Israel/Palestine

Herzog’s weeks of agonizing over whether to join the government have badly undermined his party colleagues’ faith in him. “He’s a dead horse,” one said on Tuesday. “This latest move has turned him into a leader without a party. He has no idea what fire he’ll come under at the next faction meeting.”

MK Miki Rosenthal (Labor), a vocal opponent of joining the government, assailed Herzog in similar terms on his Facebook page. “Herzog’s holding a fire sale,” he wrote. “He’s willing to crawl into Netanyahu’s government almost unconditionally.”

“The legitimacy he’s given Netanyahu’s government has to a large extent undermined our ability to criticize it in the future,” Rosenthal added. “Who will believe us?”

Only one Zionist Union MK, Eitan Broshi, has publicly expressed willingness to join the government, and at least 14 (including all five Hatnuah MKs) are adamantly opposed.

It wasn’t long ago that Herzog said that no decent person would enter Netanyahu’s government. It would be interesting to know how he perceives himself today.