Attila Somfalvi
Photo: Gabi Menashe
PM’s coalition woes
Land reform vote fiasco illustrates Netanyahu’s coalition mayhem
We can put away the eulogizes for the second Netanyahu
government. The vote on the Israel Land Administration reform, which turned into a farce
Wednesday, will not topple the government. At the end of the day, the bill will be passed.
The embarrassing display by the coalition at the Knesset plenum will only leave behind the memories and puzzlement regarding the scope of mishaps that one prime minister can accumulate in a little more than 100 days in office. Netanyahu, meanwhile, will be left with an undisciplined coalition and a bitter taste in his mouth from one humiliating day at the Knesset.
So how did it happen that precisely when it came to a vote on the most important bill for the prime minister – precisely in the critical moments of his “baby” – everything fell apart? How did Netanyahu again manage to maneuver himself into the darkest corner in the political establishment? This isn’t completely clear. What is clear is that Netanyahu’s coalition faces great mayhem with volatile potential – and every smalltime coalition member acts as though he’s the king. Everyone does whatever they want.
The PM’s inability to read the political map and understand the needs of the people around him was also revealed Wednesday. Had he been more attentive and had he been surrounded by enough suitable people that can manage his political affairs, it is doubtful whether he would have brought the bill up for a vote. He could have easily spared the embarrassment, the humiliating threats against Knesset members and ministers, and the superb ammunition he provided the opposition with.
Ehud Barak, who is currently on vacation in Europe, attempted to avert the humiliation. Wait another week, he pled with Netanyahu Wednesday. It’s not urgent. Wait for me to return to Israel. I know who I’m dealing with in my faction. It won’t work when I’m not there. Barak was right, but Netanyahu didn’t want to listen. He wanted to pass the bill even though he knew that some members of Labor, Habayit Hayehudi, and his own party as well were unhappy about some clauses.
‘Everyone is a potential rebel’
When Labor ministers are asked why they were absent from the plenum during the vote, despite the changes to the reform introduced at their behest, they provide an orderly list of excuses: They didn’t listen to us, we didn’t hold an in-depth discussion, we didn’t have time to sleep on it, etc. All of this may be true, but the truth is simpler and to some extent more human. For several weeks now, Labor ministers have been slammed by well-organized lobbies that met them almost every day and urged them not to abandon state-owned land to the wealthy.
Some of the ministers took it to heart, while others just didn’t like the criticism. When they saw both Ehud Barak and Shalom Simhon, who led the negotiations on changing the reform, flying away for vacations abroad, they decided to evaporate from the Knesset. Why should they sustain the criticism alone while their leader is sipping a cappuccino in Europe?
The problem is that after three months, Netanyahu’s coalition appears to have gone through three harsh years: The government secretary and media advisor barely sleep, while Bibi’s aides are exhausted. And here’s another symptom of the problem: Deputy PM Moshe Yaalon also disappeared before the vote. If the deputy PM can disregard the prime minister like that, what will the backbenchers say?
“This coalition limps from one crisis to another,” a senior Likud minister closely associated with Netanyahu says. “The problem is that the PM cannot count on even one person who is not a potential rebel – ranging from Orly Levy to Tzipi Hotovely, and all the way to Deputy PM Yaalon. It’s a delusional situation.”
What’s even more delusional, say senior Likud members who were upset at Netanyahu’s pre-election moves, is that the rebels come from the ranks of the “stars” brought onboard by Bibi: Miri Regev, Hotovely, and Yaalon. Netanyahu personally made an effort to get each and every one of them into the Knesset. And now, they are stabbing him in the back, only three months later.
