Last minute deal saves Bibi’s coalition
The Israeli government has averted early elections, by cutting a deal to bring a coalition crisis to an end.
THE Israeli government has averted early elections, by cutting a deal to bring a coalition crisis to an end.
The coalition was close to collapse for days, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was starting to enter electioneering mode, declaring that his Likud party could win elections.
From hour to hour the pendulum swung from the country being headed to the ballot box on June 26, and Netanyahu’s coalition partners readying to agree on contentious issues and end an intense coalition crisis.
In the end, on Tuesday evening, the doubt came to an end and the government decided to preserve stability.
“It was scary, eh,” Netanyahu said to the opposition just after the decision. He repeated his claim that he would have won in a ballot – but opposition politicians claimed that he was only dragging out the wait until he is dethroned.
They taunted Netanyahu, claiming that he engineered a crisis to try to force elections before the outcome of corruption investigations against him are known. Elections should be held “after the public knows exactly what you did”, said Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union.
The crisis started with Charedi parties demanding that Israeli law enshrine rights for yeshivah students to be exempted from military service, and secular parties insisting they would block the legislation at all costs.
Reconciliation was achieved when the decision on this bill was put to a free vote.
Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid party argued strongly against the legislation, saying that it lets Charedim off the hook when it comes to national service and asking rhetorically: “Where does it say in the Torah that it’s okay to send someone else to die for you?”
Despite objections, the bill passed its preliminary reading late Tuesday, 59 votes to 38.
“Common sense won,” said Education Minister Naftali Bennett on the ending of the coalition crisis – a crisis that he claimed was fabricated.
“The national interest prevailed.” But Tamar Zandberg of the opposition Meretz party claimed that the deal was a case of politicians placing their interests over ideology, and “stunk”.
Despite investigations against Netanyahu, he is still leading in opinion polls, with his Likud party currently coming in with about 30 of the Knesset’s 120 seats – and the next biggest party Yesh Atid showing at around 21.
It was widely believed that Netanyahu wanted to seize the opportunity to strengthen his standing, renew his mandate, and then say that the public wants him in office whatever outcome the legal proceedings against him may hold.
He did not take this opportunity in the end – but he is expected to gain popularity by taking the credit for ending the crisis and avoiding elections.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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