Israeli law considers the vote over the state budget as a vote of confidence in the government. Thus, with the 2021-22 budget scheduled to be voted on Nov. 4, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces one of his most critical junctures in the current era. A Knesset approval will cement the future of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government for at least two years, meaning that Netanyahu’s prospects of returning to power in the foreseeable future will shrink to almost nil. On the other hand, if Netanyahu comes up with some sort of political ploy or a miracle occurs and he is able to deprive the government of the majority it needs to pass the budget, the Knesset will be automatically dissolved. In such an eventuality, Netanyahu will be crowned in an instant, at least in the eyes of the public, as Israel’s next prime minister.

Netanyahu obviously knows this. His many followers do, too. His successor Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman and Justice Minister Gideon Saar are also well aware of the stakes. The budget vote is a decisive battle of historic proportions waged by a fragile but determined multiparty coalition against the most powerful politician ever to operate in Israel, a man without inhibitions capable of doing anything it takes to turn back his wheel of fortune and make another comeback, against all odds.

The first and most prominent victim of Netanyahu’s comeback salvation campaign is Knesset member Mansour Abbas, whose Islamist Ra’am party is the first Arab party to participate fully in an Israeli government. Just months after engaging with him in a highly publicized romance, Netanyahu has turned Abbas into the ultimate demon in recent weeks.

At the time, Netanyahu, who needed Ra’am’s four Knesset members for his desperate bid to form a government following the March 2021 elections, courted Abbas and activated his many associates in the press and social media to legitimize him as a potential partner. Netanyahu’s well-oiled propaganda machine ran around the clock to convince his voters that the time had come to reach out to Israel’s Arab minority, that Abbas does not support terrorism and that all Abbas wants is to take part in the democratic political game — in other words, it was high time for political coexistence.