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OCTOBER 29, 2015 The Jewish Home JUNE 10, 2021 | The| Jewish Home
Too Much Change in the “Change Coalition”? BY SHAMMAI SISKIND
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in late March, Yamina party chairman Naftali Bennett was interviewed by the religious-Zionist outlet Arutz Sheva. With the latest round of elections completed only days earlier and coalition-forming efforts then fully underway, Bennet left no room for ambiguity for what his political intentions were. Following the election, the Yesh Atid party, headed by center-left politician Yair Lapid, passed the polls with seventeen parliamentary seats. With the results in, it became crystal clear any government that would present an alternative to Binyamin Netanyahu – whom Bennett has repeatedly denounced and called for his replacement over the past year – would be formed by Lapid. Bennett was adamant he would take no part in such a coalition. “I am a man of the Land of Israel from the womb and from birth,” Bennett said, “as I have already promised: I will not lend my hand to a government headed by Lapid, not even in a rotation, because I am a right-wing man. Period.” The Yamina chairman went on to dismiss accusations from Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Likud party that he would help the left rise to power. “I will never help Lapid become prime minister because his positions are the opposite of mine.” Little more than two months after that interview, Bennett transgressed the very red line he so clearly laid out. On June 3, Bennett announced that he had reached a deal along with seven other parties to form a government with Yair Lapid, whom he warmly referred to as “my friend.” In the late night hours the previous evening, Lapid informed Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin he had succeeded in reaching a deal.
(L-R) Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid, Yamina chair Naftali Bennett, New Hope chair Gideon Sa’ar, Blue and White head Benny Gantz, Ra’am chair Mansour Abbas, Labor head Merav Michaeli and Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz at a meeting of the heads of the would-be-coalition in Tel Aviv, June 6, 2021. (Ra’anan Cohen)
ABBAS IN THE ALLIANCE The recently announced coalition pact is almost too strange to believe. The list of “political firsts” the new government will bring in is long indeed. Two years ago, Naftali Bennett became the first religious MK to head the Defense Ministry. With the official vote to establish a new government set for Sunday, it seems Bennett will again make history as the first observant prime minister of Israel. Similarly, never has there been such a thinly spread variety of parties that have taken part in forming a coalition. The new government will house the full gamut of
Israel’s political spectrum: from religious-Zionists to leftist radicals, from conservative-leaning secular right-wingers, to ardent socialists. It also presents a seismic rattling of the political landscape in Israel, the likes of which haven’t been seen for decades. Among the many intriguing aspects of this weird alliance, two in particular stand out. First and foremost is the unprecedented participation of the Ra’am party headed by Mansour Abbas. Ra’am’s support of the coalition marks the first time an Arab party will be vital to forming an
