Amid the chaos in the coalition following a series of losses in the Knesset and a growing list of rebel lawmakers, a sharp message has been sent to close associates of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett: He must immediately announce he is ceding the role of premier in a transitional government, even if those ultimately responsible for breaking up the government are members of the left-wing bloc led by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. Lapid is the one who established the coalition with his two hands, they say, yet a year into its establishment, he has gained nothing from it. The time has come for Bennett to make room for his partner.
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Lapid's office has denied sending the message. Their official version of events is that, according to coalition agreements, the person tasked with the role of caretaker premier is Lapid if the person who topples the government is a member of New Hope or Yamina, while Bennett will remain in power if the person who brings down the coalition is a member of Yesh Atid, Labor, Meretz, or Ra'am. The people who sent the sharp message must have issued the remark on their own, they say. Bennett's inner circle, however, doubts this is the case. While Lapid has not talked about it with Bennett, the message has been received, an official at the Prime Minister's Office said.
The truth is that there is no way of knowing if Lapid was behind the demand. In recent days, a few left-wing coalition members interested in maintaining the government have had the sense its dissolution is a done deal, and Lapid and Bennett are merely engaged in fierce battles to divvy up the spoils. Any time anyone in Ra'am or Meretz flexes a muscle, Bennett's office breathes a sigh of relief. And whether it's threats from former coalition member Yamina MK Idit Silman or Justice Minister and New Hope head Gideon Sa'ar, Lapid pops open a bottle of champagne. It's a bizarre situation. We're fighting the opposition in the trenches, they say, while Lapid and Bennett fight one another, each trying to pin the blame on the other.
The coalition will once again be put to the test next week when Sa'ar brings a bill to extend the application of Israeli civil and criminal law in Judea and Samaria to a vote for a second time. This time the vote will be even more decisive for the coalition, as portions of it are dependent on its failure. Yamina MK Nir Orbach is once on the edge of bolting. As is Sa'ar. This is also true on the Left, including Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, Ra'am MK Mazen Ghanaim, and even Ra'am party leader Mansour Abbas.
In the back benches of the Knesset, they've already gotten the message: There is no government. There is no coalition. What they do have is an election campaign. Everyone is heading back to their political base, some of them after a significant period of abandonment, in an attempt to reap as many achievements as they can when the government meets its official end.
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