Mazal Tov: A little Naftali Bennett is born, and his name in Israel is Dan Illouz | Gilad Katz
Dan Illouz presented himself as a staunch right-winger and as someone who would guard Benjamin Netanyahu from the right, but gradually distanced himself from the Likud and the national camp. The votes against the coalition and the move to Yisrael Beiteinu completed the path that turned him into a "little Naftali Bennett."
Mazal Tov! In a good and auspicious hour, a little and cute Naftali Bennett was born, his name is Dan Illouz. Most of you probably haven't heard this name, and those who have, I doubt will recognize his face, but one cannot take away from Dan Illouz what he earned with effort and determination: to become a miniature Naftali Bennett.
Like Bennett, Illouz marketed himself as a proud nationalist, fearless, who would go all the way with his faith and national worldview. Like Bennett, Illouz attacked with fury the weak, dangerous, and inhibited left. Like Bennett, Illouz made sure to explain to everyone that he came to guard Benjamin Netanyahu from the right, and thanks to his national values, strong personality, and great wisdom, he would cause Netanyahu to remain fully right-wing.
Like Bennett, Illouz made sounds of a great ideologue. He not only attacked the left, he also argued with his friends on the right and rebuked them for their concessions, flexibility, and inconsistency. Like Bennett, Illouz enjoyed an embrace from the right. Many pointed at him and said: "This is a true and worthy right-wing public representative. With him, we are safe, and of course, he is someone to rely on." In short, Dan Illouz became a little Naftali Bennett.
Until slowly, the pose, the promises, and the slogans began to crack. Of course, Illouz, just like Bennett, immediately clarified that the change did not happen in him, but in others. Illouz, just like Bennett, started blaming everyone — the Prime Minister, his friends in the Likud, the coalition, the law, reality, because just like Bennett, Illouz continued to recite to everyone that he is the true and authentic right, and that no one should preach morality to him.
As with Bennett, so too with Illouz, at first his friends in the national camp were not moved, some even tried to give him the benefit of the doubt because after all, Illouz, like Bennett, said and told and emphasized that he is a right-winger through and through. And so a day passed, a week passed, a month passed, and suddenly, almost without noticing, Illouz, like Bennett, starts spreading statements that harm the national camp. Like Bennett, Illouz also explained his moves as someone trying to save the national camp from itself.
And then the watershed moment arrived, and it always arrives, when Illouz, like Bennett, started voting against his own party and against the national camp, knowing that it endangers the right-wing government. Like Bennett, Illouz also explained that he is doing this because he is the true representative of the national camp, compared to all his friends in the coalition and the government who deviated from the path, and only he, like Bennett, remained loyal to the values of the national camp. At this stage, the rift between Illouz, like Bennett, is already open and clear. The man removed himself from the fold. He not only votes against the national government, even in his inner consciousness, Illouz, like Bennett, disconnected himself from the national camp.
And from there, the road is paved to the most dramatic moment, that moment when all masks are removed and everything is exposed to everyone's eyes. Like Bennett, Illouz also announces and explains that the greatest ideological rivals of the national camp, Yair Golan, Mansour Abbas, Yair Lapid, are a better option for him and for his "national" worldview than his friends until recently from the Likud and the national camp.
And at this exact point, Illouz, like Bennett, will try to prove how right-wing he is by never joining a left-wing party, but only a national party — with Bennett it was the establishment of the Yamina party, while with Illouz, he announced pompously his dramatic joining of Avigdor Lieberman's party, Yisrael Beiteinu.
Because as mentioned, Illouz, like Bennett, is a man of principles, a man of truth, and above all, a man of the national camp. Like Bennett, in Illouz's eyes, it doesn't matter what he does and how he votes, just like Bennett, Illouz lies to himself that he is the true right.
And so we reached last Saturday night and were exposed to one of the most embarrassing, pathetic, and absurd interviews of an Israeli politician in recent times. There sits Dan Illouz, full of himself, satisfied to the heavens that he received 15 seconds of fame, and explains with embarrassing verbal gymnastics that he is more national/right-wing than everyone else, and he will guard the values of the national camp, yada yada yada.
But the truth is much simpler: when you scrape the makeup off Illouz's face and put him in front of one small and direct question — who is preferable in your eyes as a political partner: Yair Golan, who supports the establishment of a Palestinian state, or the Haredim? Illouz explains at length that Yair Golan, who, as we remember, he defined in the not-so-distant past as a person dangerous to the future of the country, is actually not that bad, and there is nothing to worry about because he, Dan Illouz, like Bennett before him, will manage to deal with his new partners, because let's not forget that Dan Illouz is the last man of the national camp, perhaps except for Naftali Bennett...
But in the real and harsh reality, it turns out that Dan Illouz took the same path and crossed the same Rubicon and became an integral part of the left, just like Bennett. As I said — Mazal Tov! A little Naftali Bennett was born, and his name in Israel is Dan Illouz.
The author previously served as the Chief of Staff to the Foreign Minister for Public Diplomacy and as Israel's Consul General in the Southwestern USA.
