Back then, in the innocent days before the war, what consumed Edelstein and the Israeli public was Netanyahu\u2019s inability to form a government through four straight election cycles. Edelstein\u2019s argument was blunt: if Likud didn\u2019t replace Netanyahu, the country would be stuck in an endless loop.<\/p>\n
In that old world, where COVID and fractious politics were the biggest problems, Edelstein believed he was the solution. Once he realized Netanyahu would crush him in a leadership race, he backed down and fell in line. But it was too late. When the party held its primaries to determine its Knesset slate, Edelstein fell from the top to 17th place.<\/p>\n
Though Netanyahu made him pay, shutting him out of the cabinet, he did hand his would-be rival the chairmanship of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee \u2014 but then stripped that from him in the summer of 2025.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n The removal of Edelstein, who had refused to accede to Haredi demands regarding a bill regulating military draft exemptions, was a signal to the ultra-Orthodox parties that Netanyahu was serious about doing good by them.<\/p>\n \t The instant Edelstein\u2019s departure from Likud became public this weekend, Netanyahu\u2019s senior adviser Topaz Luk fired off a mocking tweet implying his exit didn\u2019t bother the party one bit, just as former minister Limor Livnat\u2019s departure<\/a> hadn\u2019t bothered it back in 2014.<\/p>\n A well-worn exit ramp<\/p>\n Since the exit of Livnat, a former communications minister who was supplanted by Miri Regev as the party\u2019s top-ranking woman, the list of senior Likud figures who\u2019ve resigned or been pushed out has expanded. Every election cycle, Netanyahu has found a way to clear out whichever Likud heavyweights struck him as too moderate, too independent or simply too competent.<\/p>\n Gideon Sa\u2019ar, Ze\u2019ev Elkin, and Tzachi Hanegbi are remembered for defecting, then crawling back to become political zombies hanging around the king\u2019s court<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Moshe Kahlon, Dan Meridor, and Benny Begin all left or were forced out. Gideon Sa\u2019ar, Ze\u2019ev Elkin, and Tzachi Hanegbi are remembered for defecting, then crawling back to become political zombies hanging around the king\u2019s court. Some managed to stick around as the eternal leader\u2019s doormat by using flattery and keeping their heads down. Sa\u2019ar and Elkin, in particular, may yet end up paying with a rocket-propelled exit from politics, punishment for having once admired Netanyahu too much.<\/p>\n \t Yoav Gallant stands out as the exception on Netanyahu\u2019s list of the discarded \u2014 he was fired mid-term, part of a much longer pattern of Netanyahu clashing with nearly every defense minister who\u2019s ever served under him.<\/p>\n \t Former minister Ofir Akunis was tossed the consolation prize of consul general in New York. When he later angled for the chairmanship of Keren Hayesod \u2013 United Israel Appeal, Netanyahu blocked him \u2014 and now Akunis has essentially nowhere to go back to.<\/p>\n Gilad Erdan fared little better. Once a genuinely popular figure near the top of Likud, he was sent by Netanyahu to the most senior diplomatic posts America has to offer \u2014 ambassador to both the UN and the US \u2014 though in the end he only held the first job.<\/p>\n \t When his term wrapped and he came home, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz personally blocked his bid to chair Israel Aerospace Industries. They preferred to leave that critical post empty for 18 months \u2014 in the middle of a war \u2014 rather than hand it to him.<\/p>\n Erdan, it seems, simply doesn\u2019t fit into the party\u2019s chorus of yes-men, exemplified by Likud MK Tally Gotliv. So now he\u2019s being pushed toward building a new party \u2014 one that hopes to pull in voters from the right\u2019s more statesmanlike, dignified flank, a cadre the Likud could badly use.<\/p>\n Watch the minnows<\/p>\n There\u2019s a case that all of this is simply how politics works. Senior departures tend to cluster right before elections rather than mid-term, once the person leaving concludes every door is closed and there\u2019s no path back to power. That\u2019s opportunism, not ideology.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s a counter-case too: In other parties, defections have ended political careers outright, not launched new parties that chip away at the mothership. Kahlon, Avigdor Liberman, Sa\u2019ar, Elkin, and Begin all ate away at Likud\u2019s edges before some crawled back.<\/p>\n \t So what happens to a frustrated Edelstein now? He\u2019ll most likely team up with Erdan. So far, neither man is behaving like someone consumed by revenge \u2014 not the way Sa\u2019ar was for years, when he said harsher things about Netanyahu than any opposition figure ever did. Instead, they look like politicians chasing something almost extinct: substance, seriousness, a fair fight \u2014 bordering on gentlemanly.<\/p>\n Which is almost funny, because nothing of that spirit survives in Israeli politics anymore \u2014 certainly not in the cannibalistic right-wing bloc.<\/p>\n Still, Edelstein was onto something real back in 2021, when he first considered running against Netanyahu. In that same \u201cMeet the Press\u201d interview, he put it plainly: \u201cFour times Likud was the largest faction in the Knesset \u2014 and four times we failed to form a government.\u201d<\/p>\n In the 2022 election, Netanyahu\u2019s maximalist right-wing coalition landed at 64 seats for one reason: Meretz failed to clear the electoral threshold. Had Meretz cleared it, Netanyahu would still be stuck today at 58 or 59 seats \u2014 60 on a good day \u2014 and we might still be cycling through elections.<\/p>\n Which is exactly why the anti-Netanyahu bloc needs to keep its eyes on the small parties that might siphon votes without clearing the threshold themselves. In polls, the pro-opposition bloc currently leads Netanyahu\u2019s presumed coalition by five or six seats. But if a party like Ra\u2019am falls short of the threshold, the whole calculation collapses \u2014 and Netanyahu wins again.<\/p>\n The new right-leaning parties now taking shape \u2014 Edelstein and Erdan, who could join with Ayelet Shaked; as well as a speculative alliance between Yoaz Hendel\u2019s Reservists party, Benny Gantz\u2019s Blue and White and political newcomer Dedy Simhi \u2014 could draw votes from Likud\u2019s fringes and from the political center.<\/p>\n And should one or more of them manage to clear the electoral threshold and make it into the Knesset, they might well incline to partner with Netanyahu, offering him a way to move toward centrist coalition partners and away from far-right figures like Itamar Ben Gvir or anti-Zionist parties like United Torah Judaism.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this,<\/strong> please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community.<\/strong> Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t
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\n\t\tChairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuli Edelstein, delivers a statement to the media on the military draft law at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, July 15, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n\n
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\n\t\tNew Hope party chairman Gideon Sa\u2019ar (left) and Housing Minister Ze\u2019ev Elkin speak during a faction meeting at the Knesset on June 20, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/whatsapp_image_2023-07-04_at_18.40.31_1_-640x400.jpeg\")
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\n\t\tPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (R) visit a military post near Jenin, July 4, 2023. At left is IDF General Yehuda Fox. (Haim Zach\/GPO)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP23303816727339-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tIsrael\u2019s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan wears a yellow Star of David that reads \u201cNever Again\u201d in honor of those killed in the unprecedented assault by Hamas, which triggered an ongoing war, as he addresses members of the UN Security Council at United Nations headquarters October 30, 2023. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez\/AP)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/F130314YS16-e1566912626486-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tYisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman (L) shakes hands with Likud lawmaker Yuli Edelstein at the Knesset on March 14, 2013. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tWe can’t do this work alone.\t\t\t<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-4-200x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"\/")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\tYes, I’ll join\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n