Netanyahu Is Selling the Same Product Under a New Brand

Benjamin Netanyahu is the ultimate suitor, and we are currently at the peak of the season. He circles around us, promises mountains and hills, scatters flowers and kisses: the conscription of the ultra-Orthodox, absolute victories, and high-speed trains in every direction. And then we wake up the morning after the elections, a cruel hangover hits us, and we mumble, 'What the hell were we thinking? What will actually be different?'

What is this strange coalition that Netanyahu insists on defining with a collection of words that, until the current campaign, had not yet been connected to each other: 'a broad national government'? Who will join it? Gadi Eisenkot, is he a nationalist? Certainly. He served as Chief of Staff (appointed by Netanyahu), and in this war, three of his family members did not return from the battlefield. But the entire campaign is busy explaining to us that this is a 'weak leftist' who will surrender in any war and establish a Palestinian state. So there is no chance he is a worthy partner for such a government. Who else is a partner? Naftali Bennett, the 'swindler from Ra'anana', the one you cannot trust a single word of? Obviously not. Mansour Abbas? Let's tell the truth: the next government that Benjamin Netanyahu aspires to establish is exactly the same government as the one he has right now. He is selling the same merchandise with different branding.

Let's talk for a moment about the ultra-Orthodox, the central component of Benjamin Netanyahu's future coalition. He knows very well that they are not Zionists, and their disgraceful conduct during the war proved this beyond any doubt. Do the ultra-Orthodox meet this criterion of nationalism? In nationalism, there is both a sense of belonging and a desire for a shared future. Do the ultra-Orthodox feel they belong to what is happening in Israel at this time? To my great regret, regarding a very large part of the ultra-Orthodox, the answer to this question is negative. And therefore, the truth must be told: the next government that Benjamin Netanyahu dreams of establishing is exactly the same government he has today: Likud, Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit, Shas, and United Torah Judaism. He can call it whatever he wants, but in the end, he wants exactly the same thing.

Like a dubious suitor behaving like a 'Tinder Swindler', he is trying to buy our votes through hollow promises. Suddenly, 'Zionist values' have grown on him. Today, Netanyahu is leaking from his closed conversations that in the next government, whoever does not study Torah will be drafted or go to prison. However, the truth is simple: sources in Netanyahu's circle admit that the latest polls reveal what damage the immunity law for ultra-Orthodox deserters has done to him. He is not repenting; he is just spreading spins.

The only solution that can begin to fix the State of Israel after the elections is a broad Zionist government, where everyone sits together. Whoever forms it will be the one who receives the most recommendations, Eisenkot or Netanyahu, and all other seekers of Zionism should join them. Otherwise, any government representing only one side will bring about such a great loss of trust in the other camp that I am not sure we can withstand it.

And after he promised a conscription law today after the elections, let's recall just a small collection of his past election promises: a high-speed train to Kiryat Shmona, a free education law for ages zero to three, a mortgage freeze law, sovereignty in the Jordan Valley, the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar, and more. But above all these are the 2009 elections, in which Netanyahu passionately promised the overthrow of the Hamas regime. If he had broken all the other promises, but kept only this one, how different our lives would have been.