Photo: Flickr / Tzipi Livni

Bernard Avishai in Open Zion:

Netanyahu has now offered Mofaz his ribs and handed him a shiv. Will Mofaz have the daring to thrust? [...]

Of course, Netanyahu is counting on Mofaz acting like a politician; Mofaz didn’t get to be Chief-of-Staff by being politically obtuse. If he wants, he can just invoke the Iran threat and call for continuing unity. Netanyahu is meanwhile scrambling to supersede the Plessner committee with intra-coalition negotiations conducted by himself. [...]

[I]f Mofaz does stay then he deserves to be irrelevant. He has a golden opportunity to become a national leader simply by going back to the opposition, leaving it to the media to roast Netanyahu for ideological creepiness, while valorizing Mofaz’s statesmanship. He becomes Mr. Center.

The ongoing Tal law negotiations have the potential to upset Bibi’s previously unbreakable position at the top of the Israeli political tree. It would be a ballsy move, but a good one — letting this government fall because it couldn’t/wouldn’t legislate for fairness in Israel wouldn’t be a bad thing.