Israel will call for its fifth national election since 2019 as a result of Naftali Bennett's coalition government's unexpected termination. Israel will have elections in either October or November 2022 under the caretaker leadership of Yair Lapid, the foreign minister of Israel.
Mr. Bennett had intended to visit India in April to
commemorate 30 years of diplomatic ties between the two nations. Due to the
uptick in Israeli terror incidents and the problem of a faltering government,
his visit was abruptly canceled.
Naftali Bennett and his right-wing supporters were
regularly singled out by opposition leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu in the
context of a fast shifting domestic political landscape for their partnership
with an Arab party and their issuance of work permits to Gaza-based
Palestinians.
Idit Silam, the coalition whip, resigned from the
cabinet in April, claiming that it had not been sufficiently Jewish or devoted
to the interests of right-wing voters. The acceptance of ideological compromise
was opposed because it was thought to harm the state of Israel. Mr. Bennett
volunteered to resign after realizing he could not bring diversity together.
The first thing Mr. Bennett said in the interview was,
“In a world where domestic polarization is becoming almost the single biggest
challenge, the experiment succeeded (the fact that his government was in power
for a year and demonstrated that there is an alternative to hardline leaders
such as Netanyahu).”
Mr. Bennett provided
Bret Stephens with his ‘exit statement’ (Naftali Bennett's Exit Interview).
Together with his friend and collaborator Yair Lapid, he conducted an
experiment in which they cobbled together a diversified coalition of eight odd
parties. ‘Agents of change’ is what they were termed.
This coalition was a remarkable shift in Israeli
domestic politics because it included ministers and the parliamentary unity of
the right, center, and left. Present was an Arab party there for the first
time. Mr. Bennett stated, “I am proud of the capacity to sit together with
people with very different opinions than mine,” during his first speech in
Parliament a year ago. He extended an open invitation to all of his ideological
rivals to join the cabinet after seeing how toxic and brutally radical Israeli
politics had become.
He was concerned about maintaining the country's unity
and was aware that Israel was under threat from within due to divisions between
the right and the left, the religious and the secular, and Mirahim (oriental
Jews) and Ashkanazim (European Jews), which had for too long led to political
instability. No political party, including Mr. Netanyahu's Likud, is predicted
to win a majority of the vote in the upcoming general election, which is
concerning.
Mr. Netanyahu played a role in the coalition's
formation and has contributed to its demise. Otherwise, the logic of ‘anyone
but Netanyahu’ drove ideologically split parties to unite, giving Mr. Bennett a
historic chance. As the head of the opposition, Mr. Netanyahu made sure this
situation wouldn't endure long. Despite being charged with corruption and
facing a trial, he made no effort to support the government in Parliament.
The Bennett administration was overthrown last week as
a result of his bold decision to vote against the measure extending Israeli
rules in the West Bank. “Idit, you're proof that what drives you is the care
for the Jewish identity of Israel and the concern for the land of Israel, and I
welcome you back home to the national camp, Mr. Netanyahu said Ms. Silam, who
had deserted. I demand that everyone who was chosen by the national camp join
Idit and return home. We will treat you with the utmost respect and open arms.”
Mr. Netanyahu, the master of language in Israeli
politics, has been scathing in his criticism of this administration for
including a left-leaning party and an Arab party that he calls ‘terror
supporters’ (labelled as anti-national because of their support for the peace
process and two-state solution with the Palestinians). In other words, Mr.
Bennett was unsuccessful in his attempt to reconcile Israel's internal
conflicts through tikkun, the Hebrew term for mending, with moderation and
compromises.
Right-wing politicians, including those in Mr.
Bennett's own party, felt that they had made too many concessions and now
needed to reaffirm their radical positions in order to support
macho-nationalist and ultra-religious constituencies where a concession of
fundamental beliefs would not be rewarded. After the new elections, it will be
known if this is accurate or just a supposition.
Israeli domestic politics are currently getting overly
polarized. Bennett continues to believe that the incoming new government will
need to reach an understanding and consent to compromise because no candidate
will win a majority (61 out of 120 seats) in Parliament.
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