The saga surrounding the family unification law fully exposes the pillars of deceit upon which the Lapid-Bennet government is founded. The duo and their partners knew very well that the composition of the coalition they built would impair their ability to make decisions pertaining to the very core of Zionist existence. Obviously, the diplomatic and security problems await this government further afield. Let's not delude ourselves. In an effort to shirk their responsibility, Ayelet Shaked, Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid are blaming the opposition for their failure. They argue that political interests drove Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich and their colleagues on the right to oppose the law, and that is obviously correct. I personally believe they should have supported the law.
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Regardless, here's a scoop: The opposition votes against the coalition. Yes, even when an opposition opposes the national budget or other laws, one can argue that this hurts the country. But this is how the political game is played. The coalition supports, the opposition opposes. Let's not play dumb. And, while on the topic of politics, Bennet and Lapid are just as motivated as their rivals by political interests. Both have failed to answer the bell of national interests on more than one occasion. They never considered entering talks with Netanyahu, because his very existence is the only thing holding this strange government together.
Passing legislation such as the citizenship law also contravenes coalition agreements. In other words, they know that discussions with Netanyahu will dismantle the coalition. This is why they risked failing to pass the law – which is indeed what happened – and are now pinning the blame on their rivals for failing to do their own jobs. The paradox is that the current government purported to fix all of this inanity. Indeed, they lambasted Netanyahu's improprieties, which supposedly included making decisions based on political rather than national interests. Yet here we are, they are doing the exact same thing.
Lapid adopted the Norwegian law, which he had opposed at every turn. Together, he and Bennett head a bloated government, something he has also decried for years. Avigdor Lieberman isn't mocking Lapid for being a "reserve prime minister," as he derided Benny Gantz, because now he is part of the government. And Bennett, who has seen the coronavirus make a comeback on his watch, is no longer promising to defeat the pandemic. He knows it's not possible.
Where do we go from here? Once the law was quashed, and contrary to the spins disseminated in recent days – Interior Minister Shaked, the Population and Immigration Authority, or any other body, don't have the legal authority to prevent family unification. If the Population and Immigration Authority drags its feet and delays citizenship requests, the High Court of Justice will be inundated with appeals that it won't be able to legally reject. To be sure, the High Court never liked the law, to begin with.
The issue at hand is some 13,000 requests for full Israeli citizenship submitted by the spouses of non-Israelis, including many Palestinians. In actuality, this also entails giving citizenship to tens of thousands of their children (there are no figures at the moment as to how many of these children there are). If each of these families has an average of three children, then we're talking about no less than 40,000 Palestinians who will receive Israeli citizenship in the coming year. This would essentially be the "Law of Return" on steroids. It's extremely concerning. Less than a month into the far-left Bennett-Lapid government and we are suffering a severe blow to the Zionist enterprise. We mustn't fool ourselves, this is only the beginning. The international pressures still haven't been applied. The security challenges are still ahead of us.
Those who go to sleep with the supporters of terror – discover in the morning that they have no political power with which to fight them.
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