Bibi’s desperately rolling the dice for his political survival
The best way to understand Israeli politics nowadays is to think of the Knesset like the northern border with Hezbollah. One moment there’s a tense quiet as the two sides probe each other’s weak points, on guard against attack. Suddenly there’s a provocation, reports that hostilities are imminent, and the media swoop. Just as suddenly, it blows over. Calm resumes and the headlines move on.
Political border raiding is more or less how Israel began the week. The two-headed Hydra government of Netanyahu and Gantz – a coalition that has never coalesced – threatened to tear itself apart and take the country to the voting booths again.
The immediate flashpoint was a tussle between the co-prime ministers about whether to pass a one- or two-year budget – and if there’s no approved budget, there’s no government (the budget is often the easiest way to topple an incumbent government). Building for weeks, the crisis came to a head on Sunday with a tense standoff at the weekly cabinet meeting. “From day one, you didn’t intend to honor the coalition agreement and pass a biannual budget,” Gantz reportedly shouted at Bibi, to which Netanyahu responded: “Can someone turn up the volume? We don’t hear you.”
With the Knesset on war footing, and the media full of reports of politicians considering new alliances, Israelis – in the depth of an economic and health crisis — wearily looked on as the country teetered on the edge of fourth elections.
Create a free account to keep reading.
