People in Yamina and the rest of the Right are starting to come out of the closet and say that the nascent government is all right. "An unpopular opinion," people like to say on Twitter – this is a popular opinion that people prefer not to express, mostly because of the waves of criticism of the person poised to become prime minister. Waves that are starting to look scary.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
The alliance with Meretz and support from Ra'am leader Mansour Abbas sticks in the craw of every right-winger, but even the right wing of society is sick of elections, and has lost faith in the possibility that a fifth or eights election will result in a government that will apply sovereignty to the Binyamin region. Yamina leader Naftali Bennett is being blamed, rather than officials who boycotted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to begin with, or the prime minister himself, who refused to find a replacement from within the Likud at the cost of losing the "full, full" government. Bennett was and remains the Likud's whipping boy, and now the predators are circling around him to work out their aggression given the impossible alternative.
Still, on the street it appears as if something has changed since the official speech. Bennett changed the tone of the discourse, and offered a form of right-wing hope, more professional and less noisy, which is making it difficult to get through the smokescreen that his new haters are sending up. On social media, one can see glimpses of settlers who aren't afraid to speak well of him.
A Bennett-Lapid government is an excellent opportunity to promote civil and economic initiatives. The people crying about sovereignty, governability, and the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar can keep playing on their accounts and checking in what constellation these basic things align. In the meantime, we can take comfort in the fact that in any situation, there will be a right-wing majority in the cabinet and that the policy lines of the consensus government will not include a settlement construction freeze or the evacuation of settlements; that the Judges Selection committee will include a representative of the opposition, who will be from the Right; that Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar is a consistent friend; and that Yamina will likely bring in a dependable representative. In other words, a majority for the Right.
Bennett's test will be on the most important front of all, the one all Israelis are watching, and the one that rightfully decides elections – defense and security. The citizens of Israel want fewer casualties in terrorist attacks and wars, and in that area Netanyahu racked up impressive success. Bennett's public future after he sets up this sociopolitical experiment depends, to a large extent on what happens in this sector. Only if he succeeds there will the masses enjoy the other dividends that a unity government brings.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
