The last time someone from the liberal camp gave up on a chance to form a government, the opportunity was lost for over a decade. Throughout that entire time, the country’s leader was drawn from the hard right instead. Kadima leader Tzipi Livni was supposed to re-create Ehud Olmert’s coalition after he was forced to resign over suspicions of criminal activity in 2008. Everyone knows what happened next. Livni grew disgusted with the way negotiations with the ultra-Orthodox parties were going, and hoped that by advancing the election, she would win enough seats to prevent those parties from making demands that were impossible to meet. But in the February 2009 election, her party, Kadima, won a plurality of just one seat. She found herself unable to form a coalition, and the rest is history. The president tasked Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the new government, which he did. Netanyahu has served as prime minister ever since.
The delusional appointment Nov. 8 of New Right senior right-wing hard-liner Naftali Bennett to the position of defense minister indicates that Netanyahu is determined to ensure his continued role as prime minister.