Speaking after the new government was sworn in on June 13, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid decried the shambolic state of the ministries that were handed over to the new coalition.
“The devastation and the neglect that we found in the ministries was unbelievable. We aren’t starting to work from zero, but from below zero,” he said. “We will rebuild, and we will rebuild better, the state’s institutions, but this will not take a single day or a single month.”
If the government can survive that long, Lapid is scheduled to replace Naftali Bennett as prime minister in August 2023.
Despite the desire to keep the government together, the coalition of parties from across the political spectrum and including, for the first time an Arab party, Ra’am, the United Arab List (UAL), remains fragile. With a wafer-thin majority of only one Knesset member, the stability of the government is dependent on every single coalition MK voting with the government on every single vote.
It’s hardly surprising that polls show that the overwhelming majority of Israelis don’t believe the government will last the full term.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who had served as prime minister for 12 consecutive years, is not going anywhere and he remains focused on toppling the new government. He met for only half an hour with Bennett to brief the incoming prime minister and refused to take part in the traditional ceremony at the Prime Minister’s Office marking the handing over of power.
Addressing members of the new opposition, Netanyahu said the new, eight-party government will not last long, repeating his message that it is based on “fraud, hate and power-seeking” and is too fractured to succeed.
He called for “iron discipline” and cohesion from the opposition in order to make life harder on the coalition and “bring redemption to the people and State of Israel.”
The Bennett government had no grace period before it had to face its first serious security challenge.
A mere two days after the government was sworn in, some 5,000 right-wing activists marched through Jerusalem’s Old City. The Flag March was originally scheduled for Jerusalem Day in May but shortly after it began it was dispersed when Gaza gunmen fired a rocket salvo towards Jerusalem, precipitating the 11-day Guardian of the Walls campaign against the armed Islamist groups in Gaza.
Despite threats by Hamas that it would respond if the march took place, the new public security minister Omer Bar-Lev, from the left-wing Labor party, decided that the event could take place.
“I am under the impression that the police are well prepared and that a great effort has been made to maintain the delicate fabric of life, and public safety,” he said.
UAL categorically condemned the decision to hold the parade.
The march is “an unbridled provocation, the essence of which is shouts of hatred and incitement to violence and an attempt to set the area on fire for political purposes,” said UAL leader Mansour Abbas.
With a massive police presence, the march passed without major incident and didn’t spark a resumption of hostilities on the Gaza border.
But new challenges are around the corner and every major issue will require a consensus among the parties with diametrically opposed ideologies in order to prevent the government imploding.
The lack of such a consensus forced the coalition to postpone a Knesset vote to extend the 2003 Palestinian “family reunification” law. The bill, which makes it harder for Palestinians to gain Israeli citizenship or residency through marriage, has been extended every year since, 2003.
It has been traditionally supported by the Likud and other right-wing parties which believe that such marriages constitute a back door channel enabling the Palestinian right of return and numerous terrorist attacks can be traced to Palestinians who have Israeli Arab spouses.
However, seeing an opportunity to embarrass the government, the right-wing opposition threatened to vote against renewing the bill.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and his number two in Yamina, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, held talks with Mansour Abbas in an effort to reach a compromise after other UAL MKs vowed to vote against the bill, terming it “racist and anti-democratic.”
A number of Meretz and Labor parliamentarians also voiced opposition to renewing the law.
Another landmine on the horizon for the coalition is the fate of the illegal West Bank outpost of Evyatar, built in Samaria close to the Tapuah junction.
Even though construction started only a few months ago, the community is already home to more than 50 families and many more are on a waiting list.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz vowed to demolish the outpost south of Nablus after security officials warned that allowing it to remain in place would have serious security implications.
According to Palestinian sources, Israeli troops have shot dead at least five Palestinians during protests against Evyatar, with residents from the nearby Palestinian village of Beita burning tires in nightly protests while also directing laser rays at the outpost.
A letter by 11 rabbis, 22 Knesset lawmakers and dozens of right-wing public figures to Bennett warned that evicting the settlers would not pass quietly.
The demolition of such a large outpost and the forcible eviction of dozens of families will be a major embarrassment for Prime Minister Bennett and his right-wing coalition partners from Yisrael Beytenu and New Hope.
And the new coalition also faces foreign policy challenges.
Netanyahu accused the government of surrendering to American demands in relation to Iran, citing a readout of a call between Lapid and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, which said they agreed not to surprise each other.
“This is an incredible Israeli commitment that harms the heart of our national security,” Netanyahu said. “If Begin would have agreed to a policy of ‘no surprises,’ we would not have destroyed the nuclear reactor in Iraq,” he said.
“For 15 years as the prime minister of Israel, I was asked by our American friends to make this commitment many times and I always refused,” Netanyahu added. “Sometimes I updated them ahead of the operations we intended to carry out, and many times I did not update them. I cannot think of a weaker and more emasculated message to our enemies in Iran.”
Government officials noted that it was Netanyahu himself who tried to promote a defense pact with the US that would have curtailed Israel’s freedom of action.
A few days after these comments, an Iranian facility in Karaj producing centrifuges was targeted by a quadcopter-style drone, reportedly causing significant damage.
Israel remained silent but The New York Times reported that the site was included on a list of potential Iranian targets Israel had presented to the Trump administration last year.
“It is our responsibility to maintain the safety of the State of Israel, to guarantee its existence. On this, there are no and there will be no compromises,” Bennett said. “We will continue to consult with our friends – persuade, discuss, and share information and insights out of mutual respect. But at the end of the day, we will be responsible for our own fate, no one else.”
Another challenge facing the government was the sudden spike in coronavirus cases, prompting the decision to again make the wearing of masks mandatory indoors.
Bennett warned against non-essential travel abroad and urged 12-15-year-olds to get vaccinated as soon as possible. As the coronavirus cabinet was reestablished the defense ministry took responsibility for setting up a new facility to carry out checks at Ben Gurion airport.
But despite the myriad of challenges, the government avoided making any major errors in its first few weeks, concentrating instead on much overdue civil service appointments and allowing the new minsters to get to work without interference while, at the same time, avoiding contentious issues that could divide the coalition.
The message was that after two-and-a-half years of political chaos, Israel finally has a functioning government that can at least try to tackle some of the burning issues of the day, such as spiraling apartment prices and chronic traffic congestion, and do so without a culture of hatred and division.
That’s the message and it marks a refreshing change, but will it succeed and how long can it last?
The government must pass the budget by November. If it passes that critical hurdle then maybe, just maybe, the cycle of elections will be behind us and an elected government can concentrate on doing its job and working for the public good.