As time goes on, the conduct of the government becomes more and more a battle for survival.
In the past week, for example, the offices of Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid have hardly dealt with the management of state affairs, but have devoted all their time and energy to managing coalition affairs.
From the bureau chiefs and senior advisers (those who remain), through the directors of the ministries and the secretariat of the government, to the speakers and the bureaucracy, they are all involved in preventing the fall of the government. On the altar of survival.
Their problem is that the blanket is short.
Every time you lecture the generator of the crisis on duty - someone from the other end becomes resentful, and vice versa.
Someone from the coalition likened it this week to an attempt to put out a large forest using one fire truck.
Each time it travels to the other side, the first side lights up again.
It is clear to everyone that this cannot continue, and that the government is on borrowed time.
Both Bennett and Lapid understand that this is not a question of whether but of when.
And if in the beginning there was still talk of big plans and planned initiatives, the discourse today among senior government officials is to work from week to week.
Every passing week is a blessing.
Sometimes even passing a day seems like an excessive request.
But it works.
This week, the coalition signed the third week since the return of the Knesset from a break without a parliamentary majority with the retirement of Idit Silman.
These are at least two weeks longer than many in the political system have estimated.
And a significant shot of encouragement to coalition leaders to continue in the same method, until the next crisis, or until the next day, depending on what comes first.
In this respect Bennett and Lapid are not much different from many politicians before them, who sold state assets for their own good.
Over the years, quite a few of them have stood in front of the public and pathetically declared that in their eyes first and foremost the good of the state, in the second place the good of the party and only in the last their personal good, when it is clear to everyone that the real order is exactly the opposite.
The difference between then and now is in intensities.
The degree of submission to blackmail.
In the amount of breach of promises.
Leaders have always known when to bow down and pay to please a rebellious politician or party, such events have always been part of the political game.
But not such sums.
And not so often.
There seems to be no red line that will make Bennett and Torch stop and say up to "here."
Whatever amount, absurd and astronomical as it may be, they will be willing to pay in exchange for the industrial quiet they are buying in the meantime.
Parliamentarily, there is nothing to say, it works.
Publicly and image-wise, it seems less.
The votes, including from within the coalition, sound different this week compared to last week or before.
Voices about it becoming excessive.
That the political events are eroding the government and its members to the core.
The Likud also estimates that despite their strong desire for the fall of the government and elections now, each such week that passes will bring them greater achievements on Election Day.
It will only get worse
The resignation of MK Jida Rinawi Zoabi from Meretz from the coalition on Thursday last week and her speedy return on Sunday, was one of the most abrasive events the government went through, which was criticized not only by the right but also by the left.
After detailing a series of principled and ideological issues for which she decided to retire, and after appearing in the TV studio, declaring that it was a "do not repeat" and "final" situation, and even stressed the determination of Arab women - it turned out that several hundred million Arab authorities fixed the situation.
That the events of the Temple Mount can also be forgotten, as well as the al-Jazeera journalist who was killed, who will rest in peace.
But the blanket, as mentioned, is short.
The submissive submission to Zoabi led to a sharp message from Nir Orbach that he is "on the edge."
After dozens of times already on the edge, and bouts of abdominal pain, endless grief, insomnia, cold sweats and duck skin, the attitude towards Auerbach is a bit dull.
At the same time, Silman's surprise prevents Bennett and his men from ignoring him completely.
Maybe this time it really is.
Right now, fortunately, not at all.
Bennett and Lapid's offices breathed a sigh of relief when MK Michael Bitton announced that his coalition revolt was not really intended to overthrow it or dismantle the government. The problem is, again, money, and they have already learned to deal with it.
The ritual of the resignation of senior officials from the Prime Minister's Office also continued.
After each such retirement, a press release is issued, dripping with a view of viewers.
As if there is no connection between the conduct and the atmosphere in the bureau and the departure.
These are always external circumstances: personal matters, a sense of exhaustion, a desire to return to the family, which led to this, and not God forbid a world war, passionate battles, camping, mutual assassinations and a sense of disgust that preceded the move.
Still, Tal Gan Zvi's departure from the Prime Minister's' Office this week stunned senior officials to the right.
This is not another consultant.
Gan Zvi has been with Bennett since he entered politics in 2013.
He followed him when he was in the Jewish home, on the new right, did not leave him even when he did not pass the blocking percentage, and was a full partner in all his adventures, supporting and backing him.
Gan Zvi was a true man of trust.
Never leaked against the boss.
Be faithful to the end.
Even when World War II began in the bureau with the arrival of political adviser Shimrit Meir, who also began advising on media and politics issues and entered like a stick into the wheels of the chief of staff, Gan Zvi absorbed and did not speak openly against it.
Not only because of this, his retirement stunned them, but also because of the fact that in the battle between him and Meir he came out on top, with the announcement of her retirement two weeks ago.
Gan Zvi did not want to form the current government.
He accepted it as a constraint.
As a strong desire of Bennett that he should respect.
He is basically a right-wing man, very connected to the national religious community from which he comes.
He, like Silman and like Auerbach, has been severely criticized by the sector since the government was formed, and may like Silman have realized that he can no longer.
That the government is nearing the end of its path anyway.
That the shameful concessions and surrender to the PM and to individual rebels will only worsen.
Orbach is connected to Bennett but more so to Ayelet Shaked and Gan Zvi.
The abandonment of the latter may loosen his grip a little.
Bags or not to be
In everything related to crisis management - the Likud faction did not really excel this week.
Those who led the militant line were Benjamin Netanyahu, Yariv Levin and Yoav Kish.
The three came to the conclusion, with some justification, that no more achievements could be given to the coalition.
That the public should see with their own eyes that important or national votes, in which RAAM refuses to vote with the coalition - the government falls, and emphasize through that it has no right to exist. But the three chose the wrong battle to prove their position.
Absorbed and reacted.
Gan Zvi, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
At the outset they made it clear that the opposition to the "Dimensions for Education" law does not concern a particular law but a principle: the opposition does not vote with the coalition, period.
The message did not work.
When, on the other hand, they began to run an aggressive campaign on the "harm to IDF soldiers," the Likud realized that a strategy needed to be changed.
Thus was born the initiative to fight for a 100 percent grant to soldiers instead of the 66 percent offered by the government.
It was a successful move that managed to turn the bowl around.
Likud members broadcast that again they are the ones who take care of the soldiers, but not everyone in the Likud internalized the change of line and continued to talk about the need to overthrow government laws at all costs.
Especially Miri Regev who said the things passionately at the faction meeting and her words were recorded and broadcast.
Meanwhile, the Likud managed to quarrel with the ultra-Orthodox factions.
Shortly after midnight, when Defense Minister Bnei Gantz went to the Knesset podium and sent his 75% financing compromise proposal, the Likud saw this as a quick and short way to get off the tree they had climbed.
Levin scheduled a faction meeting at 1:30 at night to discuss a compromise, while in the meantime Netanyahu convened the leaders of Torah Judaism, Moshe Gafni and Yaakov Litzman.
Aryeh Deri, who was not present in the Knesset, was on the line.
The three gave him a green light, and then Smutrich came in who also agreed.
In the Likud faction, only three voted against Ganz's proposal.
Everyone else supported.
But not everyone in the ultra-Orthodox factions liked the summary.
Knesset members from Torah Judaism and Shas angrily claimed that the Likud had sold them out. Even without the Likud.
The big question that remains open is the question of budget.
His approval is a dramatic matter for the opposition parties, and cooperation with the government on this issue is almost impossible for someone who constantly declares that he is interested in overthrowing him.
However, there are moves that a high enough price tag may arrange.
And the current government has shown that it is willing to pay, and a lot.
The ultra-Orthodox see Avigdor Lieberman continue to beat them with reforms and decisions against the ultra-Orthodox sector, and there is no doubt that some of them would be happy to stop everything in exchange for cooperation with the government.
The more Lieberman is beaten, the more MK will decide to cooperate. To his credit, by the way, the entire Torah Judaism faction is not needed for this. One MK is enough to be absent, and the coalition has a majority.
Walking on eggs
The state budget is another event in which the government may be eroded when it breaks the salmon records again and succumbs to the blackmail of its partnership.
Meanwhile, the surrender continues mainly to the Arab representatives in the Knesset.
Currently, most coalition members will prefer to fill their mouths with water as long as they do not have to attack the Arab Knesset members, neither the partners from Ra'am nor the security network from the joint, in order to survive a little longer in power
. On the death of a journalist al-Jazeera who was killed in Jenin - "the scum of the human race", her party chairman Yair Lapid contented himself with a tweet on Twitter: "Meirav is the world champion", and no word on Tibi.
During the discussion in the Education Committee, Sharan Hashakel expelled Yosef Haddad, an Arab-Israeli social activist for coexistence who does not hesitate to wave the Israeli flag, serve in the army and support the country, to the voice of MK Aida Toma-Suleiman from the joint list, who shouted at him ", And" traitor to his people. "
This is what an Arab who wants coexistence and supports service in the IDF is seen in common. And with these, business is being done in the current government.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us