Why is Israel’s new government formation so important? – Movies daily

If all goes according to plan, Israel will swear in a new government on Sunday, ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12-year rule and a political crisis that hit four elections in the country in less than two years. The next government formation, led by ultra-nationalist Naftali Bennett, has promised to set a new course to heal the country’s divisions and restore a sense of normalcy.

Anything more ambitious would be to woo a disaster. The coalition is made up of eight parties from across Israel’s political spectrum, including a small Arab party that has made history by joining a government for the first time. If only one party strikes, the government will be in serious danger of collapse, and Netanyahu, who intends to remain as opposition leader, is waiting in the background.

What changes the formation entails

The most significant change is likely to be felt domestically. The government is fighting to heal the divisions in Israeli society that opened up during the Netanyahu years, between Jews and Arabs and between ultra-Orthodox and secular Israelis.

Israel’s Arab citizens make up 20% of the population and are subject to widespread discrimination. They have close family ties to the Palestinians and identify largely with their cause, prompting many Jewish Israelis to view them with suspicion. Tensions boiled over during this summer’s Gaza war as Jews and Arabs fought in the streets of Israel’s mixed cities.

The new government is already facing hostility from Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, loyal supporters of Netanyahu. Earlier in the week, ultra-Orthodox leaders condemned it in harsh terms, demanding that Bennett remove his kippah, the skullcap worn by observant Jews.

Enemy of my enemy

Israel has got a new prime minister because of the overriding desire of pretty much everyone to get rid of the old one. Never has an Israeli politician played such a fundamental role in his own death or given a new coalition such significant incentives to keep him out of power.

The new coalition’s three leading right-wing parties – Bennett, Gideon Saar and Avigdor Lieberman – worked for and with Netanyahu. They were also all humiliated, abused and publicly humiliated by him.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, alienated the center through personal attacks on Yair Lapid, leader of the Center Party Yesh Atid, and through efforts to mobilize demonstrations against the new coalition and ignore death threats and rabbinic injunctions against coalition members.

For the two left-wing parties – Meretz & Labor – that Netanyahu demonized as Satan’s finger on the ground, the will to end his rule, save himself from political oblivion and avoid a fifth election is clear.

In other words, opposition to Netanyahu was the primary catalyst in the formation of Israel’s unprecedented new coalition government, and it may well be the strongest glue that holds it together. All parties know that Netanyahu, who imagines himself to be a king in exile, will join the opposition to overthrow the government and then jump in to pick up the pieces.

Long life

First, to paraphrase one of the revolutionary founders of the United States, Samuel Adams, all parties in this government, since they have pushed Netanyahu out, know that they must stick together so that they do not hang separately. Everyone can honestly believe that the interests of the nation are driving their government, but they also have more popular interests served by keeping their fragile unity afloat. And they fear political oblivion if they do not.

For Bennett, a man from the right who crossed the Rubicon by abandoning Netanyahu (and the Netanyahu-loyal right wing), there is probably no way back. At the age of forty-nine, he has to make this administration a success if he wants a further political career. He will therefore have to preside over the transition from Netanyahu to a less polarized, more functional political system where the government is competent and can deliver.

And for the two left-wing parties, overshadowed in recent decades by a resurgent right-wing, the goal is more straightforward: survival and a chance to advance their social agenda, including supporting reforms and conservative Judaism in Israel, promoting LGBTQ rights, promoting public transportation on the Sabbath and protection of the integrity of the judicial system of Israel.

Second, the life of the government will also depend on the relationship between Bennett & Lapid. Here the future looks somewhat promising. Bennett & Lapid have been collaborating against Netanyahu since 2013 and they have a good personal chemistry.

Unlike Netanyahu, Bennett is apparently collegial and has avoided the accusations of narcissism and paranoia that persecuted Netanyahu. In fact, with only six Knesset seats under his control, Bennett lacks the party basis to become a larger than life figure in the style of his predecessor.

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The meeting of the two parties signaled a temporary adjustment dedicated to eradicating a leader under whom the country could not survive. Once the goal is reached, the question remains whether the two parties will continue to work together on a viable government formation or self-destruct with infighting. Do you think they will find a way to survive?