Three Israeli politicians are competing to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They are Yair Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid party that is polling in second place after Netanyahu’s Likud; Gideon Saar, chair of the New Hope party that he formed recently as a right-wing alternative to the Likud party he quit; and Yamina party leader Naftali Bennett, who insists Netanyahu must be replaced but refuses to promise that he will not join a Netanyahu-led government.
These three contenders know they will have to cooperate at the moment of truth, to constitute a blocking bloc against Netanyahu. Still, no one came up with a formula to untangle the growing complexities and contradicting ambitions ahead of the March 23 elections. That is, until Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beitenu party, delivered a simple proposal. Whichever one of us gets the most votes, he told the others, will be the candidate of the anti-Netanyahu bloc to form Israel’s next government.
