Understanding Bennett And Shaked

The Leeds’ Jews had quite a few eccentrics amongst them. Mr Schiffer ruled the roost. But he was not the only one ‘a bit off the wall.’
Another celebrated eccentric was a certain gentleman whose name I will not reveal who habitually set fire to his failing enterprises. His enterprises always started with great enthusiasm and whimpered out into incipient bankruptcy. With alarming regularity, his businesses failed to make money. But there was always a solution at hand. He would torch his establishments then collect the fire insurance and start all over again. It was quite a smart wheeze. Suspect as they may, the authorities could never catch him.
One day the police discovered his Achilles heel. His wife was not as intelligent or calculating as he was. She proved this by angrily accusing the police officer who came to wake up the whole family, yet again. She snarled at the poor copper, ‘couldn’t you wait till the morning to tell us that the factory has been burnt down? ‘
Leeds Jewry, maybe not jokingly, was once described as being divided into three sectors: those who went to university; those who went to the markets and those who went to prison. Our hero went from the second category to the third. Nevertheless, at the time it sounded like a very bright idea.
But what is the point of being a Jew and undergoing so much persecution if you cannot have a bright idea? Never mind if it goes completely wrong; we Jews understand that bright ideas sometimes have a downside. Just look at the idea the Jewish lad from Nazareth had. We should never forget Karl Marks who may have been a Sheigetz, but he was a Jew. There we see two ideas with downsides.
All this brings me to discuss the downside of a very bright idea the two aspiring politicians had in Israel this week. Bennett and Shaked had worked with Bibi Netanyahu. They were both quite intelligent and very ambitious. With Bibi in power, there was no real way forward. So, if you cannot move forwards then move sideward. And that is what they did. They found a well-established once successful political party. This party had lost both its identity and its soul. It was like a once lovely lady who had been courted by the right and the left. Now she had aged, not with too much dignity and was left in a place which she wasn’t sure where she was.
Bennett and Shaked virtually took the party over. They gave a new direction and gave new hope. As the idea was to topple Bibi eventually, they realised they had to be ideologically close to Bibi. They managed this quite successfully and soon enough were in power along with Bibi. Surprisingly as senior ministers not only did not fail but they were quite successful. Probably much more so than many of the ministers in Bibi’s Likud.
But the downside was to show itself very quickly. Bibi, like our hero from Leeds, was showing signs of incipient bankruptcy. Bibi’s bankruptcy wasn’t monetary but a moral bankruptcy Frustratingly for both Bennett and Shaked this bankruptcy wasn’t going to unseat Bibi. And if it did, by some strange coincidence their adopted party were going to be on the same and wrong side of history as was Bibi. It was at this point that B and S decided to burn their own political house down and start a new political enterprise – a new party. The straightforward concept was that they could then freely criticise Bibi. When he fell, they could enjoy the benefits. If he didn’t fall, they knew fine well that the bruised and battered Bibi would have no recourse other than to invite them into his future coalition.
And this is where they got it wrong. B and S considered that Bibi would be so battered that he would have no alternative. What they didn’t take into account was that their new party was going to attract votes from two parties already in the coalition. These two parties were facing a problem of passing the minimum number of votes to get into the Knesset. If these parties are to fail to gain the minimum number of votes they will lose all their votes. The disappearance of the two parties will mean that nobody, even Bibi will be able to form any coalition that can govern. If the two parties disappear, in all probability we will see a national unity government.
The downside of all this manipulation is that in any national government, all the parties will completely oppose any inclusion of B and S’s new party. B and S have made far too many enemies.
The new vehicle of ambition will hit a brick wall on its test drive. The founders, B and S, will sit in the political equivalent of jail- the opposition.
Not the loyal opposition.
B and S don’t do loyalty.