Zev Chafets
"When Benjamin Netanyahu stood on the podium next to Donald Trump and proclaimed the Deal of the Century to be comparable to the 1948 Declaration of Independence, the Israeli prime minister knew there would be strong opposition from the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Arab League, the European Union and other supporters of the Palestinian cause. He didn't think there would be opposition back home.
The incensed settler leaders will not abandon Bibi - they have nowhere else to go - but they could become an opposition faction within the Likud bloc with the power to stymie a Palestinian state, even the most diminished.
"Netanyahu knew Trump had his back; and so, he believed, did the Israeli public. Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party, was on board with the plan, along with a plurality of his center-left party supporters. Add Bibi's right wing, orthodox bloc to Gantz's secular, upper middle class liberals and you get a nearly wall-to-wall consensus.
"Or so Bibi thought. But this consensus is more fragile than he anticipated." . . .
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