End of the Gantz-Netanyahu coalition

meThe Israeli press again said Wednesday that the country faced the dirtiest election campaign of all time. And if the increasing density of intrigue and maneuvering is taken as an indication that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his rivals fought each other in the later rounds, there is no good reason to doubt this assumption at the moment. Even before the Knesset automatically dissolved Wednesday night after it had not been possible to pass a budget, the protagonists had prepared to perform their respective parade roles once again.

Netanyahu proved himself a statesman and at the same time played the innocence of the country: “We should have joined forces to find a way to avoid these unnecessary elections,” he said in parliament when there was apparently still one last possible way out of the crisis. . In fact, the joy of a fourth parliamentary election in less than two years in the country is low, especially amid the crown pandemic.

The end was predictable

However, it has long been clear that Netanyahu does not intend to continue the “unity government” of his Likud and the blue and white party of Defense Minister Benny Gantz and other partners, at least not until the end of 2021, when Gantz agreed to take over as prime minister. should take over. In their April 2020 coalition agreement, the two party leaders also agreed to adopt a double budget for the years 2020 and 2021.

However, the Finance Ministry, led by Likud, blocked this: Netanyahu cited the reason for his change of mind that the crown crisis presented the country with extraordinary circumstances. He insisted that only a budget should be decided for the current year. Now there is no regular budget; instead, the government approved a financial plan to avoid a serious economic crisis.

Hardly any observers believe the prime minister is concerned about budget planning. The Likud-Blue-White coalition was weighed down by deep differences from the start; After all, Gantz had risen three times since April 2019 with the explicit aim of replacing Netanyahu, who has been in office since 2009 and against whom corruption proceedings are ongoing. After failing to do so in the March 2020 elections, Gantz finally agreed to form a coalition with Netanyahu as head of government to save the country an even longer period of time without a government with parliamentary legitimacy and, above all, another election. He accepted that this decision led to a division between blue and white.

Even now, Gantz is trying again to play the role of someone who has to make unpopular decisions to protect the country: “Netanyahu is pushing us to an election so that we don’t have to go to court,” he wrote on Twitter. He was alluding to the political level of the budget fight: a budget approved for just one year would have given Netanyahu practical leverage to allow the coalition to fail on the budget at an appropriate time in the next year before the transfer to Gantz. . . With the calculation that a government of different composition under his leadership will free him from the criminal difficulties in which he is now knee-deep.

“I am not afraid of elections”

However, the elections now scheduled for March 23 could come too soon from Netanyahu’s perspective. His trial will continue in early 2021, and the Prime Minister will be required to appear regularly before the Jerusalem District Court. Furthermore, Israel is in the midst of the second corona wave and its government’s crisis management so far has not been convincing. Netanyahu, 71, was confident of victory: “I am not afraid of elections. We are ready. We will win ”- and he referred to the most recent successes in foreign policy: people knew who had achieved four“ peace accords ”(with Arab countries), who would contain Iran and guarantee security, he said.

There is less danger from Gantz. Netanyahu tried to portray him as a weak leader, and with good reason: The fact that the 61-year-old former chief of staff no longer has his alliance with the party in check was demonstrated when three blue and white MPs voted against a compromise proposal. , then narrowly rejected, which would have postponed the dissolution date of parliament by two weeks. According to polls, Gantz is about to collapse in the next election.

Netanyahu, undone, threatens rather from his own ideological field. Former Education Minister Gideon Saar, who challenged Netanyahu in the elections as head of the Likud a year ago, has founded his own party, “New Hope.” Saar and the leaders of other right-wing parties could cost the Likud valuable votes, and personal animosity and their own ambitions for the post of prime minister could prevent them from becoming as comfortable coalition partners for Netanyahu as Benny Gantz for seven months.