From the moment of its inception, the new government understood the Knesset was its greatest enemy. From the outset, the leaders of the coalition have worked to eradicate the Knesset's influence, weaken its status and prevent it, to the greatest possible extent, from impairing this fledgling, fragile government. Over its first month, after already failing to pass laws it coveted, and although its fall still seems a very long way away – the government will soon face its next significant challenge: the private laws, set to be introduced soon. And this is just the preamble and appetizer before the main course: the national budget.
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Although passing the budget is a critical mission for the government, as failure to pass it will lead to its downfall, the challenges posed by the private laws could be even more difficult, certainly more frequent, and possibly no less destructive. Up until the previous government, no government ever fell without a budget. On the other hand, many governments fell after losing control of the Knesset.
Yaakov Litzman, one of the most brilliant parliamentarians we've had, who served for many years as chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, was once asked if a certain crisis, which erupted at that time amid the backdrop of a certain party's budgetary demands, could unravel a coalition. "No," he answered succinctly, "money is the cheapest thing."
In light of the composition of the coalition and the tremendous gaps between its components, it seems that in order to please everyone, money will have to be thrown around. Even now, we know that the Arrangements Law that will be attached to the national budget will be the biggest and most bloated of all time. When it's known that 53 billion shekels have already been promised to the Ra'am party, we can only imagine the size of the next budget. It could make us miss the current rolling budget, precisely as the paralysis of the election system has been dwarfed in relation to the Knesset's paralysis induced by this government.
The bottom line, however, is that it's hard to envision a situation where it doesn't pass. Even if all the sides try stretching the budget to its absolute limits, the government will realize just how flexible it can be in order to survive. Even the differences in economic approaches between the capitalists and socialists will be ironed out in the moment of truth for the sake of the shared goal – which currently supersedes everything else.
The only thing that could undermine the government's stability is if one of the sides decides to use the budget as an excuse to tear it all down. As things stand, this appears unrealistic and remote, although in four months' time, things could look different.
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