Is a return to power in Netanyahu’s grasp?

‘Netanyahu’s coming back soon, and he’ll be back with a vengeance!’ Simcha Rothman’s eyes flashed as he made his bold prediction. The normally mild-mannered lawyer, an ultra-nationalist Knesset member, was convinced. ‘He’s coming back and it’s all the left-wing’s fault for demonising him. If it wasn’t for them, the right-wing would have found a different leader by now. But the left made him into an icon and much more dangerous.’

Will Rothman be vindicated soon? It’s been a year since Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, was forced into opposition by an eclectic coalition of parties united only by their determination to keep him out office.

At 72, and 35 years after entering politics (15 of which he served as prime minister), his desire for power is unabated. ‘Bibi likes to tell people he could easily go and make billions in the private sector, but the truth is that he has no life outside politics,’ says a member of his inner circle.