As soon as the hourglass flipped over, and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz was handed the mandate to form a government, a commotion once again was heard. In addition to building up the event as some kind of unprecedented achievement, all those who sat quietly while the mandate was in the hands of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now stormed the microphones to explain why this time around, a government must be formed as soon as possible. Those who, up until a day ago, claimed that the impasse was unsolvable and would lead to a third round of elections suddenly went out of their way to explain the importance of "creative" solutions, like a narrow government comprising 57 Knesset seats – i.e., a left-wing-Arab government – that would not succumb to a no-confidence vote, or even a 44-Knesset seat minority government, with the support of Yisrael Beytenu's Avigdor Lieberman and the Arab parties from the outside.
Unfortunately, this undemocratic tune is not new. But what is nevertheless surprising and even disturbing this time around is the fact that there are those on the Right of all places who are treating the idea with equanimity. "What's the worst that can happen?" they ask, arguing that such a government would be short-lived and never succeed in getting anything done. Some are even of the mind that the establishment of a left-wing-Arab government could serve the Right in the next election.
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Have we forgotten what a narrow, and even short-lived, government is capable of? Have we begun to adopt the Left's narrative that "everything is reversible"? It was, after all, the government of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that signed on to the first phase of the Oslo Accords within a year of its establishment. And the government of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak? In 2000, within six months of that government's formation, Barak conceded the Golan Heights to Syria, and within a year, offered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat 90% of Judea and Samaria, the division of Jerusalem, the internationalization of its Old City, and partial implementation of the Palestinian "right of return" at Camp David. But the most far-reaching offer ever made to the Palestinians came at the end of the transitional government led by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Israel's leaders always embarked on these diplomatic adventures faster than expected, in something of a liquidation sale, and worst of all, without there being any way back. No agreement has ever been canceled because the other party did not abide by it, no territory has ever been reconquered once rockets were fired at Israeli communities. The resulting new reality is always revealed to be irreversible, and time and time again, we wind up paying for it with our own blood.
And beyond all this, right-wing governments are called upon to fix the damage caused by the left-wing governments that preceded them: "Why didn't you cancel the Oslo Accords? Why aren't you reoccupying Gaza? How is it that Hezbollah has grown so strong while you are in charge?" the critics protest, without ever mentioning the threat posed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government should he have decided not to honor the accords. From the end of democracy to international condemnation, they have used every trick in the book.
When military operations were carried out in Gaza following and as a result of the 2005 disengagement, the situation was framed as doing harm to an innocent civilian population. As a result, Israel succumbed to international pressure to stop the fighting. Barak's escape from Lebanon has apparently been stricken from the history books as it is never mentioned as one of the causes for the bolstering of Hezbollah on the border with Israel.
The possibility that a left-wing government will be established should concern us all. Narrow or short-term as it may be, we could find ourselves facing another irreversible diplomatic reality in a matter of months.
