The way things looked on the morning of Dec. 2, Israel was headed toward early elections. Less than two years after its inception, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s third government is falling apart — at the prime minister’s own initiative. The elections should be held in the spring and the fragmented, conflicted Israeli political system will try to reinvent itself. Contacts are being pursued to unite the center-left bloc, to unite the right bloc (Netanyahu and HaBayit HaYehudi leader Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, for instance), while the keys remain in the hands of Yisrael Beitenu leader Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman. Will he join Netanyahu before or after the elections as he did in the past, or will he go for broke this time and take a quantum leap to become a major kingpin in the premiership contest?
Yvet (Liberman) is heading for the second option. On Nov. 28, he revealed his updated (peace) plan. On Dec. 3, he is scheduled to attend the Ministerial Council meeting of foreign ministers at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, where he will present his plan to anyone interested. This coming weekend, he will visit Washington, participate in the Saban Forum and meet high-level officials in the US administration. Here, too, his new diplomatic plan based on the “regional arrangement” concept will head the list of topics for discussion.