Senior Likud figures say Benjamin Netanyahu's best move ahead of the President's consultations is to do nothing: stay out of coalition talks and let Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Gadi Eisenkot try to assemble a government on his own.
"Right now the right strategy for him, and he understands this, is to be passive. Any involvement from him will only make things worse," a Likud source said.
According to a report this morning (Tuesday) by Anna Barsky in Maariv, Likud sources who have spoken with Netanyahu in recent days say he appears "quite at a loss." Still, they believe Netanyahu holds a better opening position than Eisenkot does, precisely because the burden of trying to form a government may fall on his rival. "Right now Eisenkot is walking through a minefield," Likud sources say. "Why should we make it easier for him to walk through that minefield? Let him walk."
The Likud sources explained that any conversation Netanyahu has now with the chareidi parties could be used against him in their negotiations with Eisenkot and the same goes for any possible meeting with a figure close to Ra'am chairman Mansour Abbas. The chareidi parties could tell Eisenkot that Netanyahu is in talks with them, and use that to raise their demands. The source added that if the President assigns the mandate to Netanyahu first, it could actually work against him: it would force him to begin meetings and negotiations immediately, without a clear path to forming a government.
