The Israeli government led by Naftali Bennett, which took office exactly one year ago, in June 2021, has collapsed once again. With the process of dissolving the parliament, or Knesset, we are moving towards the fifth election of the country in three and a half years.
Israeli lawmakers voted to dissolve the Knesset on Thursday morning, sending Yair Lapid to the premiership.
Lapid, a former journalist, moderate, with a strong propensity for dialogue – for example, Lapid supports the two-state solution with the Palestinians, unlike Bennett, who has always declared himself against, – will assume the position of caretaker prime minister on Thursday, June 30th, at midnight until the next round of Israeli elections, set to take place on November 1st.
That the majority were fragile was not unknown. It was based on an extremely varied coalition, a mixture of eight political forces, completely different from each other, with no point of contact, other than to slam into the opposition Benjamin Netanyahu, and his Likud party, after twelve years in power.
But clearly, it was a very narrow majority: 61 MPs out of the 120 who sit in the Knesset.
How did it come to this?
After the parliamentary elections in April 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of Israel’s largest party, the Likud (a right-wing party), was unable to form a government and the Knesset was dissolved.
New elections six months later did not lead to a government and the Knesset disbanded again.
A new unity government between Netanyahu and Benny Gantz was again formed in March 2020 and then collapsed in December of the same year.
Although the right-wing had the majority, Netanyahu never did. The reason for the impossibility of creating a stable government. This allowed an opening for Bennett and Lapid, who formed a coalition that brought together parties from the far right to the centrists, from the left to the Joint List, the political alliance between Arab parties, including an Islamist party that represented the Palestinian citizens of Israel.
On March 23rd, the first anniversary of that fourth election, it appeared that Israel had finally succeeded in putting together the guise of a functioning government, after a period of political paralysis.
Then suddenly everything fell apart. A three-month process of internal deterioration began.
What happened?
The beginning was unquestionably spring. A series of defections followed. The first two were those of Amichai Chikli, a member of Bennet’s Yamina party, followed later by that of Idit Silman, parliamentary leader of the Knesset coalition government, who had left the executive due to internal disputes with the Minister of Health Nitzan Horowitz , leader of the far-left party Meretz.
Silman’s defection brought the majority to 60-60, throwing the government into de facto paralysis.
The next blow came shortly after, on May 19th, when Arab parliamentarian Rinawie Zoabi announced she was leaving the leadership of her party, refusing to vote with the coalition.
Such a move would have brought the government into a minority. After three days of pressure, Rinawie Zoabi was persuaded to return in exchange for financial offers to the Arab community.
But now the damage had been done. It was evident that every single legislator now had the power to hold the coalition hostage.
On May 25th, another defection. Congressman Michael Biton announced that he would no longer vote with the ruling coalition, except in no-confidence votes, until an agreement was reached on his main concern: public transport reform.
The bomb that made everything explode was a legislative act.
The bill that subjected Israelis in the occupied West Bank to Israeli law was to be renewed. The law, which applies “emergency” rules to settlers, has been in effect since 1967 and has been ratified every five years. Right-wing coalition members warned that if the legislation was not passed, the coalition was unlikely to survive.
The opposition led by Netanyahu took the opportunity to trouble the Bennett government by voting in favor of the settlements and refusing to renew the regulations.
The Arab members, seeing clearly that the government would not hold up, decided not to be in favor. Thus 58 lawmakers voted against the legislation and 52 in favor, with two members of the Arab coalition voting against and others abstaining.
And it was at that moment that Nir Orbach, a former member of The Jewish Home party and who had joined the Yamina alliance on the spring 2021 elections, left the coalition.
With Orbach out of the game, Netanyahu’s opposition forces have begun moves to further weaken the narrow majority.
Bennett and Lapid decided not to wait to find out what Likud would do or when it would. They anticipated the times by announcing the dissolution of the Knesset on June 20 which would lead to new elections this fall, meanwhile handing over power to Lapid as interim prime minister.
It is clear that at the level of domestic politics, the Bennett government has had to face numerous difficulties from day one related to the heterogeneity of the coalition. Given this heterogeneity, there have been many issues to fight for, starting with the Palestinian question.
Since 1967, Israeli political groups have split whether they were in favor of continuing the military occupation or they wanted to live side by side with a Palestinian State.
There are further divisions over the size of that hypothetical State, where its capital would be, and how many people would have the right to live in that State.
The new approach adopted by the last executive was not to resolve the conflict diplomatically, but to implement policies for the integration of the Palestinian population. Many have interpreted it as a new way to continue Israeli politics as ever.
It should be remembered that in recent months, tensions have been added to this conviction due to the episodes of violence that took place in the Al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan. The aggression of the Israeli police forces toward faithful Muslims showed how internal conflicts are as present as ever and that the Israeli government’s policies of violence continue to be the same.
The episode also triggered a series of protests by Arab actors who are normalizing relations with Tel Aviv, primarily Jordan. Following these incidents, Ra’am (the coalition of Arab parties) has decided to freeze his status as a member of the coalition.
At the foreign policy level, the Israeli government crisis comes at an extremely important stage. In fact, on July 13th and 14th, US President Joe Biden will visit Jerusalem, in what is considered one of the most important trips for both the US administration and its regional partners.
Biden’s visit represents an opportunity to strengthen the leadership figure also in view of the new elections. The possibility of the return of Benjamin Netanyahu, a figure also opposed to the Biden administration, could be a card that can be spent in relations between Lapid and the current American President.
The open dossiers to be discussed are some and each of particular importance: the Palestinian question, the nuclear issue with Iran, relations with Saudi Arabia, etc..
Will Netanyahu enter or not?
There is still no clear answer. Of course, we must remember that he is facing a trial and the only way to defend himself in this process is to stay in politics and use his political power to defend himself by controlling the judicial system.
If Netanyahu were to stay out of it, the Israeli right-wing could unite to create a right-wing government so that they have a chance. On the other hand, it seems more than clear that a large part of Israeli society is increasingly in favor of Jewish nationalism, and a leftist party would garner very few votes.
For this reason, it is thought that Lapid’s role from here on will be increasingly decisive because it is around him that an alternative coalition to that proposed by Likud could take shape.It will be seen if the Israelis this time will be able to elect a government that will last.
