies will surely be more reflective of his party's priorities.
There is no such thing as the electorate's true preferences.
On the one hand, seeing the polling data is interesting and valuable, especially given the concrete choice of a specific Bennet let party.
On the other, this basic fact in more general form, that Netanyahu divides the Israeli right, has been well known for nearly a decade. In the years between 2019-22, when 5 elections were held in just three years, had Netanyahu just resigned and the Likud welcomed back the defectors who he drove out of the party for personal reasons, there would have been a large and stable right wing government lead by Likud, which is clearly what the voters as a whole would have preferred.
It's well-known to people who are in touch with Israeli politics, yes. But even among those people, I see frequently the claim that the Israeli center is center-right while Netanyahu has embraced the hard right. But Bennett is not a center-right figure! (Neither is Lieberman, for that matter.)
The fact that there are so many different axes in Israel on which to plot left vs right does complicate the issue. Nonetheless, I think a lot of people who are aware that various right-wingers have left Likud think that they are all versions of Tzipi Livni. Bibi himself is continually making a version of that argument, saying that anyone who breaks with him is functionally a leftist because they are empowering the left by being willing to sit in coalition with parties to the left of Likud.