Two weeks have passed since Benjamin Netanyahu left the prime minister’s office and assumed his new title as leader of the opposition. However, anyone who has followed Israeli politics over these dramatic two weeks will have noticed that Netanyahu continues to send the message that there was no change of government in Israel after all, and that new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett did not just enter the toughest, most complicated job in the entire Middle East.
Netanyahu’s secretary continues calling him “prime minister.” So do Knesset members from the Likud. Netanyahu even met with the former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the prime minister’s residence, even though he no longer holds that title. As a result, the current prime minister’s office was forced to reach an agreement with Mr. Netanyahu’s office that Netanyahu and his family would move out by July 10, about a month after leaving office, and that he would not hold any official meetings in the residence until then.
Netanyahu may no longer have the title of prime minister — a title he held for the past 12 years —but he insists on acting as if it is still his. He no longer has the same office and entourage as he once did, but he continues releasing dramatic statements, criticizing meetings on Iran between Israeli officials and the US administration. Evidently, all of this is intended to convince his followers— and himself — that his fall from power is not real, or that it is some kind of technical glitch or nightmare that will soon be over. Then the Likud will return to power, and everything will go back to being just the way it was.
While Netanyahu keeps appearing on the public stage, sidelining what had happened to him, the Likud party has started to prepare itself for a war of succession. On one side is Netanyahu, working hard to entrench himself in power and bolster his status within the Likud, by pushing for a primary in a matter of months to decide who will head the party. On the other side are senior Likud officials and former ministers, who oppose this move.
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