Amit Segal: Only One Way to Bring Down Netanyahu

Political analyst Amit Segal addressed the grim state of the opposition camp in his weekly column for Israel Hayom, warning that recent developments point to trouble ahead for those hoping to unseat the prime minister.

"Despair and apathy are spreading through the camp in the past week, an ominous sign for the chances of replacing the government," Segal wrote. "In a parallel universe, the decision would be to wake up the campaign."

"But that's an impossible strategy, because the only chance to bring about Netanyahu's fall is when his voters are indifferent. If they wake up and get to the polls at the rate of previous elections, he will probably be prime minister again," he explained.

Segal continued by outlining another potential turning point in the campaign: "Assuming the reasonable assumption that the dream of 61 seats is cut short, we find ourselves not far from another possible pivot point in the campaign: the moment when the Netanyahu bloc has one more mandate than the opposition bloc. In such a case, even the initiative to form a government with the Arabs abstaining from outside will no longer help."

"There will be a need for active support from Ra'am, abstention from Balad and perhaps also from Goldknopf in order to establish a temporary, shaky and hated government. On the other side, of course, will stand the fear of going to elections again, after the opposition achieved an overwhelming majority, with Netanyahu still prime minister," he wrote.

Segal concluded with an anecdote: "What would you do in such a case, I asked a senior figure in the bloc the day before yesterday. This is a choice between bad and very bad. He corrected me: between Ra'am and very bad."