Grading Benjamin Netanyahu

Only six months ago, Kadima's leaders promised each other that the nightmare would be short. Between Ben Zion Netanyahu and Sara Netanyahu, they reckoned, Benjamin Netanyahu would be torn to pieces. Between Barack Obama and Ehud Barak, Bibi would not survive. Tzipi Livni would eat him from the outside and Tzipi Hotovely would devour him from within. Netanyahu would not be able to withstand the economic and political tsunami and collapse.

Stressed out, sweating and paralyzed he wouldn't be able to deliver any goods. Thus, within a few months, comeback-Bibi would be shattered and Kadima would again become Israel's ruling party. Power would be restored to those who were meant to rule - Eyal Arad, Reuven Adler, Naftali Spitzer.

However, five and a half months after Netanyahu presented his cabinet to the Knesset, the nightmare refuses to dissipate. The government is bloated, fat and gray, but still standing. The coalition is weird and convoluted, but functioning. Here and there Netanyahu does break a sweat, but he is surviving.