Netanyahu Sees Liberman As Key to Likud's Future

It's fair to say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pining for his previous term.

He had it easier then. The coalition was homogeneous and submissive, and let him sit back in comfort without confronting him with tough challenges. His political allies were a group of yes-men, and all in all, life was good. Much has already been said about how difficult it is for Netanyahu to view his current partners, Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, as people he can rely on (despite Lapid having recently been doing his utmost to prove to Netanyahu that he, like former defense minister Ehud Barak, can toe the line and be compliant without posing challenges).

And yet, despite all of the above, there is certainly one thing from the 18th Knesset that the prime minister does not miss: the “race to the right” involving several members of his party that tortured him throughout his previous term.

Netanyahu is convinced that the obsessive struggle by the members of his party in the previous term over who would be the most hard-line right-winger cost the Likud party many seats in these last elections. It goes without saying, however, that everything begins with the identity of the electorate: Likud members who vote in the primaries for the party’s list for the Knesset.