Three and a half months after being sworn in, the Lapid-Bennett government's honeymoon with the Biden administration has come to an end. This week the coalition was brought down to earth. We are not talking about a wide-scale confrontation with Washington, at least not for now. During former President Barack Obama's time in office, debates were more heated and clashes were more serious.
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Long gone is the sweet talk that characterized the relationship between the two governments in June. Turns out, there is a limit to the coalition's ability to overcome serious problems given that the only thing that keeps it together is animosity towards former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trouble began when Israel declared six Palestinian organizations who claimed to be human rights groups but are in fact linked to the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as terrorist entities. The process was conducted by Israel properly and the Biden administration was given a prior warning about the move. Nevertheless, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price claimed such a briefing never took place.
Then came Washington's condemnation.
"We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government's plan to advance thousands of settlement units … many of them deep in the West Bank," Price told a briefing. "We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution." He also said that Israel's plans to retroactively recognize "illegal outposts" were "unacceptable."
Such harsh rebuke is a matter of great concern for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. But the main question is, what happens next? Bennett knows that Washington views passing the state budget as the Bennett-Lapid coalition's watershed event. As long as the budget is not approved, the stability of the government is in question. There is no guarantee that disagreements will cease after the approval, but this is America's view and that is why it has refrained, for now, from reopening its consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
The closer we get to the event, the more the Biden administration is running out of patience. For them, the real game will begin only after the budget is passed. These disagreements and rebukes are meant to signal what comes next.
Things are no easier for Bennett at home either. After the building plans were approved by the Judea and Samaria Civil Administration, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who was never a fan of settlement construction, asked "to be in the room the next time a decision is made" in this regard.
Given that Lapid is one of Israel's most powerful lawmakers, his request will surely be granted and his opposition of settlement construction will affect the decision-making. Perhaps it will freeze such efforts altogether. And since Bennett is committed to settlement building in Judea and Samaria, he will have to deal with this problem as well.
All these events cannot help but throw cold water on the coalition. How will lawmakers deal with it? No one knows, but so far, their rule of thumb has been to stretch the coalition to its limits before its snaps.
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