Ditching 'statesman' playbook and soft-right voters, Netanyahu bets on Haredim and his base

On the face of it, Netanyahu's expected move ahead of the elections would be a classic pursuit of statesmanship or centrism, even if only for appearance's sake, in order to keep soft-right voters within reach. However, every sign indicates that he has chosen a completely different path.

Haaretz
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Ditching 'statesman' playbook and soft-right voters, Netanyahu bets on Haredim and his base

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On the face of it, Netanyahu's expected move ahead of the elections would be a classic pursuit of statesmanship or centrism, even if only for appearance's sake, in order to keep soft-right voters within reach. However, every sign indicates that he has chosen a completely different path.

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Ravit Hecht

06:00 AM • July 08 2026 IDT

Some Likud members are saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is furious at Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi. Karhi was behind the wording of a resolution saying the cabinet won't honor a Supreme Court ruling on convening the governing body of the Second Authority for Television and Radio. In their view, the constitutional crisis has snowballed into something bigger than Netanyahu wanted.

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