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The Netanyahu family takes their belongings from the residence of the official prime minister on Balfour Street in Jerusalem. In 2016, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a group of settlers who had been evicted from their homes at the illegal Grandma’s West Bank post: “I understand what it’s like to lose a house. After the 1999 election, with zero warning, my family and I were thrown out of our house on Balfour Street. Things like that, they threw us out on the street. We had to go to the Sheraton Plaza Hotel, which I thought was awesome. “
The Likud party won 19 seats in the Knesset in the 1999 elections, seven fewer than the Labor party led by Ehud Barak. The Barak government, as sworn in on June 13, was a diverse coalition of parties, with Meretz on the left, the Hamerkaz party in the middle, and ultra-Orthodox parties on the right. The partnership lasted less than two years.
What can this short-term government teach us about the future of the new Israeli government headed by Yamina Lapid Yamina and Yair Lapid Yesh Atid? What is their diverse coalition made up of right-wing Jewish conservative parties, their leaders who are committed to the liquidation company, and the Meretz party lawmakers who boycott the settlements? Can Labor Party President Merav Michaeli, a hard-working campaigner for women’s rights, help the Conservative Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, who has pledged to expel asylum seekers and their families?
The cards held by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are much worse than those issued by Barak in 1999. First, there has never been an Israeli prime minister, nor a leader in a democracy, as the party won only 6% of the vote (returned in seven seats in the 120-member Knesset, one of which is against the new government). Bennett is the default option, the best of the very imperfect alternatives, the other two after Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure have been in power for 12 years, or the political blockade is the fifth round of elections expected to perpetuate the political blockade. The new government, with its composition and guidelines, is therefore not the most appropriate choice of left-wing or right-wing components.
Bennett, as well as Yisrael Beitenu party leader Avigdor Lieberman and New Hope party president Gideon Saar, would feel more comfortable in the company of former Likud party colleagues than sitting with Palestinian representatives Lan, Meretz and Ra’am. List) parties. The common denominator of the new government is his disgust with Netanyahu’s identity and accusations of corruption allegations.
The center-right members of the new government agree with its ideology and foreign and defense policies. Supposedly, if Netanyahu leaves the leadership of Likud or if his party members get the courage to remove him, many in the new government would negotiate cooperation with Likud.
However, Netanyahu declared war on his heir even before he started packing and moving his bags to the opposition benches. Netanyahu in 2021 is not the same young prime minister he defeated 22 years ago who left him out of politics. This time, he protects the army of hot-headed legions of auxiliaries and violent bots.
In the last days of the government, when the ground was burned to the ground, the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox parties and their rabbis joined the chorus of the push against Bennett. The language they took and the threats from hell were reminiscent of the atmosphere in the months leading up to the assassination of Prime Minister Rabbi Yitzha in November 1995.
One of the first challenges for the new government will be to ignite these fires, restore confidence in the country’s legal system, police and media, and try to instill respect for pluralism.
The architects of the bizarre Bennett-Lapid coalition were well aware that the opposition would identify cracks in its building and place explosives to detonate it. These explosives include legislation on highly sensitive issues such as the relationship between religion and the state, the annexation of Palestinian territories, LGBTQ rights, and the recognition of progressive currents of Judaism that call into question the monopoly of the ultra-Orthodox establishment.
To lower these time bombs, the coalition agreement perpetuates the status quo of each of these issues. However, Netanyahu has a new kind of TNT at his disposal as a national member of the Itamar Ben-Gvir Knesset and his hateful Arab courtesy. Ben-Gvir has been elected to the Knesset this year with the help of Netanyahu, and is exercising parliamentary immunity to violate the place where the supreme situation is (the holy sites of Muslims in Jerusalem). Netanyahu can rely on Hamas and Islamic Jihad to respond to Ben-Gvir’s provocations.
And what would Bennett do if the Gaza rockets were fired at Jerusalem in response to a visit by the Jewish Knesset to the Al-Aqsa mosque / temple mountain complex, sacred to both Jews and Muslims? Would the two Arab members of the new government, Islamist President Mansour Abbas Ra’am and Regional Cooperation Minister Issawi Frej in Meretz, vote in favor of revenge against Gaza and the killing of Palestinian civilians? And would Lieberman and Saar vote in favor if the Israelis were killed in a Hamas attack?
And would Bennett’s decision in favor of a settlement respect the judicial verdict for the demolition of 40 illegal homes in the West Bank in Evyat? How the U.S. administration handled it put pressure on Palestinians to conduct diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians on a two-state solution between its center-left partners who establish a Palestinian state and strong statements against it, much less against condemnation. his partners in the right parties?
Negotiations on a new nuclear deal with Iran are another hurdle for the new government, which will force it to make a very difficult decision. If he adheres to Netanyahu’s militant policy against the agreement, Bennett will place himself on a trajectory of clash with the Biden administration, which will be in power for two years. On the other hand, if the government agrees to join the policy of the Biden administration, it is likely that Netanyahu will launch a public campaign accusing the new government of “leaving the Jewish people in a second holocaust”.
Throughout his long tenure, Netanyahu was considered a magician who rode without a safety net on the ropes. When Bennett saw his performance up close when he was the head of the opposition between 2006 and 2008, when he was the head of his cabinet, in order for Netanyahu to start repairing some of the damage caused to Israeli society, Bennett will have to overcome his former master.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the attitude of the Al Jazeera editorial.
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