Even before we sum up the Bennett-Lapid government's first 100 days, which are usually considered a grace period, we need to discuss the question of whether or not this government deserves a grace period, since many members of the public see it as having been born in sin and based on a lie.
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Although about half of the adult population in Israel supports the existence of the current government, they don't do so for the right reasons, and the proof of that is how little support there is for the prime minister. Even after 100 days in the role, Naftali Bennett isn't sitting comfortably on the chair he won by defrauding his voters. If it hadn't been for the embrace of the Left and the media, who are providing him with coverage, it's likely he would already have been forced to step down in disgrace.
The great fraud that established this government isn't seen only in the fact that its partners have gone back on every promise since it was formed, but also in the way in which it is portrayed on a daily basis as a government that works, whose ministers are all friends, and which is here to heal and unit after a period of polarization and rifts. The truth is that this is a government of total paralysis. There are schisms between the ministers and it is based on hatred and shunning.
This is a government of paralysis because unlike the ones that preceded it, there is no single official who is managing things. There is a prime minister, but he is not performing the same high-ranking, authoritative role that it usually entails elsewhere in the world and in Israel until recently. Mostly, it's a title. High-ranking members of the government like to wave around the fact that every minister can speak their mind and act in their field with full authority as an advantage. They play down the fact that this is due to political necessities, and that even the most talented, professional orchestra in the world will sound like a cacophony if it has no conductor.
Since the government was formed, Bennett and Lapid have been proud of overcoming differences of opinion and working together. The ministers are portrayed as friends who often cooperate without ego and without jockeying for credit. But what can we do – the reality is very different. This false impression is enabled by a supportive media that plays down the disputes and tensions between the various groups that make up the cabinet.
Only this week, the Labor Party tried to promote three initiatives that caused the right-wing cohort to boil over with anger: an amendment to the Basic laws that would enshrine the principle of equality between Jews and non-Jews in Israel. Of course, these moves and the right-wing members' criticism of them are glossed over, and only the hugs and the praise remain.
The last 100 days of this government have not only not helped heal rifts, as its leaders like to claim it has, but have done exactly the opposite – deepened them. From its formation until now, neither the prime minister nor the prime minister-designate have made a single speech in which they weren't hurling accusations at the person who had the job until recently, and they never miss a chance to besmirch Netanyahu and the masses who voted for him.
The Gilboa Prison break, the wildfires in the Jerusalem hills, the Iranian nuclear program – everything is Netanyahu's fault. When a cabinet minister slanders an entire public (as the finance minister does to the Haredim), the rest of the "healing and unification" government is silent, as they are when MKs back terrorists and murderers who kill Jews.
In its first 100 days, the government has brought COVID back into our lives to a previously unknown extent; given in to the Biden administration about the US renewing the nuclear deal with Iran and opening a consulate for Palestinian Arabs in the heart of Jerusalem; rejected the evacuation of the illegal Bedouin settlement Khan al-Ahmar; given up about demilitarizing the Gaza Strip and bringing our captive civilians and fallen soldiers home; allowed destructive judicial activism to continue; and worked to change the Jewish character of the country. Is it any wonder, then, that many are afraid of what the next 100 days will hold?
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