Almost a year has passed since the new Israeli government was sworn in, and despite the predictions to the contrary, it is still functioning and not going anywhere.
The pessimism, or maybe the wishful thinking of some, about the demise of the Bennett coalition of course stems from the revolutionary nature of this coalition government. Not only are extreme left and extreme right parties members of this government, but, for the first time in the history of the Jewish State, an Arab party is an active member of this coalition. For the first time, in 74 years of its existence, Israel has a government with Arab members, who will look after the (very long neglected) interest of the Israeli Arabs, who after all make up almost 20% of the population.
To say that the road has been easy for this coalition would be more than an exaggeration, but the, politically, very diverse members have been able to look at the interest of the State, more than at the interest of their party and things are getting done. Of course, the original drive behind the formation of this coalition was the “Just Not Bibi” syndrome and everyone was willing give up a lot only to prevent Binyamin Netanyahu from becoming Prime Minister again but the strength of that argument has long since worn off and the coalition is moving forward under its own steam.
Of course there have been instances where the various partners have used their position of strength in this government (and every party almost is in such a position, if only that without them the meager majority would be lost), to make demands and issue ultimatums, but up until now, the coalition has avoided stand-offs in the Knesset that may have led to their downfall, albeit very narrowly a couple of times, and also sometimes with the help of the opposition. In particular, Ra’am, the Arab partner in the government has been very vocal in making demands for their constituents but the result of this has been mainly that the Arab population has gotten more benefit from this government that maybe of any government before it.
And for Ra’am, the recognition by the Arab population that they are doing things to improve life in the Arab sector is of crucial importance to establish itself as the Arab party that takes care of Arab interests.
All in all, on the surface it appears that this first of a kind government will continue to live on the edge but live it will. And you might expect that the population (and not only the Arab segment) will come to realize that a new era has begun where democracy in Israel will leave the path of Jewish Democracy and will start to include all of the population.
So, the results of a recent Opinion Poll (conducted for the Jerusalem Post) where it was found that almost 70% of the population does not want an Arab party in the government anymore, are surprising and disappointing at the same time. One year was sufficient for the Jewish population to decide that Arabs should not be part of the government? One year, out of 74 years of independence, was enough to decide that what Israel needs is not a Democracy but a Jewish Democracy? If anything, the conclusion of such a poll result has to be that Israelis still are racists and that what they really want is an Apartheid State.
And more bad news from this poll. In at least some of the analyses, it is likely that Itamar Ben Gvir, an ultra-right wing racist, will reach six seats in the Knesset, while his friend racist Smotrich will win four seats. Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir have been extremely vocal about the Arab population and apparently their racist rants are paying off and the population is willing to go with them.
The headline of the article in the Jerusalem Post was” Did the Experiment Fail?” and the results definitely point that way. It is to be hoped that this government will be able to avoid the pitfalls that both opposition and rebel coalition members continuously place in their path and that it may continue the unique experiment of “Real Democracy” because if it fails, it is hard to believe Israel will have another opportunity to resist the racists and become a country where all citizens feel they are taken care off no matter if their name is Ahmed or David.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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