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A Wall Made of Plaster, Not Brick

A Wall Made of Plaster, Not Brick

Ma’ariv, Israel, December 17

In the political arena, which some of us have learned to love and others hate, we learned a long time ago that the ground was never stable. Call it quicksand, Russian roulette, or any other term implying uncertainty, but what is certain is that when we think something is going to happen, it probably will. In the last few weeks, especially in the one that is ending right now, the future coalition tried to pass as many laws as possible in the least amount of time. The chairman of the Otzma Yehudit party and the designated national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, will probably win a considerable part of the police powers, the Defense Ministry will be dismantled for the highest bidder, and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri will return to serve as a minister. Apparently, this is the hidden dream of incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He envisioned for himself, for us, and especially for those who voted for him, a full right-wing government. It can be assumed that Netanyahu knew he would find himself in the scenarios we just listed. So what is so different and shocking about this new government-in-the-making? The answer is the list of coalition demands made by the United Torah Judaism party, which was leaked last week. This list included a ban on electricity generation during Shabbat, expanding the number of segregated beaches, preventing the introduction of bread into hospitals during Passover, and strengthening Bible studies in secular educational institutions. From my several conversations with beachgoers who attend segregated beaches, apparently, there really aren’t enough of them. And Bible studies shouldn’t scare anyone when they don’t come at the expense of something else. But electricity? Bread? This is where things begin getting very uncomfortable for the average Israeli secular citizen (not to mention the non-Jew). Let’s put aside the fact that generating electricity on Saturday is necessary because it is simply much cheaper than interrupting the process every six days. And let’s ignore for a second the fact that we are an advanced and innovative country with technologies that are unmatched by other countries in the Middle East. The backlog of demands will not pass smoothly down Netanyahu’s throat. He has no balancing political factor from the left and no party that he can blame for saying no. Within the Likud, internal alliances are already starting to form, beginning to create slow but steady fractures. Remember when we said that if we think something is about to come, it is not impossible that we will, indeed, see it come? So there may very well be a surprise waiting for us under the surface. Maybe Netanyahu is currently trying to find an alternative coalition with the generals from the “Change Bloc” he so loved to disparage. Maybe something is taking shape with Lapid in classified talks. And maybe it’s neither this nor that. I, for whom the Knesset channel is the most fascinating reality show, find it hard to believe that this so-called bazaar of selling promises left and right will actually lead to a stable government. We should introduce, if only for a moment, the element of time into this tedious puzzle. Netanyahu’s mandate to form a government will expire this week. So, too, will his grace period. The meaning of this hourglass is that Netanyahu’s back is against the wall. The government must be sworn in. Even if everything goes smoothly, and the hodgepodge of parties belonging to this new coalition come together to form a government, Netanyahu has lost all power to lead them. Someone will break and miraculously drag a few more coalition members with them. Netanyahu might be building a wall but it isn’t a brick wall. It’s made of plaster. And trust in plaster walls, as we know, is purely a matter of luck. With enough pressure and a crack or two, it will quickly come crumbling down. –Michal Kadosh (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)

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