In Israel, countdown to the fall of Naftali Bennett’s government

Stop or again? In Israel, a year after its formation, the heterogeneous coalition of the Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, has a string of setbacks. After losing its narrow majority in April, going from 61 to 60 seats, its government suffered, on Monday, two new snubs during crucial votes in the Knesset. Can he still rule the country? The question is on everyone’s lips in Israel, where Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s fragile coalition of two left-wing, two center, three right-wing parties and the conservative Arab Raam party is about to implode. To the point that some local media are beginning to seriously consider the upcoming organization of new legislative elections, the fifth since 2019. Precisely what this coalition had promised to avoid. Except that the government formed by nationalist leader Naftali Bennett and the centrist Yaïr Lapid, in June 2021, united by the sole desire to oust the irremovable ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power, has been deprived of a majority in Parliament since April 4. With only 60 seats left out of 120, i.e. as many as the opposition, he has since suffered setbacks after setbacks in the Knesset, including two on Monday June 6 alone. Gathering a majority of votes against a bill aimed at extending the application of Israeli law to settlers in the occupied West Bank, the opposition inflicted a snub on Naftali Bennett – even though the Prime Minister is also the leader of a party that has become the standard-bearer of the settlers. The snub remains symbolic: the The pro-settler bill should end up being passed, because the right-wing opposition, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, had announced that it only wanted to show its distrust of the government. And prove above all that Naftali Bennett’s coalition can neither lead the country nor pass laws as it is so weakened. “Bennett, go home. It’s over, launched Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, in a tweet published after the vote. It is time to return Israel to the right”. “Those who cannot live with this coalition must leave” But the most worrying thing for the coalition is that on Monday evening, two of its members, Mazen Ghanaim , a lawmaker from the conservative Arab Raam Party, and Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, a lawmaker from the leftist Meretz party, voted against the bill. The three other elected members of the Raam party and the free spirit Idlit Sliman, of Naftali Bennett’s own party, Yamina, were not present during the session. However, the Minister of Justice Gideon Saar, who had supervised the text of law, had warned before the vote that it was a vital test for the survival of the coalition and the loyalty of its members. In vain: the opposition gathered a total of 58 votes, against 52 for the coalition. “The situation of the Bennett government is critical, explains to France 24 David Khalfa, researcher at the Observatory of North and Middle Africa Orient of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. Its unprecedented coalition, which has been plagued since its creation by quite powerful ideological antagonisms and very opposing sensibilities, has only survived so far by the fear of seeing a certain Benjamin Netanyahu return to power. But the cracks that have emerged in recent months within it have become increasingly gaping in recent days, and not only under pressure from the nationalist right “Those who cannot live with this coalition must leave”, scolded Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Tuesday in a television interview, referring to the two parliamentarians who voted against the bill. Atmosphere … A Prime Minister “who does not even have control over his own camp” Monday, after midnight, another vote showed the limits of this coalition. Precisely the one who was to validate the renewal of MP Matan Kahana as Minister of Religious Affairs. Except that the deputy Idit Silman of the Yamina party, the same one who had left the coalition at the beginning of April and deprived the government of its majority, voted against this reappointment to the government. Her approach resulted in a vote of 55 votes in favor, and 55 against, and therefore, it takes a simple majority, a second defeat for Naftali Bennett in Parliament the same evening. “Idit Silman, you are a champion”, congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu on Twitter after the results of the vote .According to the Jerusalem Post, the government plans to impose harsh sanctions against the rebel MK, initially depriving her of her position as chair of the Knesset Health Committee. After that, he should ask the assembly committee to officially declare her as a defector, that is to say as a deputy who has changed allegiance. of a party already present in the Knesset, such as the Likud, which is making eyes at him, or being appointed minister in a possible government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Atmosphere… bis.Joe Biden was supposed to visit Israel in June, but his Middle East tour has been postponed to July. It is said in the Israeli press that in Washington, we would wait to see if it is useful to discuss strategic issues between allies with a Naftali Bennett who could be forced to leave power any day. “The Prime Minister’s position can quickly become untenable, adds David Khalfa, a specialist in Israeli politics. This is not the first time that an Israeli government has managed to survive without a majority, except that Naftali Bennett does not have the stranglehold on his own camp, or even on his own party which is itself a minority in this coalition. The question is not whether there will be new ‘deserters’, but when this will happen.” David Khalfa, some members of the coalition seem, through their speeches, to be preparing for the next election campaign and to be busy ensuring their own political survival. “Naftali Bennett himself appears resigned to participating in a new election and he is already creating a narrative in the form of a balance sheet of his government action which would allow him to survive politically in the context of future elections”, he concludes.