In the glare of Gantz’s backtrack on his big idea - a government cannot be formed with a prime minister under indictment - it is easy to lose sight of all of the small backtracks, which in some ways are even more amazing 1/

There’s the annexation backtrack, which is getting lots of attention. Gantz went from no unilateral annexation at all, to unilateral annexation only in coordination with Jordan and the PA, to only with the consent of the international community, to now anything that Bibi wants 2/

There’s the judicial system backtrack, which went from standing as the defender of the Israeli judiciary, to Bibi not controlling the judges selection committee, to giving Bibi a veto on the committee and on the AG and state attorney picks and silence on High Court override 3/

There’s the timeframe backtrack, which went from not allowing Bibi to go first in the rotation, to giving Bibi 6 months at maximum, to forming a government to deal with the coronavirus crisis, to now granting Bibi 18 months at the start 4/

But the most incredible one is that presumably the entire point of this exercise for Gantz, even after all the twists and turns, was to transition Israel away from Bibi as PM. Which is why he had insisted on legislation that would guarantee that he becomes PM if Bibi welches 5/

And he caved on that too! The agreement promises that Bibi will yield to Gantz after 18 months, but there is no guarantee beyond the paper they’ve signed (which we all know means nothing to either side). The scope of all of this in totality is just remarkable 6/6