After the powerful shakeup the coalition experienced when its whip, MK Idit Silman, bolted, the party leaders assumed that the first two weeks of the Knesset summer session would decide the fate of the government.
This seemed to be a reasonable assessment: If the ship rights itself, no one else will jump off, the opposition’s bills will be voted down and the government bills will pass – Netanyahu and his friends will lose momentum and on the other hand, the remaining 60 MKs will realize that things are not so bad. That they can survive, if they make the necessary adjustments. For example, present only “social” bills for legislation.
Well, the two weeks are almost up. All those assumptions proved true. The coalition’s road seemed strewn with rose petals. Its leaders celebrated the Likud infighting over the bill for scholarships to demobilized soldiers, which threatened to spill over the boundaries of the party, undermine the unity among the ranks of the opposition and provoke conflict with the ultra-Orthodox.
The move by Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi saved Likud from the first trouble it had encountered since the changeover in government. Netanyahu had been facing defeat, but in the face of the coalition’s disintegration, the heroes who demanded support for the bill became dishrag rebels.
MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi arriving for a television interview following her resignation from the coalition on Thursday.Ohad Zwigenberg
On Thursday at 1:16 P.M. Channel 11 journalist Mohammad Magadli published Rinawie Zoabi’s letter, in which she announced she was leaving the coalition. It wasn’t the Shaked-Orbach-Kara trio on the right, not Ze’ev Elkin and Sharren Haskel from New Hope, and not United Arab List MKs Mazen Ghanayim and Walid Taha. But rather, Rinawie Zoabi, who was fuming under the radar. As late as Tuesday, she gave a speech in the Knesset praising the coalition. Where was her concern over Al Aqsa then? Her pain over the baton assault by Israeli police officers against the pallbearers at journalist Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral? She, of all people, did to Meretz chairman Nitzan Horowitz what Silman did to Naftali Bennett.
The common denominator between the two bolters is interesting. They both came from outside the party ranks. Neither had to wear out their shoe leather working their way up the party ladder, from members, to activists. Neither of them is beholden to a party apparatus or party ethos.
Their only obligation is personal: An obligation of loyalty, collegiality, and gratitude to the person who placed them in an electable spot on the party roster. But those characteristics, as it turned out again on Thursday, aren’t worth much in the political market. It’s actually hangers-on like Yamina party defector MK Amichai Chikli and his ilk who do their benefactors the greatest damage.
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MK Idit Silman and MK Amichai Chikli in the Knesset last month.Emil Salman
The pary leader is not free of responsibility. Bennett failed to maintain Silman, ignoring repeated warnings from his partners. Horowitz perhaps did not have many warning signs, but he should have been more careful: Rinawie Zoabi has been complaining for several weeks now to her inner circle about the obstacles placed by the Civil Service Commission before her appointment as general consul in Shanghai.
The appointment was arranged by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid so that the Knesset could rid itself of a potential rebel, who has proven in the past that she can’t be relied upon. Just recently, she revealed that she would have to leave the Knesset once her appointment is approved by the cabinet, and wait at home for Chinese consent. In that twilight zone, the Knesset could disperse, and with it, the fate of her appointment.
Just like in a Hebrew children’s song about a three-cornered hat, this coalition has three sides: The left one, namely Meretz; the right side, which includes Yamina (New Hope defines itself as a center-right party and devotes itself mainly to a liberal agenda, in contrast to its partner on this end) and the Islamic side, consisting of the United Arab List.
Labor Party member Nachman Shai would not be the one to topple the government. Sharren Haskel (New Hope) would not undermine the coalition. Nira Shpak (Yesh Atid) would not have founded a group of rebels. Even Meretz members Gaby Lasky or Mossi Raz, the left wing’s extreme markers, wouldn’t have either. If they couldn’t take it anymore, they would have resigned from the Knesset, otherwise they would not be able to show their faces again in their ideological milieu, over a soy macchiato.
Only six weeks ago, Meretz leader Horowitz watched as Bennett was dealt a critical blow. He read mounds of learned commentaries about arrogance and smugness, the attitude of “trust us,” and its costs. Why didn’t a warning bell go off in Horowitz’s head, set off by his backbencher, in order to see how she was faring? What amateurship, what negligence. How hard could it be to do the bare minimum?
Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz at Ben-Gurion Airport last year.Chaim Tzach/GPO
“You had one job!” the most popular online memes cry out. Horowitz had one role, more important than the Health Ministry (which has a professional director-general and other experienced people), to make sure that no wild weeds sprouted in his little acre. It’s not that difficult.
Gideon Sa’ar does it in his domain. It’s not always easy there either. The first Meretz chairman in 20 years to sit in the government screwed things up by his own two hands. If the crisis isn’t resolved somehow, this term may be Meretz’s swan song, its last summer with us. After the flop with Orli Levi-Abekasis, and now with Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, what reason would someone still loyal to the Meretz brand have to keep it alive?
It’s worth repeating the circumstances that led Rinawie Zoabi her place on the slate of Meretz candidates. On the eve of the 2021 election, Horowitz decided to remove Esawi Freige from a realistic spot on the slate. There is no love lost between those two. Businessman Yossi Kochik, who conducted the coalition negotiations on behalf of Meretz, recommended a social activist with an impressive record.
Horowitz, who had never heard of her, jumped at the opportunity. Getting a woman and an Arab in one was like hitting two birds with one stone. He traveled to her home in Nof HaGalil, where he was greeted warmly. In the election, Meretz unexpectedly swept up six Knesset seats, and Freige made it in on his own. How ironic that the second time the Meretz leader took the time to go to Nof HaGalil, Rinawie Zoabi was less polite, telling him to come back tomorrow.
This is one of the biggest political flops in our history, joining the one committed by Bennett. It’s also a failure of the minister charged with maintaining this part of the coalition, Yair Lapid. The two prime ministers are superior to Netanyahu in every aspect. They are more statesman-like, more devoted, better in their serious and responsible management of public affairs.
They are definitely better with regards to their values and ethical conduct. But in politics, he’s the grand master, and these guys are second league, repeatedly allowing him to score easy points. And Netanyahu? What luck he has. He was called Mr. Lucky before his luck ran out. In the card game of Israeli politics, there are winners and losers. Bibi is usually among the former.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Bennett and MK Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset in November.Ohad Zwigenberg
Dangerous rebellion
We’re in a relatively good position considering what was predicted for us, the chairman of one of the coalition parties told me on Wednesday, before the drama. But the fate of the government will be decided underground. “There are hidden currents,” he said. “Netanyahu is working hard, across all fronts.” This individual had also not seen the fatal constraint coming at the coalition from the left.
Even the new defector, who on Thursday celebrated the attention she received, would not support the dispersal of the Knesset – she was quoted as saying, “It’ll be all right.” The coalition will go into a catatonic state on Monday if its leaders are unable to resolve the crisis by then.
The calming message Rinawie Zoabi conveyed puts her in an entirely different position than Silman. It leaves a small opening for a peaceful resolution, with carrots, not only with sticks, as in Silman’s case. Meanwhile, the left-wing feed on social media, where many Arab Israelis are active, blew up with caustic responses to Rinawie Zoabi: Shame on you, they said, you’re saddling us with Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
If Rinawie Zoabi continues her rebellion, this coalition will collapse quickly instead of slowly while intubated in a coma. Even now, the dynamics are fatal; situations like this, by their nature, are reality-changers. The members of the Yamina faction can conclude that the ceremony is over and they can act; so can a person like Elkin, not to mention the United Arab List.
In her manifesto, replete with ideological and religious statements, Rinawie Zoabi put UAL chairman MK Mansour Abbas in a tough spot in relation to the section of the party and its advisory council that are demanding the UAL leave the government. Their reasons are the same ones Rinawie Zoabi cited, whether she believes them or just fears losing her chance at a diplomatic job. And this is all before the defiant, dangerous Flag March that could hammer the last nail in the coffin.
The gift that Netanyahu received was not one he had worked for. Netanyahu was working hard to tempt another MK to cross the line. He scattered promises of ministerial posts and jobs outside the Knesset. There are no sincere intentions behind this largesse of course, but it reeks of seeming bribery. Naturally, Netanyahu’s main targets are the right wing in New Hope and Yamina, but also someone like the UAL’s Mazen Ghanayim, who is constantly threatening to bolt.
Bennett’s troubles lie in wait for him not only in the Knesset; his office is no paradise, and its denizens are devouring each other. The departure of Bennett’s political and strategic adviser Shimrit Meir was much more abrupt than it appeared at first: She simply cut and ran. Her last day at her post was to have been June 1. However, over the past week she hasn’t come to her office, and did not attend the meeting of the security cabinet, although in her resignation letter she promised to “help with whatever is necessary,” including preparations for U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel.
Bennett’s advisor Shimrit Meir in 2016. Eyal Toueg
Meir told an interlocutor that she couldn’t stay for one more minute in a working environment where she had to endure such bitterness. The term “detoxification” was attributed to her. The toxins, to her, were Bennett’s chief of staff, Tal Gan-Zvi, a dyed-in-the-wool right-winger, who from the beginning did not approve of this government, and cabinet secretary Shalom Shlomo, who to a certain extent owes more to his previous employer, Lapid, than his current one.
And on the subject of Lapid and Meir: On Sunday morning, Lapid came to the cabinet meeting smiling from ear to ear. (Ayelet Shaked also had trouble hiding her good mood; it was one of those rare times where both shared the same reason for happiness.) The relationship between the foreign minister and his team on the one hand, and the dominant political adviser on the other, hit a snag fairly early in this government’s term.
Meir “interfered,” they spoke against her, she spoke against him, he would hear from political reporters what she had said about him and explode. But Lapid decided to restrain himself. That is, not to present Bennett with an ultimatum demanding her departure. I won’t interfere with his team, he told people who urged him to act.
Lapid’s approach changed following the Silman crisis. According to political sources, last month Lapid met with Bennett and suggested he consider jettisoning Meir, saying she was doing more harm than good. Whether the recommendation of Bennett’s senior partner influenced the prime minister or whether he reached the same conclusion on his own, the result is that Meir is out and Lapid is happy.
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