Here is important information for the Prime Minister's Office: Hot peppers contain a substance called capsaicin that causes, among other things, elation and good feeling. People who love spicy are said to be adventurous and love to push the limit.
That could explain what happened in the government last week. Last Tuesday, everything was already agreed: Netanyahu, Deri, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir decided to vote in favor of one representative for the coalition and one representative for the opposition. Several platters of pizza were ordered to the nightly meeting, including a platter with hot peppers.
MK Tali Gottlieb, Photo: Gideon Markowitz
Suddenly, the morning after that spicy pizza, everything changed – Smotrich briefed that his party wanted two representatives for the coalition, Tali Gottlieb stood its ground, and the rest is history.
The face of the government is forward, and several main assessments can already be broken down:
1. Yariv Levin will not resign. He has no such intention. He has spoken for the past two weeks about despair, about "I have nothing to do at the Justice Department if reform is dead," but Levin has no intention of resigning. And the truth is, he has no reason why, he enjoys the advantages of being close to the prime minister and at the same time enjoys waves of sympathy in Bayes as someone who holds the hawkish line demanding reform. He has no reason to give up this strong position as the succession battle looms.
3. The government will not fall apart. True, they thought it would be much easier: a homogeneous government, a "full-right government," but it's hard. The leadership of the coalition is divided into two camps, the pragmatists with Netanyahu, Deri and Dermer versus the dogmatists with Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Levin. There are quite a few disagreements, but none of them have anywhere else to go. There is nothing good waiting for them in another election.
Minister of Justice Yariv Levin. Not planning to resign, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
3. "The base is disappointed." Maybe the Likud WhatsApp groups and a little bit on Twitter are angry with Netanyahu, and that's it. It doesn't mean anything. For years, we have heard from time to time about the "disappointed base": once because of the firing into empty dunes, once when a ceasefire is decided, and once when we go to unity with Gantz. The base is angry and it will pass for him. He has three and a half more years to forget about it.
Now Netanyahu's face is forward. On the agenda are relations with the United States, another peace agreement, the struggle against Iran. President Herzog's visit to Washington also opens the door to a meeting with Netanyahu. Hopefully no hot pepper will stop it on the way.
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