The epoch of Bibi Netanyahu has ended. The news broke just as the clock was about to strike midnight in Israel, when the deadline for submitting a new government, expired. “Tikkun Chatzot” is the double entendre that those happy over the news are posting. “Repairing at midnight” is what tikkun chatzot literally means. Actually, it is a midnight lamentataion over the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem.
This is the first time in Israeli history that an Arab party participated in the signing of the coalition agreement. So to those thrilled with this “New Day” in Israeli history and politics, it is a repairing of past wrongs, hence tikkun chatzot.
This Arab party was kingmaker in clinching this government. It is also an Arab party linked with the Muslim Brotherhood. In recent weeks, when violence broke out amidst Arab Israelis, it refused to condemn the behavior.
So there’s a real mixed reaction to this news that has ended the two-year failure of Israeli to form a government.
On the one hand, the projected new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, cobbled this coalition with single digit mandates. He received six. That’s maybe 250,000 votes, as compared to the 30 mandates Bibi had, well over a million votes — reflecting a strong will of the people. Hence, the feeling in much of the population is that the election was “stolen.”
It’s a lopsided coalition that is not representative of a critical mass of the will of the people. Technically, this new government amounts to finding loopholes in coalition building, which enabled it to pull off the seemingly impossible and form a government.
Victory is the word many are using to describe the sense of relief at finally having a working government. Others are left in disbelief at the way it was formed. Regardless, let’s pray that this government won’t turn out to be a pyrrhic victory.
To be sure, the motif of this government is the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Here is a group of political rivals, with long and outspoken histories against each other, uniting for one purpose: to topple Bibi, whatever the cost.
Only time will tell if this government will be able to function. It’s certainly a misnomer to call it a unity government, for it hangs by a thread at 61 mandates and consists exclusively of the more privileged variety, leaving out the Mizrachi and haredi parties.
This all could have been avoided, had Bibi, sometime in the last couple of years, stepped down, with a grand exit and graceful gesture of making way for a successor.
He was criticized for clinging to the premiership, come what may. And come what may came. This flimsy government. Yet, it managed to do the seemingly impossible and, indeed, after two very challenging years of a standstill, succeeded in forming a government. That this government includes so many opposing elements of Israeli society now forced to work together and to reach understandings, I pray can bear the fruit of a more whole and connected society.
Yet the question persists, regarding this current government’s formation: At what cost?
While I hold great hope for the future leadership in the Knesset of the current younger generation of Arab Israelis, I am disturbed that an Arab party associated with the Muslim Brotherhood was given the power it has been endowed with in order to form this government.
Within minutes Arab TV was portraying this move as Israeli capitulation, as desperate groveling of the Israelis to the Arab party, upon whom rested the power to make or break this deal of a new government. The party’s demands were completely met.
Bibi had himself courted this party. Many question, what is the difference between Bibi or Bennett in cutting deals with it? Love Bibi or hate him, he has a certain gravitas, a certain shrewdness and brilliance in reading the security map.
But perhaps this kind of contrast is often the case when comparing a seasoned politician and leader with emerging ones — which, being a generation younger than Bibi, Bennett and his political partner Yair Lapid are.
I do believe Bibi will be judged by history as one of Israel’s greatest prime ministers, who leaves behind multiple crucial legacies for Israel. He brought Israel into the 21st century by transitioning Israel from a socialist economy to a more capitalist one. It is his policies, first as finance minister then as prime minister, that yielded “startup nation.”
He evinced brilliant diplomatic foresight and skill, yielding four undreamt of peace agreements with Arab nations. He wounded the Iran nuclear program. He was a clarion call for Israel’s security. He eroded Hamas’ power. I feel that in many he has been a true visionary. His political savvy was masterful and matchless. Has any other world leader handled Putin the way Bibi has?
Still deeper, I believe, is Bibi’s true abiding love and care for the Jewish people of Israel and his sense of Jewish history that he carries in securing her safety and future.
Given his brilliance, I will always be baffled by his blind spot in not seeing when he could have stepped down in a way that would have been healthy for him, for Israel and for the future leadership of Israel.
Ultimately, this failure has brought Israel to the point at which it now stands in these historic moments, pregnant with a mix of anticipation, caution, curiosity, worry and hope too — for what the future might bring.
In Hebrew, the word for a symphony conductor is a menatseach, which can also mean a winner. So while Bibi has been dethroned, so to speak, and has not been the menatseach in this round of elections, he most certainly has been the menatseach, the conductor, of the symphony of Israel for many years, producing, even as at times fraught, one of its finest movements.
Today, I wish a mazel tov to the new prime ministers of Israel, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid and. I pray that they will be successful in uniting the nation of Israel from within and continuing to secure Israel’s future in strength, in prosperity, and ultimately in peace.
I pray they are given the foresight and confidence to do what is right for Israel and be a strong voice for Israel in the world, as we sense difficult times ahead.
Copyright © 2021 by the Intermountain Jewish News
