The kippah-wearing politician made his way into the Knesset as the leader of a staunchly right-wing party only to become the savior of the opposing camp.
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| Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in the Knesset | Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun |
The March 23 Knesset elections presented the "Anyone but Bibi" camp with an opportunity to oust then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which it eagerly took, pushing aside all of the principles and morals in its way.
But what's more striking is the mental acrobatics the Left engaged in just in order to coronate Naftali Bennett – the man whom they had despised – as their new leader and Israel's prime minister.
The paradigm shift the Left underwent so that it could embrace Bennett reached the point of self deception. And indeed, the kippah-wearing politician who entered the Knesset on a right-wing platform they loathe is now being cast as a savior. Likewise, they have cut him a lot of slack just so he could come across as an acceptable patriot in their eyes.
An example of this is Yedioth Ahronoth columnist Daniella London-Dekel, who opposes the "occupation" and is in favor of removing Jewish settlements. Last weekend she waxed poetic on Bennett, praising his family, his military service and songwriting skills.
The Left went through a similar transformation in the early 2000s, when it suddenly fell in love with then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon because of his decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
The government's alphabet soup of ideological factions will result in some of its members trying to rationalize to their public on their motives and decisions, to the point of devising a new ideology ex nihilo. They are all going to just talk about how Israelis want unity and having everyone sing Kumbaya under Bennett's auspices.
The contradictions in this government means could mean that even as the health minister tries to improve healthcare for refugees, the interior minister, who represents the other edge of the political spectrum, will enact laws to send those refugees back. When the housing minister promotes construction in Judea and Samaria, the transportation minister will slash budgets for the development of transportation infrastructures in those very areas.
But like everything in life, the small details are what matter. In this case, the public simply doesn't buy the fake harmony and political engineering whose entire purpose was to get a plurality in the Knesset and install Bennett as prime minister.
Dr. Yitzhak Dahan
Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/06/24/how-bennett-became-the-darling-of-the-left/
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