Who will be Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultimate challenger in the next elections? This is not a theoretical question. Israelis could find themselves at the ballot boxes later this year, for the fourth time in 18 months. Netanyahu has been plunging in the polls, with his Likud party losing more than 10 Knesset seats in recent weeks. The latest results indicate that the right-wing bloc of parties and the center-left bloc are back to the tie of the past three elections. Nonetheless, so far, no arrowhead, no anti-Netanyahu alternative has emerged to challenge him.

Over the past year and a half, it was Defense Minister and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz who positioned himself as Netanyahu’s main adversary. But these shoes filled by Gantz, the somewhat limping Netanyahu challenger who led his party through three inconclusive elections, are now empty. With the party splitting over the unity deal with Netanyahu and with the disappointment of followers, his party has few Knesset seats left — both in reality and in the polls.

Other candidates for the challenger’s job, in descending order of their prospects, are centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett, former military chief Gadi Eizenkot, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Liberman. Gantz is last. Popular Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is a new and surprising addition to the list, albeit still not officially so. He is said to be considering a national political run at the head of a new party.

The coveted goal of whoever takes on the perennial mission of beating Netanyahu is to mobilize the mass protest movement sweeping Israel’s streets, towns and bridges in recent weeks. This is no mean feat. The growing wave of protests against the prime minister and his policies consists of many disparate, uncoordinated elements. It lacks a centralized leadership of the type that led the summer 2011 socio-economic protest against the Netanyahu government. Among the demonstrators this summer are Israelis protesting the pandemic-induced economic crisis, others demanding Netanyahu’s resignation over his corruption indictment, still others angry at the handling of the health crisis and even fragments of the political left caught up in the inertia of opposition to Netanyahu’s annexation plans and other issues.