In recent days, the public was witness to a small part of the great animosity that characterizes the government of change and healing.
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On Wednesday, for example, left-wing Meretz and Labor attacked Defense Minister Benny Gantz for his decision to advance settlement construction plans in Judea and Samaria.
However, the one to endorse the decision was Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who during an emergency meeting with Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman, settled a labor dispute with the Judea and Samaria Civil Administration and who then went on to confirm the plans. Gantz was not even in Israel at the time.
Earlier in the week, the same left-wing parties criticized the defense minister, who called a spade a spade and declared six Palestinian organizations that claimed to be human rights groups but were in fact linked to the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as terrorist entities.
According to Labor's Merav Michaeli and Meretz' Nitzan Horowitz, Gantz is guilty of not alerting Washington about the move in advance. These two never miss an opportunity to attack a political opponent. One would think there is an election right around the corner.
Herein lies the foolishness of the left-wing camp's attacks.
Gantz is the weakest link in the government. What would Michaeli gain by driving him into a corner? Or is Horowitz that convinced that after another round of elections he would magically be voted into office again? Their motives are unclear.
It is as if the self-destructive tendencies of the Left have resurfaced and Gantz is the victim. Besides the political chaos caused by the two events, the construction plans in Judea and Samaria and the outlawing of the Palestinian organizations reveal the drawbacks of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid's policy of hugs and friendly pats on the back.
We are not talking about a political crisis, but Lapid is getting nowhere with Europe. When the current government started out and Lapid went on a precedent-setting trip to the European Union, he spoke of turning a new page in the ties with the continent, especially in Western Europe.
Lapid is of the opinion that Israel would be better off embracing liberal democracies and distancing itself from conservative Eastern European countries. He also believed that discourse and publicity would solve at least some of the problems with the states that are known to be more anti-Israel. The first test of his policy did not confirm this.
Israel explained ahead of time to European countries why it wanted to declare the six Palestinian groups as terrorist organizations. In no way did it prevent the EU from holding a meeting with the groups' leaders in Ramallah. Not the end of the world, but surely, a lesson must be learned from this.
Lapid and the Foreign Ministry must reexamine their policy of relying on Western Europe. The big tests are still ahead of us.
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