At the height of the coalition negotiations last year, amid the backdrop of rocket salvos and riots in mixed cities, there was a time when it seems that talks for a "change government" would amount to nothing. The sigh of relief in the national camp was louder than the air raid sirens.
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"In this [emerging] composition, the government would be unable to deal with the clashes between Jews and Arabs. It would be able to rely on [Ra'am leader] Mansour Abbas," a Yamina MK explained at the time.
The euphoria, however, was short-lived.
Days later, the riots subsided, Operation Guardian of the Walls ended and coalition talks were back on track – the same track it never really left.
This, in a gist, is the core of the anger about Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's ultimate media spin, which runs deeper than any campaign pledge he failed to meet.
Concealing the move over security tensions actually gave away a more nefarious intention, as one has no need to conceal a political maneuver one supports. The rhetoric of "this government is a miracle" and self-pats on the back aside, it was impossible to ignore the sense of unease that was so palpable in Yamina. Denial, after all, has its limits, too.
Yamina MK Idit Silman's decision to exit the coalition has sparked a similar sense of euphoria in the national camp, but this, too, may prove premature.
While acts like Silman's tend to cause a rapid sequence of unexpected events, it does not necessarily mean things are falling apart. Still, it is worth remembering that while the sentiment that drove the inception of a "change government" in the first place has not dispread – nor has the reasons that cause the great rift in the Israeli Right.
Silman is being embraced by the Right again and others who may follow her may also be welcomed, but in order to topple the government and remove Labor Meretz and Ra'am from the coalition, the Likud would be willing to swallow many bitter pills – perhaps even Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Lieberman and New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar.
The challenge, however, will be much greater as the question remains – can the Israeli Right be healed at this time?
Too many coalition members enjoy their newfound consensus status and are giving the impression they like their new coalition friends better than their old ones. They run with the popular crowd now, so why turn back?
This runs deeper than a common cultural environment, which relies on heavily on social-class infrastructure. This is about what is sometimes called a negative identity: the ability to coalesce around a sense of struggle with a common enemy. The ideological, social and organizational differences have dissipated in the face of the common purpose: to eliminate the adversary, namely those who support Netanyahu.
This explicit disdain goes beyond just rhetoric. The right-wing parties that joined Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid's political venture more than simple hate Netanyahu – they share growing hostility toward the Likud, as a ruling party that is also a people's party, and toward the national-traditional ethos that it expresses; and there is a deep desire to sever the ultra-Orthodox parties' debilitating hold, and the legacy of "Bibism."
Beyond this mantle of socio-cultural alienation, there is also a deep division between traditional nationalism and liberal nationalism, between a commitment to the social project led by the Likud, and a commitment to the "state" ethos.
In any political scenario – the dissolution of the Knesset or the formation of an alternative right-wing government – this tension is bound to surface and it cannot be swept under the rug.
If the Israeli Right is to embark on a new path, it must first address its issues, clichéd as it may sound. Revenge will not help, but repression is equally dangerous because if the Right remains unprepared for this battle, it will miss this political opportunity as well.
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