Opposition chairman Isaac Herzog took the stand in the Knesset the evening of May 14 and surprised lawmakers, even those of his own party.

Having failed to convince the public during the election campaign and its aftermath that he was sincere in pledging not to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Herzog went on the offensive. Suddenly he was sounding unfettered and sincere when he suggested that the prime minister appoint someone from his Likud Party as foreign minister because he, Herzog, had no intention of entering such a losing government.

Netanyahu himself sat in the plenary, occasionally staring at Herzog’s burst of assertiveness. The prime minister looked tired, distracted and lonely. His fourth government was sworn in after a two-hour delay, without one iota of festivity. He appeared to be taken by surprise by this new Buji (Herzog) whom he had planned to appoint as his foreign minister — if and when he expands his government.

Up until the very last few days, Herzog was carefully circumspect with Netanyahu. Although he did say, repeatedly, that he would not join Netanyahu’s government, he sounded unconvincingly lackluster. So much so, that he came under public criticism from within his own party and was accused of abandoning the opposition arena to Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid. Any outside observer would have been convinced that Lapid was the leader of the opposition, Knesset member Itzik Shmuli said this week in an interview with Al-Monitor.