Netanyahu’s coalition rivals prepare for battle
Political figures on the right are jockeying for position to lead Israel's right wing in anticipation of a police investigation and other issues forcing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down.
In addition to the routine chaos that infuses politics in Israel, the country now faces a perfect storm. Three powerful forces have simultaneously appeared, colliding and potentially causing a political earthquake of the type that shook Israeli politics in 2005, when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon split the Likud to create Kadima. The three are the advanced criminal investigations that threaten to bring down Benjamin Netanyahu's government, Donald Trump’s surprising victory in the 2016 US presidential election and the forthcoming report by the state comptroller on 2014's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, which has already resulted in a barrage of recriminations, especially on the right.
The investigations into Netanyahu are now at an advanced stage. The chief of police, Commissioner Roni Alsheich, said on Jan. 22 that the police have “already reached their conclusions’’ and are now in the process of collecting evidence. According to him, the investigation will only take a few more weeks, but there are some who dispute that. The investigations have branched out in many different directions, leading the police to some surprising places. In the past, Netanyahu appeared to have at least nine lives, but now it seems the situation has spun out of his control. A full-fledged war to succeed him is being waged behind the scenes within the Likud and beyond.
