Swan songs have accompanied Israel's eight-party coalition since it began work a year ago.

On Tuesday they escalated to a loud victory roar from the opposition after inflicting a voter defeat on the government the night before.

A government that cannot implement Zionist laws has no right to exist, said Likud faction leader Yariv Levin.

The remarkable thing about it: the deputies of the right-wing Likud and some of the religious Zionist parties had voted against their own ideological convictions.

To justify this required some rhetorical contortions.

Christian Meier

Political correspondent for the Middle East and Northeast Africa.

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It was about a law that comes before the Knesset every five years.

These are nominally “emergency provisions”, but they have been in effect for 55 years since Israel occupied the West Bank and other Arab territories after the 1967 Six-Day War.

At that time, the validity of Israeli civil law was extended to its own citizens in the occupied territories.

So far, the extension has been a routine matter.

For several weeks, however, Naftali Bennett's coalition has not had an absolute majority in the Knesset.

Unlike other projects, however, the renewal of the emergency regulations could not be postponed, as they are only valid until the end of June.

The opposition around Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu announced that they are sticking to their stance: not allowing the government to succeed.

The coalition leaders decided

Netanyahu has split the political right

Perhaps they themselves had no idea how bad things would get: Two of the 60 MPs in the coalition voted against the law late Monday evening, while three others did not appear to vote.

In the end there were 58 votes against and (due to further absences due to illness) only 52 for.

The two dissenting votes came from Palestinian MPs, citing their opposition to the occupation.

Now there is a risk that the Israeli police and judiciary will no longer have the power to take action against Israelis who violate the law in the West Bank.

And hundreds of thousands of settlers would lose state insurance coverage, among other things.

That left-wing MPs in the governing coalition are voting to extend a law benefiting the settlers while right-wing politicians are opposed speaks volumes about the domestic political situation in Israel.

In principle, around 100 of the 120 deputies supported the extension of the provisions, the Israeli media calculated on Tuesday.

However, this was prevented by the fact that Netanyahu has split the political right - some are loyal to him, while others have turned their backs over long, scandal-ridden years and are now part of the government.

The extent of the dislike was reflected in the reactions to the paradoxical result of the vote: the coalition repeatedly pointed out that the opposition had abandoned the settlers and ultimately the state of Israel.

On the other hand, Likud MP Miki Zohar insisted on Kan radio station on Tuesday that it would be good for Israel to overthrow the government.

To calm the angry settler movement, he added: As soon as the right under Netanyahu is back in power, the law will of course be passed.

First of all, the government has announced that it will put the law to a vote again in June.

However, the disintegration of the coalition could progress faster than it happens.

Although two of the dissenters are now being pressured to vacate their Knesset seats in favor of successors, the opposition is persistently trying to wrest more coalition members away.

Monday evening's vote is likely to reinforce the feeling among some of them that there is not much more to gain from this coalition.