In justice reform controversy, Israel's Left is winning the battle of the narrative
Monday last week was a mixed bag for the coalition, with an easy victory in the judicial reform’s first Knesset test offset by a PR disaster outside the walls of the chamber. And the cheers from the coalition benches after the legislation’s late-night passage made it easy to forget that some within the coalition itself are profoundly concerned by Levin and Rothman’s hard-line agenda.
In the spirit of the approaching Purim, it was a week of masquerades: Protesters wore cloaks and masks outside the Knesset building, and some answered in ad delo yada fashion when asked what all the fuss was about. But during the coalition’s celebrations as well, many coalition members wore triumphant masks to conceal their qualms over continuing the legislative process.
During this period, feverish negotiations would normally be underway for a two-year budget, to give the government some breathing room. And while Naftali Bennett’s prediction that his government would last after he passed a budget is still remembered with derision, there’s no comparing Bennett’s hodge-podge coalition of 61 with the relatively homogeneous coalition of 64 MKs led by Binyamin Netanyahu.
Instead of celebrations over passing the budget, we got a carnival of protests. The state budget was sidelined as the judicial sinkhole swallowed the budget legislation that’s normally so crucial in stabilizing a new government in its first year. None of the wranglers over budget allocations (of which more later) have any idea what the Israeli economy will look like a day after the revolution.
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