Analysis

Defenseless Netanyahu must now move quickly to draft Liberman

Ya’alon’s resignation leaves PM with little wiggle room in negotiations with Yisrael Beytenu, which is facing its own mini-revolt. Meanwhile, shaky Herzog is hoping to draw in the dissatisfied from the right

By Sara Miller 20 May 2016, 6:17 pm

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Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset on March 7, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

From the start of next week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be without a defense minister. Moshe Ya’alon’s resignation Friday morning takes effect after 48 hours. And so, by Sunday morning, Netanyahu can look forward to adding defense to his impressive list of portfolios. Ironically, this includes foreign minister — the post he intended to offer Ya’alon as a sweetener for ousting the former IDF chief from the Defense Ministry to make way for Corporal Liberman.

Netanyahu needs to seal the deal with Liberman as soon as possible. Nothing was actually signed Friday, on the cusp of the weekend when Israeli political life effectively shuts shop, a tradition even the most secular of pols adheres to.

But Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, tasked by Netanyahu to get Liberman to sign on the dotted line, could well still have his work cut out. There are rumblings that Liberman — perhaps bolstered by the ease with which he is sliding into Ya’alon’s army boots — is now seeking to add a third Likud minister’s pelt to his haul. And by all accounts, Miri Regev should have made the most of her designer-clad jaunt to Cannes, as her Culture Ministry is rumored to be in the presumptive new defense chief’s cross hairs.

If the negotiations do go smoothly, a deal with Yisrael Beytenu could be signed as soon as Monday. By Tuesday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman could be measuring for new curtains in his office at the Kirya in Tel Aviv.

Avigdor Liberman, right, in the Knesset with Moshe Ya'alon on November 12, 2014. (photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90) — Avigdor Liberman, right, in the Knesset with Moshe Ya’alon on November 12, 2014. (photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

On the other side of the aisle, Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog was still pushing his “chief peacemaker” narrative on Friday, justifying his decision to negotiate with Netanyahu, despite calls from senior Labor MKs for him to fall on his sword over his mangled attempt to enter the coalition.

Immediately after Ya’alon resigned Friday morning, Herzog invited the perennial hawk to join his faction, making the same offer to MK Orly Levy-Abekasis, a Yisrael Beytenu lawmaker who quit her party as news broke of the Netanyahu-Liberman talks.

Yisrael Beyteinu MK Orly Levy-Abekasis in the Knesset on July 27, 2015.(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Levy-Abekasis’s statement Thursday hinted at dismay over the sacrifice of Yisrael Beytenu’s social policies — civil marriage and reform of the conversion process — on the altar of efforts to legislate for the death penalty for terrorists, a bill that recent history has shown has a slim chance of ever being enacted.

“I believed that the last few days provided us with a real opportunity to significantly promote these areas, but unfortunately, the opportunity presented to us as a party about to enter the government was not utilized in any way in the social sphere,” Levy-Abekasis said.

Her erstwhile party expressed regret at her departure, and maintained — perhaps in a sign of intra-coalition struggles to come — that social issues are very much still on the agenda.

“We were surprised to hear of the move by MK Orly Levy-Abekasis,” the party said in its own statement Thursday night. “Yisrael Beytenu is expected to achieve significant achievements in the social sphere during the current negotiations, and we regret Levy will not be part of them.”