Unusually, the sides negotiating to form a unity government have forgone spin, made-up crises, and the sense of impending doom that have become an inseparable part of these events, and are working at full steam not only to form a government but to do so immediately.
Issues that could have been the root of weeks-long disputes are being solved in hours, and it seems as if all sides are determined to overcome any obstacle on the way to the government they wish to see. In the meantime, skeptics on each side can keep grumbling – the Left about Benny Gantz's surprise decision to join a government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Right about its lack of ministerial portfolios and positions. The public, under a lockdown, doesn't care about their interests, either side's, and only wants to release the suffocating pressure that hasn't let up for over a year.
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If Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman's main problem was their lack of faith in Netanyahu, it's likely that they could already admit they were wrong. In almost every area, Netanyahu is handing Blue and White plums that were considered strategic assets. For the Right, it borders on problematic. Those who voted for the prime minister because they thought he would address the legal system could wind up disappointed, as could those who believed that the government should apply sovereignty to Judea and Samaria immediately. The mechanisms being put together will guarantee broad agreement before any decision is reached on those matters, and Gantz and his cohort will effectively be the ones to decide how they play out.
If Lapid and Lieberman wanted to see Netanyahu out of the Prime Minister's Residence, they might have to admit they were mistaken about that, too. Gantz, the one they slandered and left, will be the one to put someone else in the Prime Minister's Office a year and a half from now.
On the Right, there is growing criticism about issues must weightier than the distribution of portfolios. While Gantz needs to split government treasure among only 18 MKs, Netanyahu has 58 hungry mouths to feed. But it doesn't matter how much the Right flexes its muscles, it doesn't look like anyone can change anything with someone who has cut his term in office short to October 2021, much earlier than he had planned to.
Ordinarily, the public might kick back at the situation, and possibly prefer another election, but these are not ordinary times. Netanyahu realizes what many people still do not – that the government being formed now is what we need, a true emergency government. Sovereignty and infighting can be left for better times, which will certainly arrive.
The complaints about a bloated government with too many ministers are just forced irrelevant populism. This is the price of unity. More ministers cost more, but a fourth election would be even costlier.
