Most of the members of the new coalition internalized the idea: in view of the opposition's cries of division and the massive campaign against the government involved in the media, what is needed is mainly to keep quiet. To answer matter-of-factly, to let them run amok, to quickly advance the reforms in the judicial system and to demonstrate governance. Shouting is the main tool of the opposition members. The members of the government do not need them. Their actions speak for themselves.
This is not how the two Knesset members from Otzma Yehudit - Almog Cohen and Zvika Vogel - understood this week, calling for the arrest of opposition members for treason.
no less.
"A prime minister who tries to rebel against an army officer should be prosecuted according to the law," said Cohen, referring to Yair Lapid (the error in the original, MT). His friend Fogel added: "We need to arrest the opposition leader Yair Lapid, the leader of the state camp Benny Gantz, Yair Golan and Bogi Ya'alon.
They are the most dangerous people out there right now.
No demonstration, no flags, no anything else.
They are calling for war.
This is treason against the homeland and grounds for arrest."
In the coalition, which faces severe attacks from the outside, they tried to dwarf the event.
Prime Minister Netanyahu issued a statement to Kony stating that "in a democratic country, the leaders of the opposition are not arrested, just as the ministers of the government are not called 'Nazis' and the Jewish government is not called the 'Third Reich', and citizens are not called to riot."
The other Likud ministers also reacted weakly and without desire when asked about it in the studios this week.
That's not how things went under the surface.
The Likud ministers, led by the Prime Minister, were furious with the two members of the Knesset of Otzma Yehudit and hurled harsh words at them, to their faces and not to their faces.
They were accused of harming the entire government, intensifying the opposition's struggle and the demonstrations in the streets, and moreover - harming Israel in the international arena.
"If there are 80,000 protesters on Shabbat night, it will be possible to say with certainty that several tens of thousands of them came because of Fogel and Cohen," said a Likud minister.
According to a senior member of the party, "the prime minister - who is working to restore the status of his new government in the world due to the scorn that was unleashed on it by the opposition even before it was formed - has encountered great difficulty in recent days, when such voices are heard from within the exact same coalition."
According to him, "What they understood in Likud and religious Zionism, they also need to understand in Otzma Yiddish. We are not in elections, there is no campaign, and they don't have primaries either. There is no need for these statements, especially when we absorb extreme calls that reach the point of actual incitement from the opposition."
Since the elections, Netanyahu has preferred the state approach, which is not competitive.
He reacts to attacks, and also stings his predecessor Lapid quite a bit.
But the words are weighted, the statements are measured.
The same goes for the other Likud ministers.
And also with Bezalel Smotrich and the religious Zionists.
When Simcha Rothman was asked to respond to the criticism of the legal reform that he is promoting in the Constitutional Committee he chairs - he avoided getting into a confrontation and tried to respond objectively, despite the ridiculous claims made regarding the reform.
Background noise, nothing more
Against this background, until Vogel and Cohen's statements, the words of hatred and incitement of the opposition leaders and of the demonstrators in the Bhima Square stood out very much.
Again, as in the Balfour demonstrations, the demonstrators descend on the lower ranks in a display of evil, comparisons to Nazis, calls for civil war, and above all burning hatred.
The ministers worked - and they poisoned.
The more they understood on the other side that this time it would not work, that the new government was more determined than ever to govern and carry out its commitments, the more the statements and attempts to present it as an illegitimate government increased.
The statements of members of Otzma Yehudit created an equation.
Since those statements not only one side crosses every possible red line - now there are two.
Calls for the arrest of opposition members correspond perfectly with the left's "law of democracy" campaign and put wind in its sails.
After convincing themselves that the judicial reform was intended to cancel the Knesset elections, harm minorities, and of course - their favorite comparison to Hungary, here came the winning proof: members of the National Security Minister's party say out loud that the next step is the arrest of opposition members.
For Russia we were, for Iran we were.
Obviously.
Netanyahu will not give up his partners.
He will not bring in Benny Gantz to kick out Ben Gvir.
It is true that the world will digest the government better if a factor considered moderate and pragmatic is part of it, but the world is not at the forefront of Netanyahu's mind.
He believes in his ability to talk to the relevant leaders and convince them that nothing has changed in the nature of the country in his sixth government.
What is at the top of his agenda is changing the systems that have shaped his life: from the law to the media.
This is the main task at the moment.
For three years he waited for this moment, from transition governments through a Pritat government to the descent into the opposition.
Netanyahu makes plans and wishes for the moment.
Therefore, if the opposition believes that they will succeed in breaking him or the coalition through demonstrations and protests, extreme calls and undermining the legitimacy of the government in the world - most likely they will be disappointed.
In contrast to the previous round of protests, when the government stood on chicken's knees and was founded on Benny Gantz as a central wing, the 64 members of the parties that now make up the government are not impressed by the protesters.
Together with the major media, thousands of protest participants give them a constant reminder of why they must stay together, and what awaits them outside if they separate.
The 64 members of the coalition will go with Netanyahu for changes in the judicial system.
Not only for the first stage presented by Levin's opponent, but also for the stages that will follow.
They will also go with him to reforms in the corporation and the IDF, and to making the media map in Israel more balanced, in their opinion. Also in steps against the "deep state", civil servants, appointment methods and everything that will reflect the right-wing rule in the state's systems - they will follow him and support all his moves.
For decades, the right has abandoned important arenas, and the feeling is that the time has come for the correction, which is the government's main task.
Everyone shares this feeling, and it can be estimated that they will not allow tens of thousands of protesters to put their dream aside.
Status check
Itamar Ben Gabir, who was forced to disavow the words of his friends this week, began to make a series of decisions - the fight against waving the PLO flag; the order to the police to deal equally with troublemakers, including the use of stun guns in demonstrations in Tel Aviv;
and the large-scale police operation in the south of the country, which was planned in secret and carried out by surprise.
Even before anyone knew about the police raid in Be'er Sheva and its surroundings, Ben Gvir was attacked for his involvement with protesters and flags, while neglecting the important things for which he took office: control of law and order in the south, the illegal Arab construction and the strengthening of governance.
However, it turns out that the flag issue he was dealing with may lead to an in-depth government discussion on a much deeper issue: What is that political authority operating from Ramallah in the eyes of the State of Israel and its leaders in the current government?
Is this an enemy authority?
Is the peace agreement with her (Oslo agreement) still in force, or has it been cancelled?
Fateful questions of far-reaching significance, which so far no one has answered.
Soon, it seems, senior government officials, from Netanyahu to other senior political figures, will be forced to discuss the issue and formulate a position.
This discussion will take place at the request of the Legal Adviser to the Government, Gali Beharve-Miara.
This is evident from the reply letter she sent to Laban Gabir, after he asked her to authorize him to order the police to remove the PLO flags raised in the demonstrations.
"In your letter to me, you stated that the enforcement policy that exists today on the issue is mainly based on the change that has taken place in the relationship between the State of Israel and the PLO from a political point of view," she wrote. to this concrete issue of waving a flag.
The position of the additional political level officials relevant to the matter must be obtained first, after they have heard the position of the security systems.
After accepting these positions - I will change my position." The first addressee of the letter is Netanyahu, and in addition - Minister of Defense Yoav Galant and head of the National Assembly Tzachi Hanegbi.
A patent swindler for blaspheming Shabbat
If the demonstrations had not been held, it might have turned out that the glue connecting the parts of the coalition is not exactly superglue.
Lapid's descriptions of Likud voters opposing the demands of the ultra-orthodox factions may be exaggerated, but the matter did manage to raise a sensitive point among those who consider themselves loyal to the Likud's liberal values - the liberal Emancipation Camp party.
Such a point of friction almost led to an explosion at the last cabinet meeting.
It was on Sunday, after Shabbat it was discovered that in the middle of the holy day infrastructure work was being carried out by the Ministry of Transportation - which led the chairman of Torah Judaism, Minister of Construction and Housing Yitzhak Goldknopf, to send a sharp letter to the Prime Minister demanding that the work be stopped on Shabbat.
As a member of the Shabbat permits committee, a rabbi from the Chief Rabbinate will be included.
according to which he will do anything.
If he says it's okay - all the members of the ultra-Orthodox factions will line up, and they too will say it's okay.
The rabbinate, as we know, is not particularly strict
When Goldknopf entered the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu began to raise his voice and hurl harsh words at him, which astonished those present.
"Why are you making announcements about the fact that you wrote a letter against the work on Shabbat?!" Netanyahu shouted, "Can't you talk to me? Talk to Minister Regev? I remind you that you are no longer the chairman of the committee for Shabbat, but a minister in Israel!
You are part of the leadership and the decision makers, not the letter writers and the complainers!"
Netanyahu, those present say, is really furious.
"You give weapons to the coalition's enemies!", he slammed him.
Goldknopf was mostly silent and looked embarrassed.
Already at the beginning of the week, the first discussion on the subject took place.
Later, another discussion took place.
Goldknopf's chief of staff, Moti Babcik, understood that he had to protect the boss and tried to enter the discussions.
But these are professional discussions, without consultants.
In a call to the Transport Minister's office, Babchik said that she would send him an invitation to a meeting, claiming that the Prime Minister had asked him to attend it.
The order has indeed been sent, but it sounds a bit suspicious to Regev.
Why would the Prime Minister ask Babchik to participate in a professional discussion about work on Shabbat?
In a conversation with Netanyahu's chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, Regev wondered if this was indeed the case.
Absolutely not, Braverman replied, why would Netanyahu ask for such a thing?
Very quickly the invitation was canceled - and Bechik was left out.
In the discussions on the subject, it was determined that the infrastructure works will indeed not be carried out on Shabbat, but only works that will be defined as life-saving emergency works, such as a faulty railway or a dangerous obstacle on the road.
The ultra-Orthodox, who are partners in the government, sat and pondered - how can we continue to sit in a government that desecrates Shabbat, without being responsible for this desecration?
Conceived and found a solution: As a member of the permit committee for work on Shabbat, a rabbi from the Chief Rabbinate will be included.
According to him, he will do anything.
If he says it's okay - all the members of the ultra-Orthodox factions will line up, and they too will say it's okay.
In this way, most likely, Shabbat desecrations will be practiced.
The rabbinate, as we know, is not particularly strict, and for the members of the ultra-Orthodox factions this will be considered a Halachic confirmation that there is no need to fight against it.
That way it will be possible to go without and feel with.
To allow Shabbat desecration, and to receive a kosher certificate for it.
The main thing is to stay in the government.
The Jewish head always finds patents.
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We will fix it!
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