Standing your ground or making it look like you do
As Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) insists on being given the whole truth, MK Benny Begin (Likud) finds straddling the fence rather comfortable
The Breaking Point
Minister of Education Naftali Bennett and his buddies at Bayit Yehudi have no idea how close they were from being ousted from the government. Behind closed doors, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed a growing impatience and sense of disdain for Bennett, saying that he will crush him the first chance he gets.
This week’s events were no doubt a turning point in their relationship. Netanyahu has never gone this far with anything as he has this time. He was hoping Bennett would make the mistake of resigning, which would have allowed the Zionist Union to enter the government. Even the Labor Party’s hardcore opposition would find it hard to refuse with Bennett out of the Coalition and both the prime minister and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman talking about a two-state solution.
But Bennett’s only focus is on the bottom line, which for him means getting what he had wanted all along. He may not have managed to create a military secretary position for the Security Cabinet, but he did secure the ongoing advice of Chairperson of the National Security Council Brigadier General (ret.) Yaakov Nagel. As Bennett himself had stated this week, his demands did not change. Bibi may have refused them last week or even earlier this week, but he acquiesced when the clock struck midnight on Thursday.
Bennett had explained to his people that they are indeed witnessing a turning point: for the first time in three years, the chairperson of the Security Council along with his deputy sat down to a special meeting with him. And for the first time in three years, daily updates are in fact being delivered daily, instead of at the end of the month or not at all. This is because the turning point has taken place within the Security Cabinet itself. The disrespect and mediocrity that had defined this important government body have come to an end. The tide is changing. From here on out, the public will no longer forgive anyone withholding information from cabinet members. The hand of a cabinet member that sends a soldier to battle will be a hand that knows the true meaning of that decision. The public will be scrupulously examining everyone’s behavior; Bennett, for his part, will go on challenging axioms and examining them using his common sense.
Bennett continued by telling his people that he has reached a point where he no longer trusts the government, which is why he now wishes to double down on his security and political wherewithal. No more will he follow him blindly, not after Operation Protective Edge, when he realized that he could not assume that all the relevant information will be passed on. He is now prepared to present the Security Cabinet with raw data, to challenge its members and raise tough questions. He understands that he cannot simply rely on the prime minister. He respects him, but when it comes to security matters, he is also wary of him.
The break in trust, Bennett told them, occurred after the state comptroller’s report found that Netanyahu did, in fact, know about the tunnels coming out Gaza, but that he chose to keep this information from the Security Cabinet. That’s all over now. A new chapter has begun. From now on, Bennett has his own National Security Council and his own sources of information.
The Hypocritical Right
This week we were also treated to a lesson in etiquette. MK Benjamin Begin (Likud), or Benny as the famously modest man likes to be called, expressed his emphatic opposition to the dismissal of former defense minister Yaakov “Bogey” Yaalon (Likud). “I was astounded to see the jubilation spreading through the right,” he said during a radio interview. “Apparently, those in the right can be divided into three categories – moderates, extremists and dumb.” He forgot, however, to mention the fourth category: the hypocritical.
No one doubts Begin’s wit. A few months ago, during a meeting held by the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Begin referred to the proposed “Suspension Bill” by saying, “This is a very, very problematic bill. In the 50s, one MK was suspended from the Knesset for months. Menachem Begin. And the reason for doing this? Because they could.” With one pithy sentence, he managed to express his unwavering opposition to the bill, showcase his comprehensive knowledge of history and hinte, with a thunderous modesty, at his own princely status. A few days later, though, MK Begin found himself voting, together with the dumb right, in support of the bill both on the committee and at the general assembly.
At present, the law might be up for a name change, to the Impeachment Law. A lot of discussions and words have been thrown around in the committee, all the while MK Begin continues to oppose its spirit and phrasing, suggesting improvements, offering ways to tone it down and generally voicing his objection to it. Willing to bet that by the time it comes up for a vote in the committee and assembly, Begin will once again vote with the dumb right?
Generally speaking, Begin has managed to perfect this system to an art form: first you must vehemently and very publicly express your objections to the proposed abomination, while discretely checking to see whether your vote might hinder the proposal. If it might, vote for it and apologetically explain that coalition agreements prevent are forcing your hand. If it won’t matter either way, abstain from the vote. Just as long as you don’t actually vote against the atrocity.
And so it was with Yaalon’s impeachment and Lieberman’s appointment: Begin tested the waters before allowing himself to abstain. If he had wanted, he could have prevented both the impeachment and the appointment, or at least he could have tried. All it would have taken was for him to tell Netanyahu that he objects to the move and plans to vote against it.
Begin’s words could have similarly thwarted the Impeachment Law. The same goes for the Norwegian Law. Several months earlier, he had passionately and eloquently described on the Norwegian Law’s many defects, wittily mocked northern Europeans and listed its each and every flaw before finally—inevitably—voting in favor of it. This despite the fact that it was within his power to stop it, or at a minimum work to have it changed.
These days, Begin is opposing the Transparency Law as presented by the great leader of the dumb right, MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi). Anyone willing to bet on whether Begin might kill the law, support it or abstain? And what of the bill looking to increase taxes, which Begin also supremely opposes? Will he end up killing it or supporting it? His modesty is, after all, quite thunderous. The whole country knows that he only relies on buses to get around, and he probably pays for his monthly pass out of pocket, perhaps even insisting on an old-fashioned punch card out of a historical resistance to the modern-day electronic bus pass.
And yet, can anyone point to one instance, since the formation of the State of Israel, in which Begin had managed to tip the scale from bad to good all by himself? Just one time during his long career in which he alone had used his power and stature to fight the dumb right and assist in the triumph of wisdom?
What about the Bedouin settlement project in the Negev? Begin had invested a great of effort in it, and had “performed this national mission with commendable faith and perseverance,” as Netanyahu had stated at the time. And yet it was Begin who eventually recommended that the plan be shelved due to the resistance it faced, explaining that “We did our best, but we also need to face reality.”
Begin had passionately come out against Im Tirtzu’s campaign against so-called “traitors,” demanding that the organization’s benefactors be revealed. Did anything happen with that?
Will we ever get to hear Begin quote his father by saying, “I cannot go on any further,” or will he forever explain his avoiding to take a stand by using the same words he had once said during an interview with Aryeh Golan, stating, “Why should I burn myself as a Buddhist monk?”
