Defense Minister Benny Gantz's conduct Monday was the result of his fellow coalition members' continuing disregard for him. For months, Gantz has felt as if he didn't count. They blow him off when he tries to make unpopular demands, while at the same time treating another coalition partner, Ra'am party leader Mansour Abbas, with understanding and forgiveness. They walk on eggshells with Abbas while walking all over Gantz, and he has had enough. Add to that the pressure he can no longer withstand from his old military buddies.
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Generally speaking, it's safe to say the coalition is in a bind. Not because of Gantz. That crisis will be resolved. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister-designate Yair Lapid, and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman will be forced to pay Gantz the hush money they've grown accustomed to paying, in the same way that they have paid off other coalition partners. And so the government will carry on until the next crisis raises its head. This will continue until a crisis arises from which the government will not be able to recover.
The prime minister can go on and on about how the government is doing great, but the only one he appears to have convinced is himself. Lapid's behavior is not that of someone who is poised to enter the Prime Minister's Office in less than two years' time. Add to that the conduct of the Meretz and Labor parties, who are holding up Lieberman's economic plan. As the most unpredictable man in Israeli politics, Lieberman is liable at any moment to throw his arms up in frustration and quit the coalition.
The opposition is never responsible for a government's downfall. It is the coalition itself that is usually to blame. The beginning of this process is now visible for all to see. The fact that Gantz is hypothetically able to form a government under his leadership with the Likud and the Right does not contribute to stability but rather undermines it. All it would take is for one coalition member who was convinced Gantz was close to making such a move to try and get a step ahead of him and shut things down. No one in the coalition is interested in this happening, but some of them would prefer elections to another government in the current Knesset. Others would not. It was enough to see the parties' conduct as the ground beneath them began to shake when Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu was engaged in talks for a plea deal to understand the tremors they now face.
Fortunately for Bennett, the Knesset's summer recess is just around the corner. Wars are not waged over the summer, and the summer Knesset session is short and usually easy to get through. Once the holidays are over, however, he will once again face a long and tiring winter session, with a new state budget and new crises to contend with. It's not for nothing that there is an increasing sense this will be the current coalition's final session. It is not just the opposition that believes this to be the case. With every passing day, many coalition members are beginning to feel the same.
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