Netanya informs the president that he has managed to form a government (official website)
When Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu called on Wednesday night to tell President Yitzhak Herzog that he had managed to form a government, he put a broad smile on his face and informed him that he intended to form a government "as soon as possible, next week."
Until now, it must be said honestly, Netanyahu's deadlines have not gone particularly well.
Immediately after the victory in the elections, the target date that the Likud set for the formation of the government was within two weeks, already on the day of the swearing-in of the Knesset.
Then they added another week.
Then they added another one.
Until the 28 days of the first mandate were over, and Netanyahu had to ask for an extension, and even in the additional ten days he received, he could hardly stand.
The phone call to the president took place only a quarter of an hour before midnight, just before the mandate expires and turns into a pumpkin.
Likud wanted to reach the finish line with all the agreements with the bloc signed and closed, and to put the coalition negotiations behind them.
Netanyahu's partners, as they say, flowed less, not to mention, they were not given.
As throughout the negotiations, they did not cooperate with the timetables he dictated to them, and pulled into another white night of wording and closures, and from there to ultra-Orthodox internal power battles, which continued every day yesterday, and will probably drag on until the beginning of the week, only then will all the agreements be finally closed.
A wide smile spread across his face.
Netanyahu and his wife after the phone call to the president, December 22, 2022 (photo: official website, Likud spokesperson)
Netanyahu wants to make every effort to satisfy his government on Thursday, when the year will still be 2022, so that Yair Lapid will not be able to write two years in his biography and will not be remembered as prime minister even for one day in 2023.
Fortunately for him, the deadline this time is legally anchored and final, and by January 2, at the latest, he must present his government in the Knesset.
If not, his partners would probably continue to bargain forever, and squeeze more and more budgets, commitments and demands from him.
The smile on his face during the conversation with Herzog also reflected a sense of well-being that soon this war of attrition would be behind him.
The deadline as a parable: the right-wing government will fully stand up, just as Netanyahu and his partners promised.
There was no doubt about it even one day since the election, not even an easy one.
The 51 days that have passed since then reflect the unbridled appetite of the members of the bloc, who demanded to be rewarded for their loyalty and their lack of trust in Netanyahu, which is why they demanded the payment now and in cash, and the personal package of laws that qualified their appointments and powers even before the establishment of the government that delayed the timetables His.
But most of all, they are crying out for Netanyahu's lack of hand, in negotiations that were conducted without stop signs, red lines, or deadlines.
Likewise, the final coalition agreements, the most detailed the history of the Knesset has known, scream out its weakness.
Split offices, divided powers, jobs, budgets, departments, laws, reforms;
And in one word: a mess.
He shared with everyone who came near, and they did not stop taking.
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The main thing is that he will not be registered as prime minister in 2023 either.
Yair Lapid (Photo: Reuven Castro)
A large part of the religious and extreme demands of his allies was already revealed in the coalition negotiations, the party grocery lists that market the final achievements now concentrate all the information in one place. History shows that many of the clauses in the coalition agreements remain as a dead letter on paper, but they paint the sectoral and radical agenda That Netanyahu's partners will try to impose on him with regard to religion and state, annexation of settlements, war on terror and crime in the Arab sector. The arduous negotiations to form the government will still turn out to be the easy part, and the existence of the coalition appears to be much more challenging and complex.
The morning after the swearing in of the government, life itself will begin, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who plans to dismantle the civil administration in Judea and Samaria and promote annexation and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gabir who wants to go up to the Temple Mount and introduce the Shin Bet into the strongholds of crime in Arab society. And with an international community that is tense and alert to all Step by step of the new far-right government in Israel, which extends from the democratic White House through the United Nations in New York to European countries.
Diaspora Jewry is also at peak tension due to the planned changes in the Law of Return and Conversion, and anxiety about the powers of Avi Maoz, the training of racism and warnings about the changing face of Israeli democracy.
Netanyahu is depending on zealous idealists to extricate himself from the criminal charges.
Itamar Ben Gabir (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Even now, Netanyahu is troubled by the proceedings that Israel is facing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and raises the issue in the congratulatory talks he receives from leaders, in an attempt to repel the Palestinian moves at the UN. The commitments he gave to Smotrich and Ben Gabir, some of them reluctantly, in Judea and Samaria, could ignite a fire politically and security-wise, and he will try to reject or text at least some of them for strategic and security reasons. The question is whether they will agree to compromise on the realization of their vision and accept his status as a responsible adult.
Netanyahu has made a name for himself over the years as an outstanding magician in maneuvering and playing the various coalition players by his side.
But he never depended on extreme and fanatical idealists like Smotrich and Ben Gvir, and still depends on them completely, to escape the criminal charges.
As evidenced by the lists of marketing achievements of the bloc's parties, in the coalition negotiations they took full advantage of his weakness.
After the formation of the government he will try to regain control and put them in a groove.
But the difference between pragmatic players and extreme fanatics is that what they see from there can be exactly what they saw from here - and vice versa.
After the block has already stood up to its creator, it is not certain that he will be able to put the genie back in the bottle and break the dynamic.
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