Katz's tragedy: The campaign is not over, the live broadcast is

Anyone who watched that segment from 'The Patriots' where Defense Minister Israel Katz was required to prove that he, and no one else, is the 'boss' and therefore can — and must! — fire a general who is praised from both the right and the left, understands how far we have gone.

In the media, there is a demand to decide fates in a live broadcast because it is good for ratings. A minister must align with the mood of the audience because someone correctly identified his pressure gauge and placed the wife of the arrested right-wing activist in the audience. In a live broadcast, when there is no time to deal with facts as Katz initially presented them regarding the alternatives offered to that activist (whose name no one outside of Twitter knows), then new appointments are pulled out.

This situation was a model of everything that is wrong with the primary system in the Likud. The commitment to every minor operative who can in a moment turn you from a favorite of the members into a pariah puts the person entrusted with the security of us all in a bad position.

Katz has already been burned. He was forced to sign a confidentiality certificate regarding MK Tali Gottlieb and paved the way for the filing of an indictment against her, because that is what the law requires — which, to the best of my check, is still above any political consideration — and he paid for it quickly. The Likud did not like it at all, and since then, Katz has been trying to fix it. From Elor Azaria to Avi Bluth, moves are pulled out and the primaries are coming.

The tragedy is twofold: Katz, on one hand, is signed on the two major operations against Iran, led the major arrest operation to purge terrorist camps in the West Bank and the recent moves in Lebanon, alongside the 'farm revolution' in the West Bank which he is signed on with Bezalel Smotrich and Avi Bluth.

Instead of reaping the fruits in the approaching primaries, he is forced to align with radical blackmail that is criticized not only by the left as usual, but also by large parts of the right and the settlement movement. Instead of showing leadership, ignoring the background noise and concentrating on the field he is entrusted with, he is dragged into performances that do not serve him or Israel's security for a moment of applause. The fact that Bluth was expected to finish his role was known to every cabinet minister and the Chief of Staff. The media was in an uproar, there was no dismissal, but the show was bad.

All eyes are on Iran, and it is worth also keeping an eye on the latest political ploy by Hamas intended to force the IDF to withdraw from Gaza. When the Defense Minister is invited to a news panel on the eve of primaries, he should only talk about the significant challenges he is entrusted with.

Every shout from the right, or demand from the audience, should be answered with the following words:

'As the head of the system, I am busy day and night with the Iranian challenge and the campaign in all sectors that has not ended. Excellent people are entrusted with the ongoing management. If they make a mistake, I tell them that face-to-face and not during rating hour. Thank you and goodbye.'