All the hours that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent with newspaper editorial boards over the past two weeks add up to a far greater number than the number of hours that Foreign Minister Netanyahu has dedicated to the State of Israel’s foreign affairs. In meetings with journalists, Netanyahu explained the prolonged lack of a full-time foreign minister as a result of his desire to save the vacancy for Zionist Camp leader Isaac Herzog. Although both denied an Aug. 19 Channel 2 television report about a secret meeting they held in Caesarea, Herzog still has his eye on the empty foreign minister’s office in Jerusalem’s Givat Ram neighborhood.
Netanyahu finds it convenient to keep the head of the opposition in the wings as a potential foreign minister. How can Herzog attack the government’s settlement policy, for example, if tomorrow he may be tasked with explaining to the world that Israel is entitled to build on Palestinian land? How can he join critics of Israel’s West Bank occupation when his main rival in the opposition, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, is constantly breathing down his neck and running around the world to face off against anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions activists? This is why the crumbling Palestinian leadership is left with no Israeli partner except for the small Meretz party and the sidelined Joint List.