With his slim majority gone, can Bennett survive?
However, the real pyrotechnics will occur the following week, when the Knesset reconvenes after its long Pesach hiatus with the Bennett government on life support.
Bennett’s coalition lost its slim one-vote majority just before Pesach, when Yamina MK Idit Silman defected to the Likud. She was reportedly suffering pangs of conscience over proposed changes to the religious status quo — none of which prevented her from joining the coalition in the first place.
At press time, opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu was predicting one or two more big-name defectors as early as this week.
Trying to show he still has friends in high places, Bennett announced that President Biden would pay a visit to Israel in the “coming months.” Bennett didn’t mention if he would host Biden in his Raanana home, newly renovated with 50 million taxpayer shekels, or if Biden would stick with precedent and lodge in the King David hotel, snarling downtown Jerusalem traffic. Either way, the timing of the announcement could be interpreted as a blatant attempt on Bennett’s part to shore up his flagging support, although it’s not clear how a president who needs an Easter bunny to escort him on the White House lawn could be of much assistance.
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