Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had less than a day of grace before learning that his great achievement — increasing the size of his Likud party and the right-wing ultra-Orthodox bloc by three seats — had come crashing down against the cement floor of reality. Once again, he found himself facing off against the man who spent a year keeping him from a fifth term as prime minister, Chairman of Yisrael Beitenu Avigdor Liberman. While Liberman is not Netanyahu’s top rival, he holds the keys for Netanyahu reaching a majority coalition. And it looks like this time Liberman will do anything he can to “finish the job,” as he sees it, and “remove” Netanyahu from the prime minister’s office.

In the two days immediately following the election, Liberman kept his silence and held his cards close to his chest. By March 5, he was already back in the ring with a renewed vigor and all sorts of bad news for Netanyahu. At the end of a party meeting that he called, Liberman announced that Yisrael Beitenu had decided to advance two new laws, including one that would prevent any Knesset member under indictment from being tasked with forming a new government. Sources close to Liberman noted that he would recommend to President Reuven Rivlin that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz be tasked with forming the next government.

Netanyahu has 58 seats in his right-wing ultra-Orthodox bloc. His opponents — the Blue and White party, Yisrael Beitenu, the United Left List of Labor-Gesher-Meretz and the Arab Joint List — have 62 seats. This is an “Anyone but Netanyahu” coalition. Its members have virtually nothing in common except for wanting to get rid of Netanyahu. Liberman’s plan is to have the president task Gantz with forming a government, while at the same time amending a Basic Law so that Netanyahu would be blocked from forming a government because he is indicted on criminal charges. If necessary, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud party) will also be deposed so that he does not slow down the new legislation. According to this plan, Gantz would head a minority government with outside support from the Joint List and Yisrael Beitenu.

While Liberman’s plan to get rid of Netanyahu seems promising on paper, the chances of it actually happening are slim. Legislation targeting an individual is problematic, particularly when done right after an election in order to remove a particular person from the political arena. Furthermore, it is not at all clear that all the members of the Joint List would support the move — it will be remembered that after the September 2019 election, the three Knesset members from the Balad faction refused to recommend Gantz to the president.