After two years of paralysis..and four elections

Israel divides the "government of the two heads" again

• Bennett and Lapid started their government partnership on a friendly note and were intent on making it a success.

  AFP

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The Israeli government, which was formed last Sunday, gets a lot of attention, for almost one reason, as it marks the end of the 12-year rule of former Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, but this new government may be important for another reason, which is that it is the beginning of an era in which Israel Without a real prime minister.

The new head of the Israeli government is Naftali Bennett, but given that his small right-wing party, Yamina, controls six seats in the Israeli Knesset, he needs partners to form a government, and the government coalition now includes seven other parties from all ideological spectrum in Israel, They all agree on a few issues.

What these parties agreed upon is that Bennett will not represent them for a full government term, but will give up the position of prime minister after two years, as he is supposed to hand this position to Yair Lapid, head of the center-left Yesh Atid party, and here lies the new constitutional revolution. in Israel.

Part-time head

Bennett is now prime minister for a partial term, and Lapid will be a similar prime minister to him in two years, and in fact, both of them will be unable to do anything without obtaining the consensus of the others, because there is a law that gives both of them the right to refuse, and accordingly, the result will be similar to the Roman system The ancient two consuls, nor would it resemble the traditional Israeli system known as having one prime minister.

A unity government headed by a rotating prime minister is not an original idea. In the 1980s, Israel was ruled by a successful unity government headed by Shimon Peres of Labor and Yitzhak Shamir of Likud, but at that time there was no rotation. As prime minister, as in the Bennett-Lapid government, Shamir and Peres continued their government partnership without legal arrangements that would reduce the prime minister's decision-making power, and when Peres ended his term as prime minister and submitted his resignation, Shamir was appointed in his place.

About a year ago, Netanyahu formed a government with his rival, Benny Gantz, after a promise from Netanyahu that he would take his place in two years, but due to the mistrust between the two, a constitutional change was made, and Gantz became prime minister in rotation, and of course this did not like Netanyahu, who did not intend to Gantz handed over his position as promised, and these arrangements were not adhered to, so the government reached a dead end.

friendly partnership

Bennett and Lapid began their governmental partnership more amicably, and were intent on its success, however, they decided to preserve the system of power-sharing, which had been developed by their predecessors, and accordingly they needed to introduce certain measures, and given that few Members of Parliament supported Bennett, having the power of refusal constitutes a guarantee for him in the event he is exposed to manipulation by his partners, and Lapid needs the power of refusal as a guarantee that he will not hand over full power to his rivals, and in addition to that, it was their formation of a broad coalition that ensured that they removed Netanyahu from power.

This is why there are good reasons to return to arrangements that were supposed to be one-off, and the problem is that it is now difficult to see a future coalition that does not employ similar arrangements.

divided country

Israel, which held four elections within two years due to its inability to form a government, is characterized as a divided country, in addition to the sharp polarization within it, as it cannot form a natural majority government, and it seems that there is a need for complex coalitions to form a government in the coming years. In this situation, there will always be a party that can form a government or bring it down, and of course the leader of this party will always demand more power, and if Gantz - who owned half of the seats that Netanyahu's Likud party had - managed to secure this demand, and if Bennett who He owns a third of Yesh Atid's seats. He can make such a demand as well. Power-sharing agreements will prevail in the future, and instead of having one strong prime minister for Israel, according to Israeli political tradition, there will be two.

But won't this lead to an impasse between them, whereby no partial prime minister will be able to make courageous and necessary decisions? Perhaps it will be sometimes, and if we take the issue of Israel's control of the West Bank, in a government that shares power, those who think that Israel should evacuate its settlements there will not get what they want, and those who think that Israel should annex parts of the Palestinian territories will not get what they want either. Let us also take the issue of civil marriage, which is controversial in Israel, and the proponents of this marriage will not be able to pass laws in their favor, even if they have enough votes, because in such a government they have no greater power than that of small groups, which are usually parties Religious opposition to civil marriage.

It is clear that hesitation and stagnation pose real risks to the future of political power-sharing, but there are potential benefits, and at a time when big issues, such as the fate of the West Bank and the role of religion in society, are difficult to solve under these circumstances, other problems can be solved, including It contains the obvious issues such as issuing a budget after two years without a budget, and allowing some public transportation to operate on Shabbat, to devote the necessary resources to dealing with the rise in crime in the Arab sector in Israel.

• The new Israeli government has received a lot of attention, because it marks the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year rule.

• Israel, which held four elections within two years due to its inability to form a government, is characterized as a divided country, in addition to the sharp polarization within it, as it cannot form a natural majority government, and it seems that complex coalitions are necessary to form a government in the coming years.

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