It took the Knesset four years to topple the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government. With the Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid-led government, it took just three weeks.
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Following the failure to pass the citizenship law, the main question is whether, although painful and humiliating, the coalition will be able to overcome this blow or whether we have just witnessed a constitutive event marking the beginning of the end of the bizarre unity government of unlikely bedfellows signed into office just a short time ago.
One cannot overestimate the importance of Tuesday's events and the extent of the humiliation of the fledgling government on such a critical issue. Despite agreeing to shameful concessions to earn the support of Ra'am party chief Mansour Abbas and the Meretz party that resulted in the abandonment of the security of Israel's citizens to the political whims of non-Zionist and radical left-wing figures in the coalition, they still did not have the majority support of this fragile coalition. The opposition has taken to referring to the coalition as a "dangerous government." On Tuesday, the coalition provided further proof of how dangerous it could be. For the first time, the Israeli government proved it is incapable of protecting the security of its citizens.
In a forceful speech, Bennett responded to the vote, saying the opposition had behaved recklessly and that his fellow Yamina party member Amichai Chikli had disappointed the party when he voted against the law. Early on in his speech, Bennett said something that sounded like it had been taken out of the campaign he embarked on upon the government's establishment, and that sounds even more disconnected from reality when repeated now. "The people deserve a functioning government that works for them," Bennett said, forgetting that, just three weeks on the job, he now heads one of the most paralyzed and anemic governments ever established in the Jewish state. In these short three weeks, the lack of a Knesset majority has prevented the establishment of permanent committees in a Knesset in which every piece of legislation is a roadside bomb, and every lawmaker, no matter how inconsequential, can decide what bill passes and what doesn't.
Having attempted to place the blame on to the opposition – which it accused of being uncooperative and taking steps against the state, no less – senior government officials, Bennett and his fellow Yamina lawmaker Ayelet Shaked, in particular, realized a country cannot be run on tears and lamentation alone and began to try and enlist majority support among coalition members. This was the beginning of a shift in the right direction and the internalization of the magnitude of the responsibility on their shoulders. For many hours, and in fact, overnight, the two worked to achieve a majority, meeting with every single recalcitrant lawmaker, signing new agreements, and agreeing to changes to the law Shaked had said she would reject.
Yet for the bizarre coalition they now lead, this was not enough. The polarity they tried to obscure is what ultimately determined the outcome, leaving coalition members in shock at their stinging defeat.
The coalition had over two weeks to prepare for the decisive moment when its members would be required to pass the law, but it's doubtful an additional two weeks would have made any difference. Soon enough, we will begin to see the introduction of private legislation in what amounts to weekly bonanzas of dozens of laws the government will need to bat off if it hopes to avoid losing control of the government budget. Quite a few explosive laws will be buried in opposition members' list of private laws, and it may prove increasingly difficult to take them apart as the weeks go by. That is why Yamina members are in no rush to decide on MK Amichai Chikli's fate: They may still need him around, including to pass a state budget.
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