The Likud's Time Bomb

Likud-Wikipedia

It's very deja vu hearing all of the complaints frustrations from veteran, loyal Likud MKs once they recognize that yet again there are hardly any senior positions remaining for them. Those who've worked hard and shown their loyalty to Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu and the Likud, some for decades, have had to accept low-ranking or made-up positions, or none at all, as the good stuff has not only gone to coalition partners but also new and relatively inexperienced Likud MKs. At the same time they're not getting any younger. OK, they're not as old as the newly crowned King Charles of England who's barely a year older than Bibi himself.

Charles always knew that as long as he outlived his mother he'd get the crown, but it's not so simple in politics.

Please look at that chart above, which I copied from Wikipedia. Party leadership usually lasts about a decade. OK, yes, I know that Menachem Begin had been a party leader much longer, first Cherut, then GaHa"L and then finally a decade in the Likud. But the Likud party was cobbled together for the 1973/4 elections, and four years later was Begin's first victory and term as Prime Minister. He resigned/retired in 1983 and was replaced by Yitzchak Shamir who was party head for ten years, and then Netanyahu took over. 

Besides the six years of Arik Sharon seriously marred by his notorious Disengagement Plan, for most of that time and until today Binyamin Bibi Netanyahu has been leader of the Likud and Prime Minister of Israel. He was young when he took over the party, all of fourty-four 44 in October of 1993, and now there are many, many talented and aging Likud MKs younger and waiting in the wings for their chance to head the party. It doesn't look like they'll ever get the opportunity. Instead of competing against each other for leadership, there's Bibi holding onto those reins. He first grabbed them when they were still in school.

Anger and frustration are bubbling close to the surface. And it's not healthy for the party to have one leader for thirty years. It reminds me of, if you'll excuse the expression, dictatorships.  OK, I said it. What do you think?