Three months have passed since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began his third term as prime minister, and this week [May 1] he discovered a simple fact: He doesn't control his own party. It only took a few dozen Likud caucus members to make him face the truth. They succeeded, and fairly easily, in preventing him from appointing the man he wanted, his associate Yossi Shelly, as the director-general of the Likud movement.

Netanyahu's embarrassment and capitulation were barely reported in the news media, which misguidedly dealt with this event as an internal partisan dispute of little importance. Instead, it covered extensively the sexual harassment affair of journalist Emmanuel Rosen and the zigzagging of Finance Minister Yair Lapid on the way to having the state budget approved.

In fact, the scuttling of the Shelly appointment is nothing short of a warning sign for Netanyahu, who is losing ground on his own political turf. It is an ill-boding sign when a prime minister, who has just started his term, is unable to convince a few dozen party caucus members to toe the line.

Those who have been watching closely the power constellation in the Likud party in recent years, and specifically after the recent elections [Jan. 22] might be under the impression that the party members are inclined to blame Netanyahu for the poor electoral results following the merger with the Israel Beiteinu slate. The bon ton in the Likud is that Netanyahu sold out to former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman's Russian party only to keep his reign. By his actions — they allege — he caused a scandalous loss of parliament seats. There's great anger at Netanyahu, and it's trickling down to all levels of the Likud party. Ministers and Knesset members working the party base are familiar with the voices and the disrespectful comments that the prime minister elicits from the activists. This is a combination of anger and a general understanding that this is Netanyahu's last term as prime minister. And that instantly makes him a "lame duck," at least within his party, and also a weak chairman.