Will the chair of the right-wing Yamina party, Naftali Bennett, cross the lines to the anti-Netanyahu bloc in return for the role of prime minister?

This is the cruel and painful dilemma facing Bennett as he weighs it against a great temptation. If he joins opponents of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he could find himself within weeks replacing Israel’s invincible prime minister for the past 12 years.

This scenario stems from the seeming willingness by Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party, to support Bennett for the premiership even though his party won 17 Knesset seats in the March 23 elections, while Bennett’s ended up with seven only. Lapid tweeted March 30 that he was willing to consider “painful compromises” in order to form a government of change. “There is nothing I am unwilling to consider, no stone we will not turn, and no option we will not weigh in order to form a government of change and remove Netanyahu …,” he wrote.

If such a scenario pans out, Bennett would become prime minister first and Lapid would take over half way through the government term. The government coalition would include the left-wing Meretz and Labor parties, the Yisrael Beitenu party of Avigdor Liberman and the right-wing Yamina and New Hope party of former Likud stalwart Gideon Saar. Such a constellation would also require cooperation with the Arab Joint List to ensure a Knesset majority (of at least 61 Knesset seats).