Thursday marked the 50th day since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government was sworn into office.
Fifty days.
In the past, this initial period of any new administration’s life was considered a honeymoon period – in Israel and even more so in democracies abroad. The new leader was often given the benefit of the doubt, and initial missteps made as he and his government tried to find their footing was often seen in a more forgiving light.
Not this time.
The first 50 days of this government have been anything but a honeymoon: not for the government, nor the country. If one were asked to give a chapter title to the first 50 days of this government, an apt one would be “The Collision Coalition,” because this government seems to be on a collision course with so many.
First, it is on a collision course with the judiciary and the 2,330,000 voters who voted for the opposition parties. Granted, 30,000 more people voted for the coalition parties, but that is not exactly a thunderous endorsement, even though it did give the coalition a 64-56 Knesset majority.
One might have thought that with such a narrow victory in the popular vote, the government would have wanted to take things slow, to build bridges, to build consensus around any number of contentious issues.
But one would have been wrong. This government came barreling out of the starting blocks like Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, not at the more gradual pace of a long-distance runner preserving strength and energy.
Even if people were willing to withhold judgment and give the government some time before forming conclusions, the coalition – forging forward quickly with the judicial reform plan – did not provide them with that possibility.
Setting the coalition on a collision course
On January 4 – just a week after the government was sworn in – Justice Minister Yariv Levin unveiled in a brief statement to the country his sweeping proposal. Levin’s statement set the coalition on a collision course with the judiciary and the opposition that would overshadow everything else. The tone of the first 50 days – confrontation, a path toward collision – was set at that moment.
A day before Levin’s announcement, just six days after the 30-plus ministers of the government posed for the traditional “class photo” with President Isaac Herzog, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir paid an early morning visit to the Temple Mount.
That, too, set a tone, and was a harbinger of things to come. Ben-Gvir’s actions such as that visit, calls to clamp closures on east Jerusalem neighborhoods in response to terror attacks, and announcements not backed by the government for an “Operation Defensive Shield II” in east Jerusalem, just serve to exacerbate an already tense situation.
Ben-Gvir did not put Israel on a collision course with the Palestinians, we have been on that course for years, primarily because of choices the Palestinians have made. But if the first 50 days of this government is any indication, things seem likely to get worse. Putting it mildly, Ben-Gvir is not a calming influence in an already agitated situation.
This government’s policies in Judea and Samaria – most recently announcing plans to authorize nine unauthorized settlements and approve the building of some 10,0000 units in existing settlements – are also putting Jerusalem on a collision course with the US. Ironically this is happening at a time when another possible collision – over the Iranian nuclear deal – has been avoided for the time being because of Iran’s alliance with Russia in Ukraine and the draconian manner in which the Iranian government is putting down protests inside the country.
It is also worth noting that going back to 1996, with the sole exceptions being Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, this is the first time a new prime minister has not visited the US in his first 50 days in office. (It took Bennett 75 days to travel to Washington to meet US President Joe Biden, and while Lapid did not visit Washington during his short term in office, Biden met him in Jerusalem just two weeks after Lapid was sworn in).
The coalition has also found itself on a collision course with vast swaths of Diaspora Jewry, uncomfortable not only with the judicial reform but also with the policies and past statements of Ben-Gvir, the Religious Zionist Party’s Bezalel Smotrich, Noam’s anti-gay leader Avi Maoz, and the haredi parties.
This collision course has been manifest in certain mainstream Jewish leaders – such as former ADL head Abe Foxman – warning that this government’s policies over a wide array of issues from gay rights to altering the Law of Return to a weakening of the courts, could force them to reevaluate their ties with Israel.
Israel, which since the breakdown of the Oslo accords and the Second Intifada has turned politically to the Right, has been on a collision course for years with a small circle of Diaspora Jewry unhappy with Israeli government policies. This government, in its first 50 days, is widening the circle.
And, finally, the first 50 days have shown that this coalition is on a collision course with itself, raising fundamental questions about whether it can survive what seems to be an inevitable crash caused by overlapping authority.
Netanyahu had to know that he was inviting trouble when he agreed to Smotrich’s coalition demand to be named as a minister in the Defense Ministry with authority over the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria.
The problem is encapsulated in the title itself: minister in the Defense Ministry. Isn’t there already a defense minister? And if two ministers are in the same ministry, who has the upper hand?
It took only 23 days for this problem to flare up when Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered the IDF to raze the illegal Or Chaim outpost on January 20, while Smotrich told the Civil Administration – over whom he thought he had control – to halt the evacuation. The IDF listened to Gallant, and – as a result, Smotrich and his party boycotted the cabinet meeting held a couple of days later.
That was just the promo. This week a similar situation occurred when the Civil Administration, still under Gallant’s authority, uprooted an olive grove near Shiloh, despite Smotrich’s objections. Smotrich accused Gallant and Netanyahu of not honoring the coalition agreement granting him authority over the Civil Administration and issued veiled threats, saying that his party would not allow this situation to continue.
At Day 50, therefore, it is fair to say that the new coalition is fighting with seemingly everybody: half the country, the judiciary, the US administration, significant swaths of Diaspora Jewry, and itself.
A honeymoon period? Not exactly. Instead, a rather inauspicious beginning.