Earlier this month, the senior Knesset member Gideon Sa’ar left the ruling Likud party to establish a new one, called New Hope. Last week, Ze’ev Elkin—an immigrant from the USSR with unimpeachable right-wing credentials and a reputation as a gifted political tactician—announced that he is joining Sa’ar in the upcoming March elections. Elkin, until now a loyal supporter of Prime Minister Netanyahu, has thus sacrificed a guarantee of a cabinet position in a Likud government for the uncertain prospects of a new political venture. Haviv Rettig Gur observes:
Elkin earned his reputation [as a savvy political operator] the hard way, in legislative sausage-making in Israel’s cutthroat parliament. He is famously the only coalition chairman never to have lost a plenum vote. Or, rather, he lost one vote—the one that took place after he’d rushed out of the parliament building to join his wife in the hospital for the birth of their son.
There’s no magic or mystery to Elkin’s success as coalition chair. He believes in negotiations, loves the cut and thrust of parliamentary wrangling, and has never been afraid to be seen in the Knesset cafeteria hammering out agreements with lawmakers from far-left to far-right, secularist to ḥaredi, Jew and Arab alike. He exchanged jokes happily with the likes of Ahmad Tibi, a far reach across multiple political aisles for both men.
[But] Elkin’s decision reflects more than a single man’s political calculations. The ground is shifting within Likud. The mood has changed. Whether the growing disquiet eventually topples Netanyahu or is soon extinguished in the mobilizing fury of the coming race is anyone’s guess. But it’s there, it’s real, and it’s strong enough to drive some hard choices even among loyal party members.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/zeev-elkin-puts-the-first-serious-chink-in-netanyahus-likud-armor/