The first milestone has passed. By agreeing on August 2 on a budget, the new Israeli government led by Naftali Bennett has shown that it can last. This project must certainly be validated in November by Parliament, where the ruling coalition has a very narrow majority. But it is already a victory for a motley assembly of eight parties, inducted on June 13, ranging from the far right to the Zionist left and supported by an Arab party – a first in the country’s history.
It has been three years since Israel could not agree on a budget, plagued by a deep political crisis. In November 2018, secular ultra-nationalist Avigdor Lieberman left the coalition, bringing down the Netanyahu government. In more than two years, the country has had four elections, unable to turn the page Netanyahu, prime minister for fifteen years, adored by his own and hated by a large part of the voters.
From now on ” there is, in a sense, a certain normality: there is a budget, the weekends go off without a crisis… It is a blessing. You turn on your television and you are no longer afraid of what you will discover there, observes Israel Waismel-Manor, professor at the School of Political Science at the University of Haifa. In theory, this government should be a dysfunctional entity and collapse. But two elements mean that, for the moment, it is rather a success. First of all, those in power are all afraid of the return of Benyamin Netanyahu. Then, as long as Mr. Netanyahu is at the head of Likud, there is no chance that the right will create a government: the ex-prime minister is persona non grata in the eyes of far too many people. “
Curious blend
The compromise found to avoid a fifth election resulted in a curious assembly: the current Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, of the far-right Yamina party, has only 7 deputies in Parliament. He must give way in 2023 to his partner, the centrist Yaïr Lapid, who has 17 elected under the Yesh Atid banner in the Knesset. Inspired by the tandem briefly set up in 2020 by Mr. Netanyahu with the Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz, this team confirms “A change of regime” discreet in Israel, according to Gideon Rahat, researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute: “The executive now has two heads and it’s an interesting shift. “
“This government uses more nuanced formulas, but its reaction to security incidents is harsher than that of the Netanyahu government” Gideon Rahat, researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute
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