Ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yamina party chief Naftali Bennett are warming up, but even if they reach a boil, it won't result in a coalition government because Netanyahu still won't have the Knesset seats necessary for a Knesset majority. While Bennett may be a necessary link in the establishment of a coalition, his support won't be enough. It remains unclear whether the prime minister was right to go over Religious Zionist Party chief Bezalel Smotrich's head and assume he would agree to join a government that relies on the Islamist Ra'am party's outside support. Instead of showing Smotrich that he had left no stone unturned in his efforts to form a government, Netanyahu has made clear to the RZP leader that Ra'am is in fact his first choice.
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In an open letter on Memorial Day calling on Netanyahu, Bennett, and New Hope leader Gideon Sa'ar to come together, Smotrich expressed not only his desire for a right-wing government but also his rage. To his mind, Netanyahu should have been the one to send the message.
While Smotrich has presented his position as a purely ideological one, both Bennett and Netanyahu think otherwise. Their sense that Smotrich is just playing politics grows stronger the deeper the RZP head digs in his heels. They believe Smotrich wants to be the exclusive leader of the religious Zionist public and to erase Bennett from the political map for flirting with an alliance with Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and the Left, joining the opposition, or leading to another round of elections.
Smotrich, of course, denies the accusations.
While familiar with the concept of realpolitik, Smotrich refuses to play along. He could have set out a series of conditions for Ra'am head Mansour Abbas and Netanyahu and given them a week to rack their brains trying to prove they were more Zionist than him, but Smotrich has demanded no such thing. He has simply ruled them out, and that's why no progress can be made.
This is also true of the other side's decision to rule out Netanyahu and say that under no condition will they join a Netanyahu-led government.
This time around, though, things are different. Every single one of these parties has the power to bring down a government in seconds with either a vote of no confidence or the dissolution of the Knesset.
Israel's system of government does not suit these kinds of disqualification games. The relevant laws are worded in such a way that makes clear the country's founders believed the ideological and ethical aspect would be a major role. They don't appear to have considered the possibility that a little after the 1970s, such egotistical and cynical politicians, who dragged the country into round after round of elections with the media's support, would take the political stage.
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