Former minister Chaim Ramon said Tuesday he believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will lose Israel's upcoming election, predicting that Netanyahu will not only fail to remain prime minister but will retire from political life entirely once he is no longer in office.
Speaking on Radio 103FM, Ramon opened by stating plainly that one could already say Netanyahu would not be prime minister after the next election. He went on to explain his reasoning for why he believes Netanyahu is heading toward defeat, while also leveling sharp criticism at the bloc opposing him and at the prosecution in Netanyahu's ongoing corruption trial.
Netanyahu is going to lose, certainly, Ramon said. He predicted that Arab parties would win between 12 and 15 seats following a unification of Arab party lists that excludes Ayman Odeh's Hadash-Ta'al faction. According to Ramon, neither the anti-Bibi camp nor the pro-Bibi camp would reach the 61 seat majority needed to form a government on their own, leaving the anti-Bibi bloc to form a minority government with outside, and possibly inside, support from Arab parties.
What is clear, Ramon added, is that a minority government will be formed, led by one of the leaders of the anti-Bibi bloc, naming his preference as Gadi Eisenkot. Ramon said he believes that once Netanyahu is no longer prime minister, he will retire from politics altogether.
Ramon also criticized the opposition's broader approach to challenging Netanyahu. He argued that the change in government needs to be built on ideological and value based foundations rather than purely personal opposition to Netanyahu himself. Ramon recalled that when he approached members of the Blue and White party in 2019, he told them that Netanyahu viewed Hamas as a strategic asset and urged them to make the case that the real alternative was toppling Hamas.
He went on to argue that over the past decade, Netanyahu's ideological rivals on Gaza policy have effectively adopted Netanyahu's own positions, with virtually all of his opponents supporting the separation between Gaza and Judea and Samaria. According to Ramon, the opposition has staked out an alternative on essentially one point alone, conveying the message that they have no issue with Netanyahu's policies, only with his personal character.
