“At the start of the first cabinet meeting of the new government, I want to stress three things that will guide us: unity, responsibility and work,” the new prime minister said as he chaired his first cabinet meeting.
“This government is a true government of unity,” he continued. “It was established out of a sense of heavy responsibility to deal with urgent security, economic and social challenges facing Israel, and for that reason, we are getting right to work.”
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the start of his first cabinet meeting on Sunday? No, those words were spoken by Benjamin Netanyahu when he chaired his first cabinet meeting after returning to the prime minister’s seat in 2009 after a decade’s hiatus.
What is so striking about Netanyahu’s words at the first cabinet meeting of the 32nd government is how similar they were to Bennett’s opening comments on Sunday to the country’s 36th government.
“We are getting underway. Each minister has already begun to work,” Bennett said, sitting in the prime minister’s chair at the head of the cabinet table on Sunday, the first time a prime minister other than Netanyahu led the cabinet discussions in over 12 years.
“Due to the character of the government and the range of its members, the key to our success is trust, mutual trust; and the way to increase trust is that when there are misunderstandings, simply pick up the phone and call each other and resolve things quietly, without drama. We have come here to serve the people. All ministers share this understanding: We are not the bosses of the citizens of Israel; we work for the citizens of Israel,” Bennett said.
The themes of Bennett’s first meeting were the same as the themes of Netanyahu’s first meeting in 2009: unity, responsibility and getting to work. How does that old aphorism run? “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Another common theme was Iran. Though Iran did not star in comments Netanyahu made back in his very first cabinet meeting in 2009, it did come up in the second cabinet meeting – which took place on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day – where he alluded to the Iranian president at the time, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and said it was a shame that Switzerland had invited him to attend a UN conference on racism in Geneva.
“Six million of our brethren were slaughtered during the Holocaust,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, not all of us learned the lesson. At the same time that we will unite with their memories, a conference allegedly against racism will convene in Switzerland. The guest of honor is a racist Holocaust denier [Ahmadinejad] who doesn’t hide his intention to wipe Israel off the map.”
Fast forward 12 years and two months, and the new prime minister also has Iran’s president foremost on his mind.
“This weekend, Iran chose a new president – Ebrahim Raisi,” Bennett said. “Of all the people that [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei could have chosen, he chose the ‘Hangman of Tehran,’ the man infamous among Iranians and across the world for leading the Death Committees, which executed thousands of innocent Iranian citizens throughout the years.”
“A regime of brutal hangmen must never be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction that will enable it to not kill thousands, but millions,” he said. “Israel’s position will not change on this.”
Bennett’s message was clear, and he said these words in English so the entire world would hear: On Iran, the changing of the guard in Israel does not mean a changing of its positions on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
While on Iran, as well as on the question of unity and getting to work right away, there were striking similarities between Bennett’s first cabinet meeting and Netanyahu’s first meeting with his government 12 years ago.
There was one conspicuous difference: No haredi representatives were sitting around the cabinet table on Sunday. Avigdor Liberman was seated around the cabinet table, as was Gideon Sa’ar and representatives of the Labor Party – just as was the case in 2009. But there were no haredim.
As a result of a lack of haredi representation in this “unity” government, the first significant step the government cabinet decided upon was to set up a state commission of inquiry into the Meron tragedy on April 30 that killed 45 people, mostly haredim. Had the haredi parties been in the cabinet, it would never have approved a state commission to investigate the worst civilian disaster in Israeli history.
This represents a key difference between this government and the governments Netanyahu set up in 2009, 2015 and 2020. Decisions will be made regarding the haredi community without the government being hamstrung by not wanting to step on the toes of the haredi politicians.
While some 71% of the haredi public, according to a Smith poll last month, wanted to see the establishment of a state commission of inquiry on Meron set up, the haredi parties blocked it, apparently concerned that some haredi politicians and officials might be held culpable.
Bennett, in his speech to the Knesset last week before the government’s swearing-in ceremony, said this government would represent the haredi community, even though no haredi politicians are ministers, but “instead of perpetuating the same methods, we will have the opportunity to address the deep problems which burden haredi society.”
Bennett referred specifically to haredi housing issues, but it won’t stop there. In its first major step, the cabinet decided to make a move that could provide answers for the ultra-Orthodox community that its political leaders do not necessarily want their constituents to hear.
It’s a different paradigm: the government doing what is ultimately beneficial for the haredi public, even though it may be bad for haredi politicians and officials with vested interests. The trick is figuring out how to do this without being paternalistic.