Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sworn followers are beginning to wonder if he has begun to lose it. Netanyahu’s people promised a "dramatic announcement" on primetime TV, but his appearance on the evening of Jan. 7 was far from it and very far from what he usually delivers.
Netanyahu is one of the best orators in the history of Israeli politics who knows how to steal the show with magnetic and impressive performances. On Monday evening he did just the opposite: This was a pale, unconvincing, frightened Netanyahu who looked like a trapped animal surrounded by hunters. Still, it is possible that it was precisely the impression that Netanyahu wanted to make. He knows how to manipulate his constituents' emotions and motivate them to try to save him; as he did on the eve of the last elections in March 2015.
