When President Reuven Rivlin told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rival Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz on Dec. 4, "It seems to me that you want to go crazy," he was expressing the prevailing view among most Israeli analysts and pundits. “If that is what you want, go crazy! But why drag the people of Israel with you?” Rivlin asked, urging the duo once again to join forces in order to “return Israel to the correct path."
The politicians and pollsters are already busy playing the blame game, ranking in order those most to blame for the “insanity” of holding the country’s third elections within less than a year. The financial papers are detailing the costs of the election and estimating the loss to the economy of the legally mandated election-day holiday. But what is the essence of the "correct path" for "the people" — the path that Netanyahu and Gantz are blocking? What is the alternative to the newly scheduled March 2020 voting? If another round of elections is a mark of "craziness,” is the alternative Rivlin is urging — i.e., a government with a politician indicted for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, the archenemy of all the country’s law enforcement authorities — an example of sanity? Rivlin had tried to advance a unity government deal of a rotation agreement between Netanyahu and Gantz, with Netanyahu declaring incapacity to function as premier after his indictment. But would such a deal have liberated Israeli society from the blinded followers surrounding Netanyahu? Obviously, even if Netanyahu would have taken the deal and declared incapacity, his dark ways and spirit would have hovered over Likud legislators and ministers.
