The political blockade in Israel - intensified after the September 17 elections and threatening third elections in less than a year - has registered two movements of unforeseeable consequences this weekend.

On the one hand, the decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to temporarily appoint his great rival in the nationalist right Naftali Bennett as Minister of Defense. The approval this morning of Netanyahu's proposal in the Government to function s-with the vote against a minister of his Likud party- has only one objective: his political survival .

Fearing that Bennett would accept a possible offer from the leader of the Blue and White centrist party, Benny Gantz , who hastened his last ten days to try to form a government, Netanyahu swallows a new "political toad." Only in this way can one understand the delivery of the important portfolio that was in his possession to the deputy who did not discharge in recent years and dismissed in June as Minister of Education .

On the other, the ultimatum launched by party leader Israel Beitenu, Avigdor Lieberman , for the formation of a unity government that avoids new elections. While Netanyahu is required to detach himself from his bloc consisting of two ultra-Orthodox and ultra-nationalist parties (55 of the 120 deputies of the Knesset), Gantz asks him to access the formula by which Netanyahu will be the first in the head of government of rotation Otherwise, Lieberman warns, it will support a minority government from whom it accepts its conditions that on the other hand entail the breaking of electoral promises.

In the surroundings of Netanyahu they reject the ultimatum under the belief that Lieberman - with an anti-religious but also right-wing agenda - will not integrate a Gantz Government from the left supported by the Arab Joint List (13 seats). According to the Likud, the possibility of a unity government is removed.

This Sunday, the conservative leader has appealed in favor of a unity government while accusing Lieberman of "being coordinated with Blue and Bank and with the Joint List."

Netanyahu political maneuver

They are critical moments for the political and personal future of the man who has been in power since 2009 . Pending the verdict of Attorney General Avijai Mandelblit on whether he takes him to trial for alleged corruption, Netanyahu appoints Bennett to shore up his block. With this measure and the pact for an alliance in the current Knesset, Netanyahu achieves that his party has two seats more than Blue and White (35 by 33) and fulminates any possibility that Bennett falls into Gantz's arms as he feared in the last days.

Netanyahu's fear causes Bennett to obtain the dream portfolio despite the fact that his training only has three deputies belonging to the most liberal sector of the religious ultranationalist list that was presented at the September 17 elections.

When a few days ago they asked the minister and former officer Yoav Galant (Likud) about the possibility of Bennett being appointed Minister of Defense, he replied: "I don't think Netanyahu makes this mistake . " Today he has voted against the appointment stating that "it does not serve the security of Israel when we are in a very sensitive and complex time in terms of security."

"As usual, Netanyahu makes a cynical appointment for partisan reasons thinking only of his chair and not of the good of the security and State of Israel" denounces the centrist Blue and Bank while the leader of the Likud, Tsaji Hanegbi justifies it politically .

It should be remembered that Bennett and his party partner, former Minister of Justice, Ayelet Shaked are the most hated politicians by Netanyahu in recent years. A duo that worked for him when he was head of the opposition. Almost a year ago and following Lieberman's resignation as defense minister alleging "no response to terrorist attacks from Gaza," Bennet demanded the charge. Moreover, he defined Netanyahu's policy before Hamas as "pathetic and failed." "He is a great statesman but has failed before Hamas in Gaza," he said of Netanyahu. In his environment, they replied that Bennett is "irresponsible" and "childish."

With this new internal political maneuver, Netanyahu follows the "Road Map" guided under the principle that he must be prime minister especially if he is brought to trial. For this he has two paths: in the rotation in a coalition with Gantz or new elections that would give him another month in office.

The appointment of Bennett arouses many unknowns, for example if he will follow what he was asking for in the last one and tried a tougher military action against Hamas and Islamic Jihad after every projectile fired from Gaza against southern Israel.

Although he knows that his appointment is temporary and the last word belongs to the prime minister and the head of the Army, Bennett has numerous challenges: to achieve more budgets , the tense situation before Gaza and especially the duel with Iran either before his presence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen or the nuclear issue that has returned to the present with Tehran's gradual decoupling of the agreement signed in 2015 following the abandonment of the US and the restoration of sanctions.

In any case, Bennett completes a few months of vertigo . In May, he was out of politics after his failure in the elections. In November, he is the Minister of Defense.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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