With Israel dissolving its parliament and starting a new campaign season, ALL ISRAEL NEWS Editor-in-Chief Joel Rosenberg predicted the comeback of Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming election.
“We are heading into a very messy political season, right when Iran is getting closer and closer to breaking out to nuclear-weapons capability,” Rosenberg told Sean Spicer on his Newsmax show.
He also noted the all-too-frequent elections that highlight the political quagmire in which the country has found itself.
“I’ve only been an Israeli citizen for eight years and I’ve already voted five times, and we’re getting to the sixth” election, Rosenberg said.
Nevertheless, Rosenberg believes that Netanyahu, the current opposition leader, will get the most votes and a first shot at building a coalition in November.
Rosenberg said the new Israeli prime minister leading the current interim government into elections is Yair Lapid, who is “not a left-winger,” although Netanyahu would claim otherwise.
“Bibi Netanyahu will say differently and say that he is a left-winger, but Yair Lapid actually has a lot of experience in government. He has built the second largest political party in Israel, and he has been serving in the government in the security cabinets for many years,” Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg said Lapid is surrounded by a good team, including Defense Minister Benny Gantz and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Bennett promised to stay available to help Lapid lead the country through the transition period.
Bennett recently announced that he will not run in Israel’s next elections. Lapid, however, is hoping for the chance to build another coalition.
“In a parliamentary system, Lapid cannot win,” Rosenberg explained. “He has the second-largest party. But what he needs is a coalition. The challenge for Lapid is that Israel has become a center-right country … and Lapid is centrist, but he draws mostly from the center-left.”
“Netanyahu is center-right,” Rosenberg said. “The problem with Netanyahu is not that there’s not enough people who agree with him in our parliament. It’s that he stabbed so many of them in the back. They don’t want to serve with Netanyahu any longer. That is why we’re going to the fifth round of elections.”
“It’s like having [former U.S. President Donald] Trump as the only guy, except that everybody around him won’t work with him anymore,” Rosenberg said of Netanyahu. “That might be a little too close to home right now, so maybe that’s not the best analogy.”
Last week, Trump was asked by Wake Up America anchor Rob Finnerty if he intends to endorse Netanyahu.
The former president said he was “disappointed” with Netanyahu but that overall, he liked him and would consider backing him.
“We’ll see what happens. I don’t know that that’s going to happen. He disappointed me in certain ways, but he also did a very good job in other ways,” Trump said.
Joel Rosenberg said he thinks that an endorsement from Trump would matter in Israel, since he is very much appreciated in the country.
“People really love Donald Trump – for all the challenges that he faces (in the U.S.). People don’t see that there (in Israel). They see that he was the most pro-Israel president in history,” he said.
When asked to predict the outcome of the coming election and “place a bet,” Rosenberg said: “If I were a betting man at one of Trump’s casinos, I would probably put my money 60-40 on Netanyahu to come back. He has taken his main rival – Bennett – off the field.”
This article originally appeared on ALL ISRAEL NEWS and is reposted with permission.
