On video: Netanyahu received the mandate to form the government from the president, the coalition negotiations continue (L.A.M.)
On the face of it, this should have been a fairly simple task.
With an overwhelming victory of 64 seats, prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu thought he could easily establish the government of his dreams;
After nearly four years of floundering, a year and a half in the opposition, and a perfectly coordinated and synchronized election campaign, the homogeneous right-wing bloc was supposed to aim to quickly slide back into power with it and replace the Bennet-Lapid government with a "full right-wing" government, as its partners repeatedly promised their voters.
The day after the elections, in the midst of the victory celebrations, Netanyahu set an ambitious goal - forming a government within two weeks and swearing it in on the day of the Knesset's inauguration.
Well, tomorrow will be a month until the elections - and a government?
not yet
If Netanyahu had not set the pretentious deadline himself, it would have been possible to fly past this milestone;
The clock that is ticking now is the mandate clock, which he received from the president 12 days after the elections, and he has 11 days left out of the 28 to form a government, with the possibility of requesting a two-week extension;
All in all, he still has three and a half weeks to hold on to the mandate and announce "I have it," which is an eternity in terms of coalition negotiations, and especially in the terms of Netanyahu, who is known to be a great procrastinator when it comes to schedules.
In general, data from the Israel Democracy Institute shows that since 2001 there has been a constant increase in the amount of time it takes to form a government in Israel, much under the auspices of Netanyahu, who always drags out negotiations until the last minute and uses almost all of the 42 days of the mandate when he receives it first.
This was the case in 2009, when 49 days passed from the day of the elections to the announcement of a government.
In 2013 it jumped to 55 and in 2015 to 58.
This time, with the loyal and close-knit partners, he hoped to break free from bad habits, establish a lightning government and beat the schedules.
Meanwhile, a month has passed since the elections, and the future coalition has not even replaced the Speaker of the Knesset yet, and Likud is already starting to talk about the possibility of asking the President for an extension of the mandate in order to have time to enact the law that will qualify the appointment of Deri as a minister before the swearing in of the government as he requested. The optimistic deadlines have expired After that, they acted like a boomerang - instead of uniting the partners, they only increased the suspicion, the appetite, and the battles of interests in the block. The road to the dream government got complicated.
If he hadn't set the pretentious deadline, it would have been possible to fly past this milestone.
Netanyahu in a meeting with Smotrich, the day before yesterday (photo: official website, Likud spokesperson)
Still, in view of the bitter cries of the right-wing bloc against the dangerous Bennet-Lapid government for a year and a half and the fact that there are really no big ideological differences between them, one would have expected that it would be easier and faster to establish a full-fledged right-wing government.
The dragging of feet indicates mainly the greed of Netanyahu's partners, who are trying to maximize each one's share of the plate.
Four parties ran in the bloc in the last elections, but around the coalition negotiation table they are split into factions and sub-factions;
Religious Zionism split into three - Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben Gabir and Avi Maoz, and in Torah Judaism one must please the flag of the Torah, Agudat Israel, and the Hasidic representatives.
Only the chairman of Shas, Aryeh Deri, behaves like an organic unit.
How little ideological differences there are, so many power struggles, and when each sees what the other gets, he demands more for himself.
Ministries, budgets, powers, authorities, legislation and commitments to far-reaching reforms;
Each of the bloc's members wants to be rewarded for their loyalty and to increase their share of the pie, and Netanyahu is forced to share more and more of it to satisfy their growing appetite.
Thus, contrary to the earlier plan to leave the Ministry of Finance in the hands of the Likud, he was forced to give up the most important office for government work in favor of Smotrich, who will share the position with Deri in rotation;
He agreed to all of Ben Gvir's demands to receive expanded powers over the police, and also from other ministries, he agreed in principle to Smotrich's demand to dismantle the civil administration in the territories, and he gave Maoz, the extreme fundamentalist, the reins to establish a "Jewish identity government" and to evacuate Jews from Russia.
Not to mention the budgetary costs of the partnership requirements and the new and invented offices that will reach billions.
More in Walla!
Progress in talks between Netanyahu and Smotrich, but the Shas claim that there is a crisis in the talks
To the full article
How few ideological differences, so many power struggles.
Smotrich, Ben Gabir and Deri at the swearing in of the Knesset, two weeks ago (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Netanyahu is ready to give everything, at least on paper, to form his sixth government.
After you wake up, he can always text.
And she will get up.
Because none of them have any other choice.
But this is also what makes it difficult for him to succeed in peace negotiations;
Everyone who sits in front of him knows that he really has no alternative.
Netanyahu is not an ordinary prime minister who received the mandate to form a government, but is accused of crimes who built a political bloc to survive his trial, and he will not dismantle it before fulfilling his mission.
And to prove it, he didn't even toy with this possibility as a bargaining chip to lower prices and set red lines for his negotiating partners.
Netanyahu could, even ostensibly, invite Yair Lapid or Benny Gantz to the meetings, in order to pressure Smotrich and Ben Gvir, and force them to compromise on some of the extreme demands they made.
But he gave up that card in advance.
As soon as he fully committed himself to a coercive block, he reduced his room for maneuver and his leverage in negotiations.
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