Bennett (left) and Lapid at their joint press conference
Photo:
Ronen Zvulun / REUTERS
The press conference given by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday was a rarity in Israel.
Two partners stood side by side and explained that they were aiming for a vote on the dissolution of the Knesset, which meant that the government was dead and there would probably be new elections.
And then what is good practice in normal democracies happened.
According to the coalition agreement, Lapid will become acting prime minister.
This states that if right-wing MPs bring down the government, Lapid will become interim prime minister.
If links had done this, then Bennett would have stayed.
Since Nir Orbach, a member of Bennett's Yamina party, brought down this unique coalition of eight parties, including one Arab, Lapid will take the reins.
And this fact went silently across the stage, politely, amicably, as a matter of course.
As it should be in democracies.
Unfortunately, that is not always the case in Israel.
Just remember the way ex-Prime Minister Netanyahu (didn't) hand over the post to Bennett.
It should be one of the last courtesies to be seen in the political arena in the coming weeks and months.
Because Netanyahu's campaign strategy is already clearly foreseeable: populist agitation against all those "Jewish" parties that are in coalition with "Islamists" (meaning Mansour Abbas' Ra'am party).
The fact that it was Netanyahu himself who made this party presentable is of course suppressed.
In the fourth election in almost two years, Netanyahu was again unable to gain a majority in 2021 and courted Mansour Abbas, wanting to bring him into the coalition in order to stay in power.
Nothing came of it.
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So now the Arabs are all Islamists, destroyers of the Jewish state, all leftists anyway, but also Avigdor Lieberman, Naftali Bennett and Gideon Sa'ar, those actually right-wing politicians who wanted nothing more to do with Netanyahu - and therefore a way out sought to keep him out of power, even if ideologically they still belong to his camp.
How does it go from here?
Bennett and Lapid had announced that they would hold the vote on dissolving the Knesset next week.
But already on Tuesday morning it is said that the two want to hold the vote on Wednesday.
Why?
Because both fear that Netanyahu might forge a coalition with other right-wing breakaways from the coalition by next week and that elections would no longer be necessary.
But that's something the two partners, who put together what is probably the most unique government Israel has ever seen, want to avoid at all costs.
It is not yet clear how this will turn out.
The election is expected to take place on October 25th
If there is an election - and that seems the most likely thing right now - Yair Lapid has just four months to prove himself as interim prime minister.
The election is expected to take place on October 25th.
Many Israelis do not trust the former TV presenter and journalist that he can really lead the country.
In the past 12 months, Lapid has shown something that is hard to find in Israeli politics: steadfastness and, above all, a lack of vanity.
Even though his Yesh Atid party had become the second largest faction after the Likud, even though it was the largest party within the governing alliance, he let Bennett take the lead as prime minister with just six seats.
He, Lapid, was scheduled to take over on a rotation after two and a half years.
Now it was clear
that Lapid really had no choice but to act in this way.
He needed Bennett to get a razor-thin majority in the Knesset against Netanyahu, and Bennett paid dearly for his involvement.
Nevertheless, the decision to go first with Bennett was taken calmly, there were no disputes, Lapid did not complain, he had a larger goal in mind: to prevent Netanyahu.
He acted strategically, almost statesmanlike.
So if Lapid wants a chance to beat Netanyahu again, he must use the next few months wisely.
Of course, the Likud will again provide the strongest faction, that's no question.
However, that does not mean that Netanyahu will get a majority in the Knesset.
The situation is likely to be as tight as it has been in the last four elections, at least as it stands.
Netanyahu no longer wants a majority, albeit a small one.
But now that the coalition has broken up, Netanyahu has a decisive advantage: his camp is united, with no ifs or buts.
His camp: the Likud, the orthodox parties and the right-wing extremists around Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who are predicted to win enormous elections at the expense of the orthodox.
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The others are now at odds or, like Bennett's Yamina party, have worn themselves out.
Bennett himself is likely to take a break from politics.
His longtime partner, current Home Secretary Ayelet Shaked, appears to have plans of her own.
Will she return to the Likud?
Evil tongues claim that this cannot happen, Netanyahu's wife Sara, who hates her dearly, will never allow it.
But Shaked could start their own party or take over Yamina.
She would probably be followed by some ultra-right politicians, since her controversial election commercial in 2019, in which she advertises the perfume "Fascism" as a beautiful model, she has been an icon of her ideology for many right-wingers.
It was also she who, when she was Minister of Justice, sought to limit the powers of the Supreme Court,
Will Lapid make the impossible possible again?
So how will the elections go?
Of course, this cannot be predicted at the moment.
Will Lapid make the impossible possible again?
It would be a success for him if Netanyahu didn't get a majority.
But that would mean that the country would once again enter an endless round of elections, which would again completely paralyze the state.
A new budget could not be passed and many other things would remain undone.
It would be a little groundhog day, a scenario you thought you had just gotten over.
On the other hand, Lapid would remain acting prime minister for much longer, which could be an advantage for him.
The other scenario is clear: Netanyahu returns to power.
And then?
The ex-PM is still on trial on three counts of alleged corruption.
Should Netanyahu become prime minister, he will almost certainly ensure that he is granted immunity for good.
The untrustworthy "deep state" slogans of the police, judiciary and media will be heard everywhere.
And in the end, the right will probably want to push through its favorite project: curtailing the powers of the Supreme Court, which means that once laws have been passed in the Knesset, it will no longer be able to overturn them.
Netanyahu could finally lead the country into an "illiberal democracy," as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán calls his system in Hungary.
Troubled months ahead
The question now facing Israelis goes well beyond whether to vote "left" or "right," whether to favor Netanyahu or Lapid or any other politician.
Israelis will have to decide what kind of state they live in, what kind of system they want.
It will also be a decision as to where the Jewish state will have its alliances in the future.
If Israel chooses Netanyahu's path, it would only benefit if Donald Trump or another Republican wins in the next US election.
A democratic president is likely to be on a collision course with an anti-liberal Israeli government in many areas.
Liberal Western Europe, on the other hand, has been losing Israel for years and is likely to lose it even faster then.
But who knows: the Ukraine war will change a lot.
In a world that is again mutating into hostile blocs, even an "illiberal" Israel could be of great value to the West.
Not just as a bridgehead in the Middle East, but as a country that has a lot to offer in cyber warfare, intelligence, and high-tech.
One thing is for sure: the next few months in Israel will be exciting and exciting and restless again.
That's not really new in the Jewish state.
